I have had a few people ask me how to do this recently and thought it might be helpful to post the directions here.

If you don’t have iTunes on your computer yet, it’s free and easy to download from Apple’s website.

The newest release is iTunes 9, but this method works with iTunes 8 as well:

1. Launch iTunes.
2. To open iTunes Preferences.
   • Windows: On the Edit menu, click Preferences.
   • Mac: From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
3. On the General Tab click Import Settings.
   
4. In the drop down list next to Import Using, select MP3 Encoder.
5. Select one of the three preferences from the drop down list next to Setting, to specify a quality preference.
6. Click OK to close the Preferences window.
7. Select one or more .wav files from your library.
8. From the Advanced menu, choose Create MP3 version.
9. You will hear a beep sound when iTunes completes converting your files. The new MP3 music file will be automatically generated and will be placed right under the original file in the music library.

Voila! Hope that helps someone out there. 🙂

Photo credit: Roberto Garcia