File extension WMA is used for audio/music files encoded in WMA (Windows Media Audio) format. A WMA sample file is provided. Free WMA players and editors are listed.

File Extension: .WMA

MIME Type: audio/x-ms-wma

File Content: Audio data.

What is WMA? WMA is a short name for Windows Media Audio, which is a popular file format and encoding technique developed by Microsoft.

WMA is the file extension for files storing audio recordings encoded in WMA format.

Technical notes on WMA format:

• There are actually 4 different codecs (coder-decoders): WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, and WMA Voice.
• WMA codec is the first version of WMA replease in 1999. WMA is a lossy audio codec.
• WMA Pro is a newer and more advanced lossy audio codec.
• WMA Lossless is a lossless audio codec.
• WMA Voice is lossy audio codec designed for low-bandwidth, voice playback applications.
• WMA files are actually using ASF (Advanced Systems Format) as the container format to store metadata.

Here are the first 64 bytes of a sample WAV file dumped in HEX values:

30 26 b2 75 8e 66 cf 11 a6 d9 00 aa 00 62 ce 6c 0..u.f.......b.l
3d 13 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 01 02 a1 dc ................
ab 8c 47 a9 cf 11 8e e4 00 c0 0c 20 53 65 68 00 ..G.........Seh.
00 00 00 00 00 00 93 c1 fd 5b dd 23 e5 4c ab 05 .............L..

"0x3026b275" is magic number for ASF files.

WMA sample file: Click sample.wma to download.

Audio data stored in WMA files can be retrieved, played or edited by popular free software:

• Winamp Media Player - Plays WMA and other audio files.
• Windows Media Player - Plays and generates WMA and other audio files.
• MPlayer - Plays WMA and other audio files. An open source software.
• RealPlayer - Plays and generates WMA and other audio files.