How do I programmatically convert mp3 to an itunes-playable aac/m4a file?

Question

I\'ve been looking for a way to convert an mp3 to aac programmatically or via the command line with no luck. Ideally, I\'d have a snippet of code that I could call from my

Answer 1

in ffmpeg 0.5 or later use ffmpeg -i source.mp3 target.m4a

for better results to transfer metadata and to override default bitrate ffmpeg applies

ffmpeg -i "input.mp3" -ab 256k -map_meta_data input.mp3:output.m4a output.m4a

best do not convert as ipod plays mp3 fine (I know there is such answer but my low standing does not allow voting)