MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III (MP3) is a digital, audio-coding format used to compress a sound sequence into a very small file to enable digital storage and transmission.

Users can also preview M4A files by highlighting the file and pressing the spacebar.Īdditionally, M4A opens in VLC media player, Adobe Premiere Pro, Elmedia Player, Winamp, and a host of other programs.ĭeveloped by: ISO/ IEC, Moving Pictures Experts Group For Windows users, the default program is Windows Media Player. For Apple users, iTunes is the default program to open M4A files. M4A files open in most well-known, audio-playback programs, including iTunes, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player.

M4A files are smaller in size while simultaneously better in quality than MP3 files, with which it shares the most similarities, in comparison to all other audio file formats. MPEG 4 Audio (M4A) compresses and encodes audio files by using one of two coder-decoder algorithms: Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) or Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC).