.wma files
.wma file
Windows Media Audio
Microsoft's music format from the Windows XP years, now legacy.
What opens a .wma file
- Windows
- Media Player (built in), VLC, foobar2000
- macOS
- VLC
- Linux
- VLC, Audacious
What a .wma file is
WMA was Microsoft's answer to MP3, bundled with Windows Media Player and used by early download stores and CD-ripping defaults. Windows still plays it; almost nothing else does without VLC, and phones generally will not. Files bought from defunct stores may carry DRM tied to a licence server that no longer exists, in which case the audio cannot be recovered by any legitimate means.
Converting it
A .wma file is commonly converted to .mp3, .wav, .flac or .m4a. It is a binary format, so a text editor will show unreadable characters rather than its contents.
Details
- Extension
- .wma
- Full name
- Windows Media Audio
- Category
- Audio
- MIME type
- audio/x-ms-wma
- Created by
- Microsoft
- Format
- Binary
Common questions
- How do I open a .wma file?
- On Windows use Media Player (built in); on macOS use VLC; on Linux use VLC. Microsoft's music format from the Windows XP years, now legacy.
- What is a .wma file?
- Windows Media Audio. WMA was Microsoft's answer to MP3, bundled with Windows Media Player and used by early download stores and CD-ripping defaults. Windows still plays it; almost nothing else does without VLC, and phones generally will not.
- Can I convert a .wma file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .mp3, .wav, .flac or .m4a, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.
Related pages
- .mp3 — MPEG-1 Audio Layer III The lossy audio format that made digital music portable, and still plays on ever
- .wav — Waveform Audio File Uncompressed audio — perfect quality, very large files, universal support.
- .m4a — MPEG-4 Audio Audio in an MP4 container — what iTunes, Voice Memos and most modern recorders p
- .flac — Free Lossless Audio Codec Compressed audio that throws nothing away — about half the size of WAV, bit-for-
- .aac — Advanced Audio Coding The successor to MP3 — better sound per byte, used by YouTube, Apple and broadca
- .ogg — Ogg Vorbis Audio The open, patent-free audio format used by Spotify, Wikipedia and countless game
- .opus — Opus Audio The modern low-latency codec behind WhatsApp voice notes, Discord and web calls.
- .mid — MIDI Sequence Not audio at all — a list of notes and instructions for a synthesiser to perform
- .m3u — Media Playlist A plain-text list of tracks or stream URLs — it holds no audio itself.
- .aiff — Audio Interchange File Format Apple's uncompressed audio format — the Mac equivalent of WAV.
- .m4b — MPEG-4 Audiobook An audiobook file that remembers your place and supports chapters.
- .amr — Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio The narrow-band speech codec behind old phone voice recordings and MMS messages.
Sources
- Media Types Registry — IANA
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place