AAC: conversion steps
- Upload your AAC file to start.
- Convert AAC to AIFF.
- Download the AAC file.
About AAC files
the lossy audio codec that succeeded MP3
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is the lossy audio codec standardised in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 as the successor to MP3; at the same bitrate it generally sounds better than MP3.
It is the audio in most MP4 videos, in Apple Music and on YouTube; a .aac file is a bare AAC stream without a container.
AAC: what conversion changes
Converting AAC re-encodes audio.
AAC: settings to change
Before you convert AAC files, you can adjust: Audio codec, Rate control, Audio bitrate, Quality (VBR), Sample rate, Channels, Normalize loudness, Trim start, Trim duration, and Keep tags.
Limits of the AAC format
A bare .aac stream has only limited room for tags and cover art, so music players usually expect AAC inside an M4A file.
Common questions about AAC
Why won't my old MP3 player or car stereo play AAC files? Older hardware was built before AAC became common and often only decodes MP3, so a conversion keeps the music playable anywhere.
Why convert music to AAC instead of MP3? At the same bitrate AAC sounds better, and every modern phone, computer and streaming service decodes it.