.m4a
Low riskMPEG-4 Audio
AAC or ALAC audio wrapped in an MP4 container. Born from iTunes and best supported inside the Apple ecosystem.
MIME types
- audio/mp4
- audio/x-m4a
Category
audio
What opens this file
- Music.app
- iTunes
- VLC
- foobar2000
How to open by OS
Windows
- iTunes, VLC, foobar2000.
Mac
- Music.app, QuickTime Player.
Linux
- VLC, Audacious.
Ios
- Music.
Android
- VLC, Poweramp (device-dependent for ALAC).
Safety notes
- ALAC-inside-m4a inherits MPEG-4 Core Audio CVEs — keep OS audio stacks patched.
Common mistakes
- ALAC-encoded m4a often fails to play on Android. Fall back to FLAC or MP3 when cross-platform support matters.
.mp4and.m4ashare a container but have different MIME types. Serve audio withaudio/mp4.