M4A to MP4
Turn an M4A file into a video you can upload. Pick the file, pick a look, record. It runs on your device.
Your file never leaves your browser — the visual is rendered and recorded on your device.
Get three example music videos by email
Need more than a moving visual? Melodious turns the song into a music video — See the music video maker
How to convert an M4A to an MP4
To convert M4A to MP4, load the M4A above, choose how the visual should look and press Record video. The page plays your audio, draws a moving visual to a canvas as it plays, and your browser records the canvas and the sound into a single video file. When the track ends the download button appears. Nothing is uploaded: decoding, drawing and recording all happen on your device.
Two things to know before you start. Recording is real time, because a browser captures an animation as it plays and cannot fast-forward it, so the wait equals the length of the audio and the tab has to stay open and visible. And the result is a new video with a re-encoded audio track, not the original audio wrapped in a different container.
What is an M4A, and why will nothing take it as a video?
M4A is Apple's name for an audio-only MPEG-4 file. Voice Memos saves in it, iTunes and Apple Music purchases came in it, and GarageBand and Logic export it. The audio inside is usually AAC, which is lossy but efficient, or Apple Lossless (ALAC), which is exact but around twice the size.
The structure is the same as an MP4, which is why people reasonably ask for a quick conversion. But YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook want a video track in the upload, and an M4A has none, so they reject it or show a blank. Adding that track is the whole job. A bare rename from .m4a to .mp4 changes the label and not the contents, and most platforms see through it.
What you get
A single video file at 1280 by 720, 30 frames per second, with your audio and one of three moving visuals: bars, a waveform or a radial spectrum, in four colour schemes. The container is MP4 where your browser records MP4, WebM where it does not, and the file name tells you which. There is no watermark and no length limit other than a 100 MB input file.
What you do not get: the original audio untouched, a still image held over the track, or a vertical crop. The canvas is 16:9. For a vertical 9:16 cut you can crop the result in any editor, or use the radial style, which is centred and survives a crop well.
Where to use the finished file
A video file lets a track live somewhere that does not take audio: a YouTube upload on release day, a post on Facebook, a story for a podcast clip or a voice memo you want to share. For a wider look at the options, the guide to making a music visualizer covers three routes including code, and music video vs music visualizer is worth a read before you decide how much effort the track deserves.
If the song deserves scenes rather than a waveform, the AI music video generator takes the same file and builds a storyboarded video from it. That is a paid plan, from $19/month, and the cost is stated before anything renders.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert M4A to MP4?
Press Choose an audio file above and pick your M4A. Choose a style and a colour scheme, then press Record video. The tool plays the audio, draws a moving visual to a canvas and records both into one video file. When the track ends, a download button appears. The recording runs in real time, so a four-minute M4A takes four minutes.
Is M4A already an MP4?
Nearly. An M4A is an audio-only file in the same MP4 container family, usually holding AAC audio, sometimes Apple Lossless. It has the same structure as an MP4 but no video track, and that is why platforms that want a video file refuse it. What you need is a video track, and this tool adds one: a moving visual drawn from your audio.
Will I get an MP4 or a WebM?
It asks your browser for MP4 first. Safari records MP4, and recent versions of Chrome can too. Where the browser cannot, the tool falls back to WebM and the download is named .webm so you know. YouTube accepts WebM directly. For Instagram or TikTok, run a WebM through HandBrake or FFmpeg, which takes less time than the song does.
Is the conversion lossless?
No. The audio is decoded and then encoded again as part of the recording, so the track in the video is a second-generation copy. At normal bitrates the difference is hard to hear, but it is not a bit-for-bit copy. Keep the original M4A as your master and use the video for sharing.
Can I use a Voice Memo?
Yes. Voice Memos on iPhone and Mac are saved as M4A. Share or AirDrop the memo to your computer, or use Save to Files on your phone, then choose it in the tool. Spoken memos work as well as songs, and the waveform style suits speech best.
Does my audio get uploaded?
No. Your browser plays and analyses the file on your device and assembles the video locally. You can check in the network tab, or switch off your connection after the page loads and it still works.
Why does it only make a moving visual and not a still image?
Because the point of this page is a video that looks alive, and a single image held over audio is a different, simpler job that most video editors do in a minute. If you want the song to have actual scenes, characters and a story, that is what Melodious's paid music video maker is for.
What is the file size limit?
100 MB per file. An M4A is compressed, so that is many hours of audio and you are unlikely to hit it.
The M4A is the song. Want a video with scenes?
Attach the track and describe what you want. An AI director plans the storyboard scene by scene and renders it to your audio. Plans from $19/month.
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