convert m4a audio files to mp3?

[Todd Zullinger]

Kevin Kempter wrote:
> Hi all;
>
> My son who has been running a mac for a few years has finally had it
> and wants to return to the land of Linux.
>
> He's copied the entire itunes library/directory from his mac to his
> new Linux box.
>
> How can I convert all these m4a files to mp3?  I tried lame but it
> gives me an 'unsupported format' error.

My first question would be why do you want to convert from m4a to mp3.
You can play and work with m4a files pretty reasonably Fedora, once
you add the same repositories that you'd need for using mp3 files.

I think the tools for handling metadata _may_ be slightly more
limited, but I'm not even sure of that.  It could just be that I have
been using mp3 files far longer and have more experience with them
than with m4a.

But there would have to be a really good reason for me to want to
convert between lossy formats.  I'd sooner re-rip the music from its
source if I wanted it in a different format.  Both m4a and mp3 lose
enough musical data to begin with.  Throwing away even more to convert
between them isn't generally a good thing if you like your music.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the
most important of all the lessons of history.
    -- Aldous Huxley Collected Essays, 1959

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