M4A to MP3 with FFmpeg — Bitrate, VBR, and Quality
Convert M4A (usually AAC, sometimes ALAC) audio to MP3 with FFmpeg using libmp3lame. Covers constant bitrate (-b:a 192k), variable bitrate (-q:a 2), choosing the right quality, and why M4A to MP3 always re-encodes. Practical, runnable commands.
June 27, 2026
