converting .m4a to .mp3
 

Hi there,

I have put a few songs of mine on the network. The problem is some of the songs are .m4a and .mp4. Now this no problem for me since I'm using iTunes, which will play these type of music files. But not everyone has itunes, and limewire won't play these type of files. So I changed the name of the files to .mp3, but LimeWire detects an unknown error. So, is there a way to completely change these files to .mp3 so LimeWire will play them? Thanks in advance.

Changing the names is NOT a good idea ... Computers get confused!!

It is very simple to change with iTunes.

iTunes preferences>importing>Import using>mp3 encoder... Setting>the same as the files are now> OK . Select all tunes you want to change, Advanced> convert to mp3, and wait until complete. You will then have 2 copies of each tune so you can then delete 1 of each if you so wish.

Remember to set the importing preferences back if you want to use the previous settings for importing CDs etc.

Also ctrl click on title bar over the tunes and display the "kind" column. This will make things easier and note that if you have Protected AAC files you cannot share them atall.

As I understand it the convert to mp3 command will actually change the tunes to whatever you have selected in preferences, but I'm not 100% sure having never tried it other than for mp3.

I've tried it, and this method does work for other file formats. I use it all the time to convert MP3 or WAV files into AAC format. I prefer AAC over MP3 (smaller file sizes).