Can I convert itunes audio to mp3?

[magnoliasouth]

Pardon me if this has an obvious answer, but I've searched everything (FAQ, Wiki, forum) and the closest thing I have come up with is this post: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=52707. The problem with that post is that the answer to #1 was never fully answered. Someone explained how to convert wma (and I don't even see where the original poster even asked about wma), but not m4a... which I understand is the itunes file.

Surely there is a way with VLC? If not, can someone recommend something I can use to do so? I found this http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.com/200 ... tuneclone/ suggestion, but I'm not sure if I can trust that. Are there any other suggestions?

To explain why I need to do this... My daughter was mugged and her ipod was in her purse. I bought a new mp3 player for Christmas, but not an ipod. I didn't realize what a headache this was going to turn out to be. Frankly I'm pretty angry with itunes for the audacity to make it so difficult. I surely will never buy another ipod after this mess.

Any help is appreciated.

[VLC_help]

If you mean DRM protected songs that you have bought from iTunes, then I don't think VLC will help you. If you have bough DRM free songs from iTunes, then VLC should work. Profile MP3 should work, but there are much better batch encoders for the job, if you want to convert multiple AAC/M4A songs to MP3.