I recently turned to ffmpeg since this was faster than uploading the file.Īll I have to do ( as explained on stackoverflow) is:įfmpeg -i input.mp4 -q:a 0 -map a output.mp3 select the Quality setting (192kps or 128kps).I was lucky enough to stumble across the following site It is possible to open a m4a file in Audacity and export to ‘mp3’ but you need to install the separate ffmpeg library, which handles video files.

‘m4a’ seems to be supported by iTunes but ‘mp3’ is the recommended format by most podcasting sites and apps. It often has better audio quality and compression than mp3 but isn’t always supported by audio playback software. Which is why many video software output ‘m4a’ rather than ‘mp3’. The MPEG-4 file format ‘mp4’, normally associated with video encoding, when it only includes audio information is an ‘.m4a’ file. It seems like it should be such a simple thing to do.

I couldn’t actually find many reliable rsources online explaining this. In this post I will explain how I convert the file to. These videos form the source material for my audio podcast.

I use Camtasia to record my videos for YouTube. The software that I use to record my videos for YouTube (and which form the source material for my audio podcast) does not output.

Convert m4a to mp3 audacity ffmpeg