Windows Media Audio

Also known as WMA, .wma, Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless

audio data compression technology

Key facts

Filename extension: .wma
Internet media type: audio/x-ms-wma
Developed by: Microsoft
Initial release: August 17, 1999 ; 26 years ago ( 1999-08-17 )
Type of format: Audio
Open format: No
Free format: No
Website: microsoft.com/windowsmedia at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-02-11)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

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media type: audio/x-ms-wma
file extension: wma

~21 min read

Article

Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. Audio encoded in WMA is stored in a digital container format called Advanced Systems Format (ASF).

WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular MP3 and RealAudio codecs. WMA Pro, a newer and more advanced codec, supports multichannel and high-resolution audio. A lossless codec, WMA Lossless, compresses audio data without loss of audio fidelity (the regular WMA format is lossy). WMA Voice, targeted at voice content, applies compression using a range of low bit rates.