iTunes 11: how to extract mp3 from mp4?

Okay... I found it! There no longer is an "Advanced" menu.... however, if you click on the video you want and then go to "FILE" (up top) and near the bottom of the drop-down box you will see "Create New Version". The "Create Mp3 Version" is grayed out until you hold the "Option" key on your keyboard and then click on "Create Mp3 Version" and extract the audio from the video. Finally! Hope this helps.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/any-video-converter-lite/id479472944?mt=12

It's quicker.

thank you thank you thank you

Thanks for the app tip, C.F. A question, though --

-- if the idea is to export the audio which is within the mp4 video, how do you know which audio format to select in the any-video-converter application?

For instance, for an mp4 file i have, any-video--converter identifies the audio codec as only "aac (undetermined)"; but then in the export "profiles" for audio, there are 4 different options that use aac.

I assume if I pick a "conversion" format which is different from the one which is actually inside the file I will end up re-compressing the audio, degrading the sound quality. What i really want to do is to simply extract what's there (i.e. without transformation).

Any advice?

CF's suggest doesn't export the audio, it converts it and in the process of doing so it loses quality. Use a free utility such as MPEGStreamclip which has a menu item which lets you demux or split videos into individual tracks. If it is unprotected video and the audio format is AAC (= m4a) then you have an AAC track with no additional conversion.

Thanks, Limnos. That's just what I want to do (demux or split). I got MPEGStreamclip; but I don't see the menu item(s) you refer to. There are "Export Audio" options, but these all appear to re-compress, rather than extract. For instance:

Showing "Stream Info" on my original video reports:

Audio Tracks: MPEG-4 Audio stereo, 44.1 kHz, 126 kbps

After selecting MPEGStreamClip's "Export Audio" menu item, selecting format "MP4", and exporting; and then opening the resulting audio file, I see that "stream info" reports:

Audio Tracks: MPEG-4 Audio stereo, 44.1 kHz, 256 kbps

So clearly, the audio was transformed rather than extracted. (Sound is not quite as bright, either)

Any advice where to find the feature you refer to, or other apps to try?

I run an old computer (OSX 10.4) so the suite of software I can run may differ.

In my version of Streamclip 1.9.3b4 I see "Save track" in the file menu. I would think newer versions would have it if my ancient one does but they may have moved menus.

I also have a suite of tools called "Movie Tools" whch do various things.

Aha: I'd tried "save as" and misc "export" options. But I somehow missed "Save track" till your pointed it out. That did the trick thought: very fast and no re-compression. Many Thanks 🙂

How do you do this if you have a PC and not a Mac? I can follow all the steps, up to the point where Create New Version' is displayed and you have three choices ... but MP3 is greyed out as a choice. When I press ALT (the PC version of Option), it simply closes the drop-down menu on me as opposed to un-greying the option. How do I get around this? Seems stupid to install a feature in iTunes that only works for Mac users and not those on a PC.

wolf_kells wrote:

How do you do this if you have a PC and not a Mac?

An excellent question to ask on the iTunes for Windows forum where you will find people who know how to use the iTunes version on that platform.

Thank you ... I didn't even realize I wasn't in the right place.
(*headdesk*)

I found this thread after doing a Google search, and completely missed that it was the "iTunes for Mac" forum, not the one for PC's. I didn't think to look because I honestly didn't even know that there were two different forums ... which shows you how often I usually have to reach out for help with this kind of thing!

I need WAY more caffeine!!

Thanks for the tip. (*feeling sheepish*)

I purchased an episode of a show from iTunes. It's in m4v.

I tried to convert (extract the audio with iTunes - but I get an error code ?)

Maybe it's DRM (protected) and that's why I can't do it?

Thanks.