What is WMA (Windows Media Audio)?

WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a lossy audio compression format, and although it was developed from lossless compression, this file format belongs to Microsoft.

What is WMA File Extension?

This file extension competes with MP3 or Ogg-Vorbis, taking the inclusion of support for Windows Media Player in the Windows operating system as a commercial strategy tactic.

Support for this format has expanded since Windows Media Player and is now available in a variety of applications and portable players. MP3, on the other hand, remains the most popular format and, therefore, the most common.

Unlike MP3, this format has an infrastructure to protect copyright, and therefore, music files make P2P traffic difficult.

This format is related explicitly to WMV (Windows Media Video) and ASF (Advanced Streaming Format).

A file with the WMA file extension is a file from Windows Media. Microsoft created this lossy format to compete with MP3, and so it is often used in the online music business.

There are many types of WMA Pro, a lossy codec that supports high-resolution audio. The first of these, WMA Lossless, is a lossless codec that compresses audio without losing quality.

The second is WMA Voice, a lossy codec for applications that support audio playback.

In addition, this file format is the file format of Windows Media Video developed by Microsoft, using the WMV extension.

ASF, on the other hand, is a video and audio format developed by Microsoft and usually contains WMA or WMV data together.

How to Open The WMA Files?

Windows Media Player is the most stable program to be used for the WMA file as it is included in all versions of Windows operating systems.

Additionally, you can open and play WMA files on other operating systems using third-party software such as VLC, Winamp, or BSPlayer.

If you want to open these files using Media Player on your Mac computer, you have to install the Flip4Mac plug-in.

It provides an advantage to play a WMA file in your browser after installing the TwistedWave online audio editor program on your computer.

If you want to open your files on a device that does not support this format, you must convert such files to the format supported by your system or device.

Likewise, suppose a 3rd party program you installed to open this format on your computer cannot automatically identify these files. In that case, you should change the default program settings in your operating system.

How to Convert It?

There are many different free converter programs available on the Internet to convert a WMA file or files with other extensions such as MP3, M4A, and MPEG to another video or audio format.

To convert the extension of a file to a different format, you need to install such programs on your computer. For example, if you want to convert audio files, I recommend Stellar Converter.

In addition, you can convert your files using online websites that perform conversions without installing a program. As an example of this method, we can give an example of the FileZigZag website, which also has the Google Chrome extension.

Difference Between WMA and MP3

The formats of the files, where music files are stored on computer hard disks and personal digital audio files are stored on devices such as iPods, can vary greatly.

For example, digital audio files can be in different formats, although all your audio files are compatible with any CD player. Although some formats may seem complex, you can convert them to known and popular formats.

Widely used extensions such as MP3 can run on many new-generation computers or mobile devices without installing any additional programs. Although these extensions are still popular formats today, there are essential differences between them;

• This format belongs to Windows Media Audio and is a proprietary file type owned by Microsoft. MP3, on the other hand, is not registered and is not owned by any company, although it has some patents.
• The MP3 format has been used since the 1990s and has become a standard format today. On the other, it’s not as common as MP3 on online music-buying platforms.
• MP3 files are in a compressed format. The other one allows files to be encoded intact with the Loss Codec.