Convert WMA to M4A - online and free - this page also contains information on the WMA and M4A file extensions.
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How to convert a WMA to a M4A file?
- Choose the WMA file that you want to convert.
- Select M4A as the the format you want to convert your WMA file to.
- Click "Convert" to convert your WMA file.
Zamzar Pro Tip: Should you wish to open WMA files then you can use the Microsoft Windows Media Player.
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Zamzar has converted over 510 million files since 2006
Zamzar has converted over 510 million files since 2006
| File extension | .wma |
| Category | Music File |
| Description | Developed by the Signal Processing Group at Microsoft, the WMA file format is part of the Windows Media framework and was first released commercially in 1999, with support for playback of WMA encoded files as part of Windows Media Player. Creation of WMA files did not come until Windows Media Player version 7. The original codec was targeted as a direct competitor to the MP3 and RealAudio formats, and has achieved a broad level of adoption thanks to support for playback on numerous DVD players, Nokia mobile handsets and Playstation portable devices. |
| Actions | WMA to M4A - Convert file now View other music file formats |
| Technical Details | In almost all circumstances WMA files are part of the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container, a proprietary container format developed by Microsoft for both digital video and digital audio. Every WMA file contains an audio track encoded in one of four mutually distinct codecs - WMA, WMA Voice, WMA Lossless or WMA Pro - WMA is the most commonly found of the four, but is a lossy codec, with the ability to encode audio signals sampled at up to 48 kHz. WMA Pro is an improved version, allowing sampling up to 96 kHz, but has achieved little hardware and software support. WMA Lossless is designed to compress audio signals with no loss of quality from the original source (up to 96 kHz) and is used in some Windows Mobile devices as well as the Logitech Squeezebox Touch. Finally, WMA Voice is a lossy codec optimized for low-bandwith voice playback applications, with mono sampling support up to 22.05 kHz - it is perhaps most well known for being used by the BBC World service for streaming Internet radio. |
| Associated programs | MPlayer Realplayer VLC Media Player Windows Media Player Windows Movie Maker |
| Developed by | Microsoft |
| MIME type | audio/x-ms-wma |
| Useful links | Encoding Audio and Video with Windows Media Codecs Microsoft overview of ASF Format Differences between ASF and WMV/WMA files WMA format information from the Library of Congress Convert WMA file |
| File extension | .m4a |
| Category | Music File |
| Description | M4A files are a type of audio file developed and popularised by Apple. Since 2007, music purchased through the iTunes store has been in m4a format, therefore accounting for over 15 billions files worldwide. MP4 and M4A files are often confused, and the two are quite similar, being both based on the MPEG-4 codec. However, M4A is a file comprising solely of audio, whereas MP4 may also contain video. |
| Actions | Convert M4A file View other music file formats |
| Technical Details | M4A files are superior to MP3 in terms of the scale of compression and audio quality. The M4A file uses Apple's codec and resides within the MPEG-4 container. The main benefit of M4A is that files are compressed but are lossless. This means they can be decoded back to the original quality they were at the point of compression. Another benefit of M4A files are that do not carry any Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection associated with other files meaning they are less restricted. |
| Associated programs | Apple QuickTime Player Apple iTunes Microsoft Windows Media Player |
| Developed by | Apple |
| MIME type | audio/mp4a-latm |
| Useful links | Detailed guide to M4A More detail on the MPEG4 format Convert M4A file |
Convert WMA file
Using Zamzar it is possible to convert WMA files to a variety of other formats
- wma to aac (Advanced Audio Coding File)
- wma to m4a (Compressed video file)
- wma to m4r (iPhone Ringtone File)
- wma to mp3 (Compressed audio file)
- wma to mp4 (MPEG-4 Video File)
- wma to ogg (Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File)
- wma to wav (Windows audio file)