Requirements: OS X 10.9+
, 59.66MB free space
Version 7.17(2353) (6 Dec, 2020) Release notes
Category: MultimediaApplication
It’s quite easy to play .m4a on Mac. M4A is one of those officially-adopted Apple formats, derived from MP4. Can iTunes play M4A? Naturally, and so does QuickTime. But after a while, the functionality of these apps may start to feel a bit limiting.
Elmedia Mac music player brings an element of luxury into mundane audio playback. The strictly-practical features combine to give you an unmatched level of control and comfort. Elmedia competes tooth and nail with the latest and the greatest among media players.
1. Download the app - you can get the installer on this webpage or on the App Store.
2. Add your music file
You can add M4A files to Elmedia in several ways:
3. And there is much more!
It’s not just for M4A - in addition, Elmedia Player can open FLV, SWF, MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, WMV, etc.
M4A is a file extension for MPEG-4 Part 14 (or, in short, MP4) files. MP4 is a multimedia container format for compressed audio and video data. M4A files can contain audio encoded in AAC or Apple Lossless. Unlike normal MP4 files, they can’t contain any video data. Notably, M4A is the format of choice for the iTunes Store.
Apple has an entire lineup of specialized filetypes that are based on M4A. For example, M4B, an audiobook format, supports bookmark metadata. This specialized form of metadata makes .m4b incompatible with many modern media players.
M4R files, on the other hand, are no different from M4A, save for the extension. These are supposed to be specialized "Apple ringtone files". Why was the format change necessary? None may know.
M4A is technically superior to MP3. A 192kbps .m4a is roughly equivalent to a 256kbps .mp3, quality-wise. In layman’s terms, at the same quality level, .m4a files are about 25% smaller! This has led to M4A files having higher bitrate standards. With M4A, you’re more likely to encounter high-quality music (although nothing stops you from encoding horrible, deep-fried 32kbps tracks).
The only reason for MP3’s continued popularity lies in its past. It was one of the first lossy codecs to hit the market, and, subsequently, the codec spread like wildfire. Even now, at the point of its obsolescence, the tech world can’t rid itself of MP3. It’s everywhere, and it’ll stay like that for a long time.