M4A and Opus explained
M4A is an MP4 container holding only audio — usually AAC, sometimes Apple Lossless. The extension exists mainly so players know not to look for a video track.
Opus is the current state of the art for lossy audio, and the codec behind most voice calls you make over the internet. It performs well across an unusually wide range, from 6 kbps speech to transparent music.
- Where M4A files come from
- iTunes purchases, Apple Music downloads, voice memos and audiobooks.
- Where Opus is used
- Voice and video calls, modern podcast pipelines and WebRTC.