WMA formatting versus MP3; when is one better than the other and is there even that much of a difference? I have pondered this a couple of times as I was downloading things and uploading other things and making little studio remixes of my own music. So I decided maybe it was a good idea to put one next to the other and see what I could come up and pass that info on to someone else.
Windows Media Audio (hereafter known as WMAs) is the Microsoft proprietary software for recording and handling audio files. All the dings and whistles that come with Windows to alert you to things are WMAs. These audio files are pretty large, but boast a higher bitrate- or the amount of bits per given time that the program will run. Microsoft claims that these files are more accurate than MP3s and better quality. We’ll talk about that in a bit.
MP3 or MPEG3 stands for Moving Picture Experts Group-Layer 3, so yeah, MP3 works much better for marketing purposes. The idea behind MP3s was to make the files themselves smaller than WMAs. They do this by eliminating the audio range that has been deemed inaudible by the human ear. This greatly reduces the space needed for the audio file and enables more music or audio files to be stored. Currently MP3 files are used mostly in MP3 players for purchased and pirated- amen- backed-up music files.
The difference in quality between WMAs and MP3s is miniscule, even at the same bitrate, but still it can be noticeable by some. Of course a bad audio track will sound bad in both, but be more noticeable in MP3 format. WMAs win for that sort of versatility.
MP3 files are smaller by an average of 1/3 and that is an advantage to the format. On the smaller hard drives that came with the original digital music players, MP3 files were preferred because you could store more of them on a device. Now, this wouldn’t seem like as big of a deal, but consumers have grown used to MP3s and they have become the portable music standard. WMAs are used on computers and in a lot of games for Windows where hard drive space and processing speed are not really issues.
Most “MP3 players” will play WMAs as well, that’s not a huge issue there. The biggest issue is whether or not you want to deal with slightly less space by having WMAs over MP3s. Considering, like we said, the quality difference on a player is so small, it really doesn’t matter. The main thing is being able to keep track of one format. Picking one and sticking with it is best.
Converting WMA to MP3 or vice-versa is a step you can take to make sure all of your audio formats are the same. The software for these conversions is easy enough to find, though depending on the file size and your PC’s processor can take a little time. Remember though, the more you convert the worse the audio quality will become. There will always be a bit of quality loss when converting.
Taking a look at WMAs versus MP3 formats, I’d say go with the MP3 if you’re just an everyday person. There’s no point in using the added room that WMAs have built into them unless you’re a musician or otherwise wish to alter the original format. So it looks like MP3 are going to be the standard for music players for a long time.
Zeeman Haus enjoys writing articles online on a variety of subjects. You can check out his latest website on Touch Screen Mp3 Players which provides top deals on touch screen MP3 players From Creative Labs, Coby, Visual Land and more.