À propos des fichiers WMA

WMA (Windows Media Audio · Format audio)

Lancement 1999 Par Microsoft

Windows Media Audio (.wma) est un format de fichier pris en charge par KaijuConverter pour l’archivage, l’échange professionnel et la conversion multiplateforme.

Famille

Audio Files

Extension

.wma

Type MIME

audio/x-ms-wma

Utilisable comme

Entrée

L'histoire

COMMENT WMA
A VU LE JOUR.

1999

2003

2021

Windows Media Audio was Microsoft’s bet on owning the digital music stack. Released in 1999 alongside Windows Media Player 7, WMA was pitched as a better-sounding alternative to MP3 at half the bitrate — and paired with Windows Media DRM, it was also Microsoft’s answer to the iTunes Store.

For a few years in the early 2000s it looked like WMA might win: Napster-after-lawsuits, Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody, and Walmart Music all ran on WMA with DRM. Then the iTunes Store launched (2003), the iPod ate the portable market, and WMA’s advantage evaporated. Microsoft kept shipping Windows Media Player until Windows 11 deprecated it in 2021. Today WMA files are a reminder of a parallel universe where Microsoft won consumer audio.

CURIOSITÉS ET
ANECDOTES.

WMA was specifically engineered to sound better than MP3 at 64 kbps — early marketing claimed "CD quality at half the size".

WMA Lossless exists but never gained traction outside Windows; FLAC won that fight.

WMA DRM was notoriously aggressive: files purchased from Yahoo! Music became unplayable when Yahoo shut the store in 2008.

Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" program — guaranteeing WMA playback across devices — famously excluded Microsoft's own Zune player.

Windows 11 (2021) deprecated Windows Media Player in favor of the Media app — ending WMA's 22-year run as default.

POINTS FORTS ET
LIMITES.

Points forts

Good quality at low bitrates (32-64 kbps) — outperformed MP3 in that range.
Native playback on every Windows version 2000 through 10.
Lossless variant available (WMA Lossless) for archiving.
Supports multichannel 5.1 surround audio.

Limites

Proprietary — poor support outside Windows and Windows Media Player.
DRM variants made files brittle — many purchased tracks became unplayable when stores shut down.
Ecosystem abandoned — no modern editors, hardware decoders, or streaming services use WMA.
Windows 11 deprecated Windows Media Player entirely.

Tailles et poids typiques

3-min song (128 kbps)

3 MB

3-min song (Lossless)

25-35 MB

1-hour talk (64 kbps)

28 MB

Spécifications techniques

MIME type: audio/x-ms-wma
Extension: .wma
Container: ASF (Advanced Systems Format)
Variants: WMA Standard, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, WMA Voice
Max bitrate: 768 kbps (WMA Pro)

CONVERTIR DEPUIS
WMA

wma mp3 wma wav wma flac wma aac wma m4a wma ogg wma opus wma aiff

CONVERTIR EN
WMA

aif wma gsm wma voc wma w64 wma shn wma sox wma snd wma 8svx wma tta wma wv wma spx wma mp2 wma dsf wma dff wma mp4 wma mov wma mkv wma avi wma webm wma flv wma wmv wma mpeg wma 3gp wma ogv wma vob wma m4v wma ts wma m2ts wma mts wma swf wma mpg wma asf wma dv wma f4v wma h264 wma h265 wma m2v wma mjpeg wma mxf wma rm wma rmvb wma divx wma nut wma y4m wma mp3 wma wav wma flac wma aac wma m4a wma ogg wma opus wma aiff wma ac3 wma au wma caf wma amr wma mka wma ape wma dts wma mid wma ra wma alac wma tak wma

Cas d'usage courants

Legacy Windows audio, corporate media libraries.