Which wma format

Audio CDs use a lossless format for very accurate sound reproduction. A typical audio CD containing 9 songs might use up megabytes of disk space. But those same 9 songs might only use up 50 megabytes once compressed. With lossless compression, instead of deleting extra blocks, the redundant blocks are removed and replaced with instructions. For example: In the chart below, you'll see that once our audio file is compressed into a lossless format, two blocks are now represented by one block with the number two.

Three blocks are represented by one block with the number three, and so on. When your music player reads the compressed file, it processes the instructions and rebuilds the original file with no loss of the original audio data. It gives you a much smaller file size while retaining the highest possible audio quality.

The benefit of lossless compression is this retention of audio quality and a reduced file size. The downside is that the file sizes are still larger than with lossy compression, and not all music players support lossless file formats. FLAC is an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec and is a lossless audio format that allows reduced file size with no cost to audio quality.

FLAC files are compressed in a way that does not reduce the audio quality, making it one of the best formats available for archiving your music. FLAC was introduced in as an open-source file type and has grown to one of the most popular audio file formats today. Because it is one of the most popular lossless formats, most modern devices support FLAC playback.

The file format has evolved since its initial launch, but has continually retained the WMA file extension. The WMA format is similar to the MP3 format and compresses the audio file in a similar way that leads to a reduction in file size at the cost of reduced audio quality.

Because this format is not as widely supported as MP3, there is no advantage to choosing this file type. The MP3 format was originally released all the way back in , and has been steadily gaining in popularity ever since the dot com boom of the s.

Today, the MP3 format has become synonymous with digital music, and has become the standard for nearly every digital audio player the world — so much that nearly all digital music players are referred to as MP3 players.

MP3 is a lossy format originally developed to create a listenable audio file that doesn't use up much disk space. This file-size compression is achieved by cutting out all of the audio data that exists beyond the hearing range of the average person and by reducing the quality of sounds that are more hidden in the mix.

The result is a listenable file with a small file size. On the other hand, WMA is developed by Microsoft for their products. What is MP3? What is WMA? WMA was developed in by Microsoft. It used the same principle to reduce the original size of the file. The software which is responsible for compressing the data and producing high-quality sound is the Encoder. MP3 uses the Lame encoder for compressing the data and producing good quality sound whereas Microsoft uses its own developed encoder for the same purpose.

There are many programs that support mp3s such as iTunes , Real Player, Windows media player. Not many programs support WMA because it is a proprietary format. WMA produces better sound as compared to MP3. MP3 uses more storage space as compared to WMA. MP3 is not a proprietary format whereas WMA is a proprietary format. WMA, do a search here on Lifewire or Google to find more information about the format and what program is able to open or convert it.

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Updated on March 25, Tweet Share Email.