Convert Itunes M4a To Mp3

[Bran Cardello]

Disclaimer, I'm 66 & not up to speed at all! I have read previous posts about going to Edit, Preferences, Import settings, changing to MP3/WAV/AIFF (which should I choose?) but right clicking on songs or on an individual song does not give me a format option, the menu shows Play/Shuffle/Play next/Play later ect...

I just got a new car stereo & would like to play my purchases via usb, I do not want to be limited to using my phone as I am just as clueless about the new smart phone I have, many times as a fly fisher down in canyons the phone has no service.

That worked, thank you.... I do not know if you are part of apple or just a member of the community but I would like to comment that I have been purchasing music on iTunes for over 10yrs and this converting business is an absolute P.I.T.A, can apple make it any harder or more unclear and then to have to go back into Songs & try & figure out which copy is mp3, it certainly will cause me to look to another source unless there is a simpler way for me to convert over 100 songs I paid for.

You cannot covert music that you lease with an Apple Music subscription. They are copy-protected to only play on Apple-approved devices. However, you should be able to convert music that you purchase from the iTunes Store.

You know after I finally figured things out it was not that difficult, javaliga, thank you agian and maybe I should not bash Apple... But the other thing I learned is that both mp3 and Apple's m4a are "Lossy formats" and if you convert a lossy format into another lossy format you get More Lossy! I ended up getting rid of all the converted mp3's and bought a player that played m4a files.

I've been trying to convert my audio all evening, using this method, without success. I purchased my music on itunes, paying $1,40 or so per track. More than 10 years ago. I just managed to install itunes for windows and add my old library to it. I went through the preferences and added mp3 as my import format. For some songs, I can see "purchased AAC audio file" in the column which kind they are. Those I am able to convert to mp3. Then however I also have songs displayed as "Protected AAC audio file" and those I cannot convert. It tells me protected files cannot be converted to other formats. But when I go my account, and check my purchase history, I can still see that I purchased some songs e.g. in 2008 (yes I'm old, too) for some amount of money. I think apple music wasn't even around back then. It was definitely a purchase of songs that I paid money for, for each single track. No time limited subscription, I avoid those. I also tried deleting the files and re-downloading them. When I delete a file from my library, then it becomes a "Purchased AAC audio file". I can't convert it then, because the file can't be found. The option is actually grey. Then I download it again by pressing the little cloud symbol which has appeared. The file changes back to "protected AAC audio file" and goes back to telling me that it can't be converted. I hope this is something simple as well that I'm missing. Thanks for any help.

Songs prior to 2009 can be burned to CD then reimport as mp3. If you subscribed to iTunes Match, it is possible to upgrade tracks to 256 Kbps AAC either as Purchased AAC or Matched AAC. Track not upgraded can still be burned to CD.

Haven't used iTunes in a year or so. I used to be able to convert files bought from iTunes store to MP3 format so I could load them onto my MP3 player. That option is no longer available on the current version of iTunes. Researched the Help files, but after digesting them found a note at the bottom that said the solutuions provided won't work with music purchased from iTunes Store!!!

The option to save/convert to MP3 format does not come up on my pop-up menu; it shows up on the file menu. But when I use it, it does not convert the file. It says, the song "could not be converted because protected files cannot be converted to other formats."

So, these answers are somewhat dated. I would like to download all of my albums and single songs from my iTune library to my PC in an mp3 format (I don't have very many of either). The suggestions given before seem centered on using a Mac, iPod or other Apple product and it seems that once you make these changes in the preference window, then that is the default download for future purchases. What are your thoughts now? Please keep in mind that I am not a strong user of Apple products. When you answer please use simple language and step-by-step instructions. Thanks in advance for your help. I always get good answers from Apple community.

iTunes allows you to rip CDs in a number of formats. Use Edit > Preferences > General > Import Settings to choose which format and bitrate you desire. (Start with iTunes instead of Edit if you're on a Mac). Anything purchased from the iTunes Store will be delivered in 256k AAC, regardless of your preferred import format. You cannot change that, but you can convert the format afterwards if it is necessary. E.g. you want to copy the tracks to a media player that doesn't support AAC. The script I mentioned earlier can be used to convert tracks from one format to another without having to manually tidy up the duplicates that otherwise get created when you use iTunes to make a copy in a new format.

Buy it. The protected version is either rented via Apple Music or was purchased over 8 years ago and is a 128k DRM AAC version you could potentially burn to CD and then rip back with a consequent loss of quality.

I just discovered this - open RealPlayer, then go to Window/Open Real Player Converter and you can drag and drop the necessary music files, and it offers a number of conversion options, as wells a customization option. Hope that helps!

The point of DRM is to limit your use of the content, such as making copies in another format free of DRM. You might be able to burn to CD and then rip back to a format of your choice. It depends on what limitations are imposed, and typical audiobook files may be larger than a single CD. Burning to disc was possible with 128k protected audio files sold up until 2009, but isn't possible with Apple Music items, which are designed to work only while you have an active subscription.

Converting songs can degrade the audio quality. Before you convert iTunes to MP3, it's important to know that doing this slightly lessens the music's sound quality. This is because both AAC and MP3 are compressed versions of the original song file and thus already lower quality. Converting from AAC to another compressed format like MP3 means there will be even more compression and loss of quality.

Once you've got both the AAC and MP3 versions of a song in iTunes, it's not easy to tell them apart; they appear to be identical. To see which file is the MP3 version, right-click it and select Song Info > File, then look at the file extension at the end of the location path.

There are lots of programs that can convert songs from one format to another, including from iTunes to MP3. That's great, but in most cases, you don't need them. Unless you have very specific needs (such as FLAC; if you don't know what that is, chances are you don't need it), don't spend the money on audio-conversion software. Just use iTunes.

To create the ringtone, use something like GarageBand to create a sound snippet from your selected music. Once created, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone. Select the ringtone created in GarageBand to set the custom ringtone.

You can convert a song to a different file format (and keep a copy of the original). For example, you can save a copy of a compressed song file such as MP3 or AAC in an uncompressed song format (AIFF or WAV).

I either imported or bought most of my music in the days of iTunes. With the updated Mac OS (I now have Big Sur) and the movement of all the music to the new Music App, I now can't seem to convert any of my songs to MP3 format in spite of changing import settings in the Preferences menu to MP3. When I highlight the song desired and choose the Convert To> menu item, the choice for MP3 format is inactive (greyed out). Any suggestions?

and it worked for me. Are you sure the song(s) you are trying to convert are PURCHASED from the iTunes Store (or imported from a CD, etc.). Music that you LEASE with an Apple Music subscription are DRM copy protected and cannot be converted. That is the only explanation I can think of. If you still have problems, use the 'Get Support' link at the top-right corner of this page.

You cannot turn a wav, aac, or aiff file into .mp3 format simply by changing the file extension. The file may be able to import and play in applications which inspect the internal structure rather than relying on the extension to identify the proper handler, but you won't make an mp3 file that is compatible with a third party mp3 player for example, that is only able to play valid mp3 files.

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