What is file extension m4a and how to convert m4a to mp3?

What is file extension m4a?

Many people have this question about .m4a. It is stand for MPEG 4 Audio and it is a really popular file extension used to represent audio files. Many people are familiar with .mp3 format, however, .m4a has much better sound quality and smaller size.
.m4a is also known as Apple Lossless, Apple Lossless Encoder, or ALE. It is a new codec designed to provide lossless encoding in less storage space.

What is the different between .m4a and .mp4?

This is a little bit confused. In brief, .m4a can only contain MPEG 4 Audio. So when you see a file with a extension .m4a, you will know that it is a audio file. But .mp4 may or may not contain MPEG 4 Audio. .mp4 can be used for MPEG 4 video files, combined video and audio files, or just plain MPEG 4 audio.

How to convert m4a to mp3 and other audio formats?