Best Way to Convert MP3 to M4A/M4B Audiobooks on Windows/Mac. With iTunes, you can get your MP3 files detected well by your iOS devices or media players, but not for other Android devices. That is because the format is not changed. So you have to convert the MP3 to M4A or M4B by either a free converter or paid software. ⭐ AnyConv is a five-star M4B to MP3 converter tool ⭐ ️Convert m4b files to mp3 online in seconds No software installation required Absolutely free Completely safe. Changing m4b to mp3 is now easy!
| Name | M4B | MP3 |
| Full name | MPEG-4 Audio Layer Bookmarkable File | MP3 - MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III |
| File extension | .m4b | .mp3 |
| MIME type | audio/m4b | audio/mpeg, audio/MPA, audio/mpa-robust |
| Developed by | Apple | Fraunhofer Institute |
| Type of format | Music File | Digital audio |
| Description | Audiobook and podcast files which also contain metadata including chapter markers, images, and hyperlinks can use the extension .m4a but more commonly use the .m4b extension. M4b files support metadata for chapters and bookmarking on supporting players and most commonly uses AAC (Advanced Audio Codec). | MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio coding format for digital audio which uses a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio streaming or storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players. |
| Technical details | The audio in a M4b file is encoded with the AAC compression format and can therefore be protected with Apple's FairPlay DRM copy protection system. M4b files can contain metadata as defined by the format standard and in addition can contain Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) metadata. | The use of lossy compression is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent the audio recording and still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio. An MP3 file that is created using the setting of 128 kbit/s will result in a file that is about 1/11 the size of the CD file created from the original audio source. |
| File conversion | M4B conversion | MP3 conversion |
| Associated programs | Apple QuickTime Player, Apple iTunes | VLC media player, MPlayer, Winamp, foobar2000. |
| Wiki | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_14 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3 |
M4B is not as common as M4A though they both are MPEG-4 file types. If you like reading and always purchase audiobooks from Apple’s iTunes Store, you’ll find it frequently since it features that it allows listeners to remember the last listening spot instead of repeating the files from the start, whereas M4A extension files cannot. This is always considered as its advantage when we play it on authorised computers or Apple devices. But given that you want to listen to the M4B audiobooks anywhere and you don’t have a compatible multimedia player, converting M4B to MP3 is one of the ways-out since MP3 is the most popular audio format. Read along to know the best converters that you can rely on.
4 Apps that can convert M4B to MP3
Convert M4B with online converter tool
Many online converter tools provide people with this feature and Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter is one of them. It allows to convert videos and audios to any format available on its intuitive user interface. The high processing speed and almost lossless conversion maximumly save our time from hours of waiting and keep the quality similar to original files. In addition to that, it does not have limit on the file size. We can convert as many files as we want simultaneously.
To convert M4B to MP3 online, we should access its official page first. On the main interface, click “Select files to start” and select the M4B file from our computer. Once the file has been loaded, click “Format” and “MP3” from it. Click “Convert” to start the process.
Note that this tool is useful only when the network connection is available.
VLC media player
Using VLC to transcode M4B to MP3 is also a solution though it’s a multimedia player known to common people. It runs on different platforms, for example, Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, etc. If you just want to listen to the audiobooks on the go without any further re-encoding, you can just install the correct version of VLC media player. Read below detailed instruction if you insist on converting files with it.
M4b To Mp3 Converter Mac Free
Open VLC on your computer, hold Ctrl and press R on the keyboard and the “Open Media” windows will open. Tap on “Add” to insert your M4B file then press “Convert/Save”. A pop-up window will appear, drop down “Profile” then select “Audio – MP3”. On the same window, click “Browse” to select an output folder and finally click “Start”. VLC will then convert M4B to MP3 and save it on your PC.
The file conversion takes a lot of time. Also, some files are not recognised because of compatibility issues.
Use iTunes to convert M4B files
iTunes will also be one of our options as it can handle basic transcoding jobs if you arre using a Mac. To use iTunes as an M4B to MP3 converter, you just open the program and add your M4B file. You can just drag them into your library. On the “Edit” tab, click “Preferences” > “Import Settings”. On the import settings, drop down “Import Using” then select “MP3 Encoder”. Next, go to “Book” > “Audiobooks” then click on the file you want to convert. On the same page, drop down “File” > “Convert” > “Create MP3 version”. The audiobooks will then be created as an MP3 file.
Note that iTunes is not high suggested when it comes to converting files with it. Because it crashes sometimes and it is not easier for people to manage file conversions compared to online converter services. The most notable drawback is it supports very limited file types.
Professionally convert M4B in batch mode
In reality, if there are a large number of M4B files needed to put into mobile devices, using a professional video converter becomes more advisably. On the one hand, all files can be processed successively, keeping the quality from being discarded. On the other hand, the files will be compressed into a reasonable size for saving storage space. Apowersoft Video Converter Studio is the most appropriate program as it can even convert batch M4B files to MP3 and output to mobile devices directly.
Follow the guide below to see how to convert M4B to MP3.
- Download and install the program on your computer.
- Launch the program and click on “+ Add files” then select your M4B files.
- Drop down “Profile” > “Audio” > “MP3” and the preferred quality.
- Click on “Convert” to initiate the process.
Apart from its powerful converter, it has a built-in editor, a versatile video downloader, a multiple-mode screen recorder, an MV maker and a powerful media player. We can do as many things as we want with it.
Ffmpeg Convert M4b To Mp3
Further Reading: Differences between M4B and M4A
As what we have revealed at the very beginning, M4B is less known to people than M4A. When we buy audio files from iTunes Store, we find most of them are saved in M4A format and audiobooks are in M4B. Actually they are both a part of MPEG-4 format used for storing compressed audio/video. M4B is encoded in AAC coding only while M4A is in AAC, or Apple Lossless Audio Codec. Therefore, M4B is not as widely supported as M4A.
Best Mp3 To M4b Converter
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