Is there a "best" way to convert m4p to mp3?

There is an option in ITunes that does this… before you go to burn the CD or to your ipod…if you right click on the track it should say…create/convert to an MP3 version

@lynneblundell I was going to say the same, but M4P is the protected version, it won’t convert.

@josie Have you upgraded to iTunes Plus? For 30 cents each, you get unprotected M4A versions of your iTunes purchases. Then you can set your Import Settings to MP3 and iTunes will create an MP3 version.

A few songs aren’t available unprotected. You can burn them to CD and then rip them to MP3. I don’t know about the quality though, the couple of times I burned CDs from M4Ps I thought they sounded crummy.

@lynneblundell, unfortunately, you cannot convert iTunes protected music files (which is where most .mp4 files come from) using iTunes. Apple doesn’t want you de-protecting their music into a standard format, then sharing it with the world over the internet. You’ve got to use more devious methods to do it. Here’s what I recommend:

iTunes lets you burn protected music to a CD, which can then be ripped into .mp3 format. Instead of using real CDs, though, my favorite method is to use a virtual CD drive. There are several available, and I’ll try to respond to this post again with the name of the one I’ve used in the past. The virtual CD software will simulate the existence of a CD inserted in your computer. Simply choose a playlist in iTunes, check the songs you want to burn, then burn them. iTunes will ask you which device you want to burn to. Select the virtual drive, and click “Ok.” All the songs will be converted by iTunes behind the scenes and burned into .cdr format to the disk. You can then use iTunes to rip (import) the CD. As long as your import options are set to .mp3, the files will be ripped into .mp3 format, completely unprotected and converted.

If you have an ASUS sound card you can use it to convert copy protected sound files to an mp3. As the soundcard plays the file it loops the output back to the card and re-encodes it. Unfortunately it does it in real time (ie an hour of music takes an hour to convert) but it does work.

This is probably the best:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2111958_convert-itunes-mp-mp.html
I use phantom burner

@papayalily, that’s exactly what I was talking about in my answer above. Nice link!