Can anyone recommend free software to convert m4a to mp3 files please?

[oceanauk]

Something very user friendly would be great! Many thanks!

[fo3nix]

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

[oceanauk]

Many thanks fo3nix!

[Chillum]

same question as I wanted to ask.

Got the dbpoweramp music convertor.

Run it > Choose file
No m4a select option available.

I remember doing this a while ago, and I had to burn to cd, then rip cd track as mp3.

Is this still the only way to do it?

[fo3nix]

Chillum: it only comes pre-installed with the more common codecs (i.e. mp3).

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm
That page is the codec page; choose which one you want, in your case:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-mp4.htm
for the mp4 codecs (i.e. aac).

Note: if you download songs from the iTunes Music Store, they will be protected files, ending in .m4p (p for protected). It is quite within your legal right to unprotect these if you so wish: http://hymn-project.org/ that program will do that for you. You can't convert songs that are protected.

[Mastermind]

when i found out that i could not burn purchased Itunes songs from the music store because they where protected,
It annoyed the hell out of me and so I looked up all sorts of sites to find help but there was no help, so I tried to think up ways to burn the songs, and have come up with this idea.
If you have a (G4 iBook Laptop) with Garage band you can record the music you have purchased from itunes
I set up my laptop next to my mac and with the sound levels adjusted I hit the Rec button and then aloud afew secords (2 or 3sec) then i hit play.
when the song was done, again i left a few secords so i could cut it in garage band then i exported it to itunes and was able to burn the songs
the sound quality was about 93% good
I recommend doing one song at a time.