.m4a Files Playable In AA?

My band-mates and I typically send each other tunes for practice purposes. "Here, listen to this and we'll try it next rehearsal..."

Lately, due, I suppose, to the influence and popularity of iTunes, a lot of stuff is available with .m4a file tags. Is this the audio layer of .mpeg4?

I can't find any of my players that will open these files. I guess that Microsoft, with a bit of a dog-in-the-manger sort of attitude will NOT be providing any support for this file type in Windows Media Player; to do so would be capitulating that share of the market to Apple. They may find that technology has passed them by and left them behind, though.

Any suggestions? Please don't suggest WinAmp or another player that takes forever to download, grabs an acre of resources, and may be laden with elements of spyware. What I'd like is a third party codec for WMP.

-Phil

Any suggestions? Please don't suggest WinAmp or another player that takes forever to download, grabs an acre of resources, and may be laden with elements of spyware.

Windows Media Player already has all those elements to it!

I don't use WMP, but the CoreAAC codec should do what you want:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/CoreAAC_Directshow_filter.htm

If that doesn't work, there is always Foobar2000:

http://www.foobar2000.org

...Windows Media Player already has all those elements to it!

Exactly! But it came with Windows so it's already there, and that's why I don't want to download another like it...

The Foobar suggestion will work fine. You'd think it should be simpler to play a piece of commonly available music...

Thanks!

-Phil

dbpoweramp converts anything to everything.  Free too.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

QuickTime 6 & 7, as well as ffmpeg and faad will do same.

You should find this plug in for AA/Cool Edit allows you to open and play back .m4a files:

http://www.rarewares.org/files/aac/cool_faac.zip