WAV to M4A in everyday use
M4A is the standard music format of the Apple world. Songs from the iTunes Store, music in the Apple Music library you import yourself, and GarageBand shares are all M4A files with AAC audio inside. Converting WAV to M4A gives you files that are around 80 to 90 percent smaller and that work smoothly with the Music app, iPhone syncing and AirDrop. Android and Windows 10 or 11 play M4A as well, so it is a good all-round choice.
Quality settings
Because the WAV is uncompressed, the AAC encoder starts from the best possible source. These are good choices:
- 256 kbps for music you love. This is the bitrate Apple uses for its own store, and it is near-transparent for most listeners.
- 192 kbps for everyday listening and to fit more on a phone.
- 96 to 128 kbps for podcasts, audiobooks and voice recordings, ideally in mono for speech.
| Format | A 45-minute album |
|---|---|
| WAV, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz | about 475 MB |
| M4A, 256 kbps | about 86 MB |
| M4A, 128 kbps | about 43 MB |
Getting the files into Apple Music
On a Mac, drag the M4A files into the Music app; they then sync to the iPhone with Finder or through your library. On Windows, add them to iTunes. You can also save them in the Files app on the iPhone and play them from there. M4A also supports gapless playback information, so live albums and DJ mixes play without small gaps between tracks.
Tags and tips
WAV exports from music programs usually have no tags. After converting, add title, artist and artwork in the Music app with Get Info, and the files will look like any purchased album. If you need a lossless Apple-friendly file instead, keep a FLAC copy as your master and use M4A only for listening. Want one track as a ringtone? Use WAV to M4R, which uses the same audio format under a different name. To trim the start and end of a recording first, open it in the editor.