iPod How to reduce size of m4a files?

Mmm, there's no way that this is going to end up working out very well for you... if the phone can have a microSD card or something of the like, that'll be better. Otherwise you probably should settle for ringtones or just one album at the normal rip rate.

However, if you're using iTunes to rip, you can do this: go to iTunes Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing -> Setting -> Custom.

You'll see the bit rate defined here. The size of the file is essentially directly proportional to the bitrate. So, if you reduce the bitrate by a factor of three (i.e. about 48kbps), the files will be about 1/3 the size. Make sure the Use Variable Bitrate item is selected to maximize the quality of audio at this low rate (assuming the phone supports VBR). VBR means that the average rate will be 48kbps, but the "mesh" will be "adaptive" so that demanding segments of the song have a higher bitrate and relatively empty segments a lower one.

After you do this, you can select songs you already ripped, if you want, and do Advanced menu -> Convert selection to AAC, which will generate new files that respect your current import settings (e.g. 48kbps VBR).

Good luck!

If these songs are *not* being listened to with headphones, or I guess perhaps even if they are, you might also experiment with using Mono instead of Stereo, as that would reduce the file size as well....

You can do a couple of things...

You can get a program like Max to do separate encodings for the phone. Create a profile in Max that has the bitrate and other settings you want, and set Max up to delete originals (bear with me). Now create a folder for phone music somewhere. When you want to put a song on the phone, drag it from iTunes directly to the folder. This will make a COPY of it there. Now you can right click the copy, open with Max (or drag it into Max), and then hit the convert button. Max will make a phone version in the lower bitrate and delete the copy of the original iTunes file that you created in that folder. You end up with a separate phone library in the desired format fairly easily.

Alternatively, in iTunes, when you do the Advanced->Convert, you actually get a second copy, that you can remove from iTunes or delete when you've put it on the phone. So you can continue to keep your originals as long as you switch back to your preferred ripping format before you rip new CDs for the iTunes library. The switching is kind of a pain, so eventually I started using Max to do conversions to MP3 for ringtones for my phone (my Blackberry also doesn't have a lot of space, but I really just wanted ringtones on it anyway, and it doesn't play M4A ringtones).

craig1410 said:

Hi mkrishnan,
Thanks for the info, I was beginning to think that maybe a memory card was the only way forward - I'll look into the cost.

Click to expand...

$10-20 for a 1 GB card depending on the media type.

Here are prices for guidance on microSD... the phone does seem to support it, and it's an excellent solution.

http://dealnews.com/memory/prices/micro-SD-Trans-Flash/40/1GB.html

mkrishnan said:

Here are prices for guidance on microSD... the phone does seem to support it, and it's an excellent solution.

http://dealnews.com/memory/prices/micro-SD-Trans-Flash/40/1GB.html

Click to expand...

Ah MicroSD. I suggest getting a 1 GB card Vs. dealing with only 64 MB of onboard space.