# How do I convert a wma file to an MP3? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 25, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363 "2011-12-25T16:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/21 "2011-12-29T20:52:30Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > However, if you are sticking with your idea not to download any new software, your best option is to use Windows Media Player, and its **lossless** WMA. (The word lossless means that there is no quality reduction.) Then you can rip it a second time to get an MP3 version for actual use. I forgot there’s a WMA lossless – thanks for the reminder. I’ve found that FLAC really depends on the source material, as to how much file space it saves. I’ve never compared, and only really know some random anecdotes from places like stevehoffman’s forums. Personally, with musically dense tracks with very little silence, the files seem pretty much on par, size-wise, with a WAV equivalent (and it’s much easier to just zip a file into some random bit of editing software), so I haven’t explored much further. FLAC is cool, though – the format’s widely used, especially for legally-distributed live bootlegs and so forth. What’s the real dope? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/22 "2012-01-21T17:19:55Z")
So I decided to download iTunes so I can convert the files to MP3s. Great. However, all the file information that I wrote (adding track titles, album names, etc.) did not transfer over, so now I have to rename them all again for my iTunes library. Grrrrr. Also, it appears I can’t organize my music within iTunes the way I can on my laptop–creating folders and subfolders by genre, composer, etc. It appears iTunes is all album-based, which limits my organizational capability (or am I missing something here?). The only other thing I see is “Playlists” which sort of applies, but not really. Any additional suggestions or comments? Since I am selling most of these CDs, I still plan on converting them to WAVs first, but hate the idea of me having to rename everything twice, as well as limit the way I organize them in order to use the iTunes aspect. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/23 "2012-01-21T17:48:39Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > So I decided to download iTunes so I can convert the files to MP3s. Great. > > However, all the file information that I wrote (adding track titles, album names, etc.) did not transfer over, so now I have to rename them all again for my iTunes library. Grrrrr. > > Also, it appears I can’t organize my music within iTunes the way I can on my laptop–creating folders and subfolders by genre, composer, etc. It appears iTunes is all album-based, which limits my organizational capability (or am I missing something here?). The only other thing I see is “Playlists” which sort of applies, but not really. > > Any additional suggestions or comments? Since I am selling most of these CDs, I still plan on converting them to WAVs first, but hate the idea of me having to rename everything twice, as well as limit the way I organize them in order to use the iTunes aspect. > > Thanks! You’re missing something. iTunes can sort by any one of a huge number of fields, including Genre, Composer, track title, album name, etc. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/24 "2012-01-22T15:04:29Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > You’re missing something. > iTunes can sort by any one of a huge number of fields, including Genre, Composer, track title, album name, etc. I’m well aware of these incredibly broad categories. But what if I want to subdivide my hundreds of classical albums by…Russian composers vs. French? My hundreds of soundtracks to distinguish Broadway musicals as opposed to television scores? Essentially, what if I want to create my own organizational system of folders and subfolders? I don’t see any way to do this in iTunes–I’m essentially locked in to their system, which is strictly album-based. And again–I’m converting everything to WAV files first. Since many of my CDs are rare or OOP, I have to rename track titles manually. When iTunes uploads these folders from my hard drive…everything registers as Unknown and I have to rename them again! And sometimes, if it doesn’t recognize a track as belonging to a like album, it creates a whole new album just for it; currently, I have two dozen albums, each with a single track which iTunes segregates individually. Is there any way to correct this? Grrrrr ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/25 "2012-01-22T15:10:00Z")
Use smart playlists: > [@](#): > > iTunes does not provide a way to add custom tags. You can put arbitrary text into the Comments field, which will make it available for the logic in Smart Playlists. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/26 "2012-01-22T15:28:18Z")
Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of. And it still doesn’t solve my renaming issue (which essentially doubles my labor) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/27 "2012-01-22T15:35:42Z")
If you import a named file into iTunes, it should keep that name. Are you saying that isn’t happening? I’ve never heard of that problem. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/28 "2012-01-22T16:05:17Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > If you import a named file into iTunes, it should keep that name. Are you saying that isn’t happening? I’ve never heard of that problem. If I import them into iTunes, it doesn’t save it as a WAV file. Since I’m selling most of these CDs, I want a lossless audio file, not just an MP3. So I rip them as a WAV file, rename them on my hard drive, but when I then move that folder of music into Itunes, anything that it doesn’t recognize, it automatically reverts back to “Unknown” even though I’ve renamed the WAV file already. So then I have to again with the MP3. _And_ it doesn’t even keep these audio files together–note my previous comment about segregating isolated tracks into single-song “albums” even though they weren’t organized that way in the folder I import. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/29 "2012-01-22T16:14:22Z")
I’m still not sure I understand. Do you have these files already ripped on your hard drive? What format are they in? Are they in some looseness format? iTunes can import and convert to several different formats, including lossless. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/30 "2012-01-22T16:18:21Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’m still not sure I understand. > Do you have these files already ripped on your hard drive? > What format are they in? Are they in some looseness format? > iTunes can import and convert to several different formats, including lossless. Ah, I didn’t know that iTunes can convert to lossless–I didn’t see WAV files as an option, but perhaps there’s another comparable format that it can convert to (yes, these are files currently ripped on my hard drive, but I still have hundreds of CDs that remain to be ripped still). I’m mostly interested in the MP3s for future usage and posting. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/31 "2012-01-22T16:54:43Z")
Choose “Apple Lossless” as your import type. It’s under Preferences -\> General -\> Import settings. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/32 "2012-01-22T17:32:03Z")
Thanks! Will those files remain on my laptop hard drive somewhere? I’ve been looking but haven’t found the MP3’s that I’ve created so far (they’re not in the iTunes folder that I can tell; just all the installation stuff that I downloaded) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/33 "2012-01-22T17:46:26Z")
iTunes can be configured to: a) duplicate imported files into the iTunes library. If the file format is changed on import, it will put the converted file into the library. b) Leave files in place. If the file format is changed on import, it will create a new file in the same directory with a new extension. In no case will iTunes delete the original file without asking. I’m not really familiar with iTunes on Windows. I assume that the files are in a directory called “iTunes Music” like they are in OS X, but that’s just an edumacated guess. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/34 "2012-01-23T01:53:34Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’m not really familiar with iTunes on Windows. I assume that the files are in a directory called “iTunes Music” like they are in OS X, but that’s just an edumacated guess. Yeah, that’s what I would guess, for the life of me, I can’t find where they are. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/35 "2012-01-23T01:56:25Z")
Try right-clicking on a file in iTunes, and see if it has a “show file” option (in OS X, it’s “show in Finder”, but I doubt it says that in Windows). ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/36 "2012-01-23T02:16:17Z")
Real Player, the free version, comes with an incredibly handy conversion tool. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/37 "2012-01-23T02:40:15Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Try right-clicking on a file in iTunes, and see if it has a “show file” option (in OS X, it’s “show in Finder”, but I doubt it says that in Windows). Yes, that worked. But now I have an album that I ripped using iTunes, but all the files are in M4A format (whatever that is). How do I convert it to MP3’s? I looked where you told me but saw no options to change format settings… ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/38 "2012-01-23T02:44:03Z")
Change the import settings. Once you do this, you can right-click on a file and “create MP3 version.” ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/39 "2012-01-23T02:50:24Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Change the import settings. > Once you do this, you can right-click on a file and “create MP3 version.” Ahhh, I see now. OK, will give that a shot… ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363/40 "2012-01-24T19:57:48Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > I want to make posts like this one periodically, but won’t have access to the master material forever (have to sell a bunch of my CDs) and want to have the best-sounding version I can afford to keep on my laptop. The original question is fine for GQ, but this caveat says that you’re asking for help in breaking the law (if you cell the CD, you can’t keep the music on it). Please remember that is NOT what this forum is for. > [@MovieMogul](#): > > I’m well aware of these incredibly broad categories. But what if I want to subdivide my hundreds of classical albums by…Russian composers vs. French? My hundreds of soundtracks to distinguish Broadway musicals as opposed to television scores? Essentially, what if I want to create my own organizational system of folders and subfolders? I don’t see any way to do this in iTunes–I’m essentially locked in to their system, which is strictly album-based. Actually, iTunes is fantastic for doing exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve created nested genres for all of mine, added tags in the comments field, and used fields that generally aren’t used (e.g., Album Artist and Grouping) along with Composer, Artist, and the other built-in fields. I’m actually finishing up a how-to book about this very subject now. It should hit the ebookstores next month. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wma-file-to-an-mp3/607363.md?page=3)