The .M4A file extension is identified as an MPEG-4 Audio Layer file. MPEG-4 encoding is a streaming video file format developed by Apple Corporation and can be played in media players such as Apple’s QuickTime. This is a compressed video format that can be used to encode videos without significant quality loss. Since MPEG-4 Part 14 is a container format, MPEG-4 files can contain any number of audio, video, and even subtitle streams, making it impossible to determine the type of streams in an MPEG-4 file based solely on the extension of your file name. . The M4A file extension branched out from this concept to alleviate the confusion caused by the MP4 file extension, which could be video, or just audio with no video, or both.
Many people have questions about M4A as it is relatively new. M4A stands for MPEG 4 Audio, and it is a popular file extension used to represent audio files. Most people are familiar with MP3 and how it reduces the file size of songs and other audio files. M4A and MP4 do the same thing as MP3, but even better. The quality is better and the file sizes are usually smaller than MP3 files. But unlike MP3, there are no licenses or payments required to be able to stream or distribute content in the M4A format (unlike MP3, which requires you to pay royalties for the content you distribute in MP3 format). This fact alone is more than enough reason (due to extreme cost savings) to use M4A files instead of MP3 files. Also, M4A files tend to sound much better than MP3 files encoded at the same bitrate, as it is less “lossy” as an audio compression format.
So what is the difference between M4A and MP4 files? Very good, don’t worry! I can hear you!
This is the most popular question we get and seems to cause the most confusion for people who are relatively unaware of the new generation of audio file extensions in use today. I agree with you on this point, although the existence of 2 different file extensions to represent MPEG 4 audio files is quite unfortunate and ultimately unnecessary. Files ending in .MP4 may or may not contain MPEG 4 audio. On the other hand, if you see an M4A file, you can deduce that it must contain MPEG 4 audio.
MP4 can be used for MPEG 4 video files, combined video and audio files, or simply MPEG 4 audio. Apple Computer began using and popularizing the M4A file extension, indicating that the file does not have rights management capabilities. digital. They did this because MP4 was too general (video, video/audio, or audio) and could confuse some media players. It is recommended that you use the .m4a file extension instead of .mp4 on your audio files.
Almost all audio players will now play files with the .m4a or .mp4 file extension for maximum compatibility. After all, the .m4a and .mp4 container file formats are the same, they just have different file extensions. If your software program doesn’t recognize your file extension, you can rename the file extension to the other one and it should work.