Convert almost any media by extension to m4a

convert_to_m4a.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# This script convert flac files into ALAC m4a

# Execute it by calling this script and append full path to dir as
# flac_mp4.sh "/media/joakim/VERBATIM/Avril Lavigne/"
# you can use "${PWD}" if you which to execute this script from
# current dir

# exit on any errors
set -e #-x

_ext=(flac) # e.g. flac mp4 webm opus mp3

_basedir="${1}"

# change to basedir
printf "You are converting from ${_basedir}\n"

cd "${_basedir}"

# Find any files in subfolders and add them to the array

readarray -d '' array < <(for i in "${_ext[@]}"; do find . -type f -iname "*.$i" -print0 ; done)

for i in "${array[@]}"
do printf "converting $i\n"
#ffmpeg -i "$i" -map 0:a:0 -y -v 0 -c:v copy -c:a alac -map_chapters -1 "${i%.*}".m4a && rm -f "$i"
ffmpeg -i "$i" -map 0:a:0 -y -v 0 -c:v copy -c:a alac -map_chapters -1 "${i%.*}".m4a
done


# Some sources had chapters which broke conversion
#mkdir -p "${subdir}/chap"
#ffmpeg -i "$i" -y -v 0 -c copy -map_chapters -1 "chap/${i}"

With this little script you can convert almost any media by extension to m4a with ffmpeg.

This script have been tested on mp3, flac, webm and mp4 files.

It works by you gives it a starting directory and then it recursively converts from _ext to m4a in same folder as the source media is located.

Be AWARE the default behavior is to delete source media after successful conversion, you can change this by comment L28 and outcomment #L29

You can execute it as is with wget

bash <(wget -qO- 'https://gist.githubusercontent.com/spirillen/6333f73da3fa4fbf78a9cdd0a2750b0e/raw/a45d349178aa927eda71b85f763f6eb2d9f410f7/convert_to_m4a.sh') "${PWD}"

Flipped default delete behavior....