Convert WMA from Windows Media Player into MP3 files?

Can you do this on a normal pc as well?

I can't see why not. Depends, I suppose, on what you mean by "normal", but isn't that always the way? :-)

tx alot for the help this helped alot and i am greatful that you took the time to make this page =)

Thanks for this page and info on downloading WMA music onto a PSP. You are way more informed than the SonyPSP help line, who did not even know they had an updated version available online. After reading your suggestions, the version 2.6 was downloaded to my PSP & mins later, is playing my WMA music! THANKS

I've downloaded "Switch" to convert WMA files to MP3s so i can transfer them to my mobile and play them on its mp3 player, but after trying ot convert some of the WMA files to MP3s, they still appear as WMA files in "My Music"...so I dont know if its worked???

Thanks for the wb page i was getting verry mad that my music and photos did not play or show up. your pg helped a great deal. i would like to know how to use the wireless wb and how to log on to a wireless site.

Hi Dave, You helped me with a problem recently so I am now always on your site!! Correct me if I am wrong but I had this problem getting songs off CD to my phone because of the WMA/MP3 problem. In WMP 10, If you go to options and then select tools > Options. On the Rip Music tab you can choose for music to be ripped as MP3. Saving time and the use of free ware. Hope this helps.

i downloaded all my songs on pilot 1.05 and all my songs are mp3's. what software can i download to transfer songs to my psp?

Jeff, you'll want to read some of the other articles on this site, which will explain, step-by-step, how to download music onto your Sony PSP:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_psp_music.html

umm dave..i thought i would add.. windows media player will rip to mp3 instead of wma.. just go into the options drop down, click the rip tab, and change the format to mp3, i suggest 192 bitrate. Theres a ton of programs that will convert after the fact.. but of your ripping your own cds you might as well save yourself a step and just rip to mp3 in the first place.

BTW... this does not take into account if you have lost the license files from the originaly ripped music.

If you have the license option enabled in WMP, and loose your license directory, you are screwed!!!

You're absolutely correct, and that's just one of the many concerns I have with current digital rights management systems. At least the Apple iTunes Music Store lets you have five devices enabled for a song AND you can 'decommission' any device through the store itself, as far as I know.

This is great, except for files with any kind of DRM attached.. it stops this program cold...any ideas?

Thanks for the light. I'm trying to help my cuz' with dumping the WMA files "already" on his pc vice taking them from disks to reformat the files for transfer to his mp3 device.

I've never used a stand-alone mp3 player, so I can only guess that ya hafta backdoor the process to get to the same nd. Seems Ichanged all of my files once upon a time before Media 10 somehow by doing a select all (of the audiophile) then saving as mp3. I'm going to hack at it a bit and hit cha back. If I'm on the right track, give us a shout.

Much luv,

sid

DRM, what a nightmare. But we have had format problems before, have we not. Vinyl to CD, CD to MP3. Each change is meant to get us, the end user to shell out for the same work we had already purchased. As i see it, if the track is encoded with DRM it WAS downloaded to you at your terminal, at your address (eg Home) and you paid for it in full. If we are to be encouraged to hold tightly on to being mobile, then the powers that be should by now have the software to allow the freedom of movement between all our mobile devices that we own. Copyright belongs to the artist/publisher, how we chose to listen is up to us, the cash end user(CER) Sites like yours Dave do me proud to see. Keep up the good work. MUSIC IS FOR EVERYONE

Dave,
I merely want to convert temporarily convert my Windows Media stuff to P3 and back it all up in MP3 on CD RW. I have an hp.

Do I follow the above method that you describe?

Thanks

I'm afraid I can't answer that, TK, because I don't know what "p3" format is, but generally, why can't you just backup using the WMP format?

Jeff, you need to download the program first. You can do that from their site in Australia:

http://nch.com.au/switch/

Note that the company now has both Mac and PC versions of the software too.

Hey Dave, well I want to transfer music from my PC to my PSP. I tried my USB cable but my computer said it doesn't recognize it. How do I make it recognize the USB cable?

William, first off, you need to ensure you're running Windows XP since the PSP basically isn't supported by other versions of Windows, and also make sure your PSP's in "USB Connection" mode when you go to use it too.

what if you have itunes??

Hi Dave,
Have you found an application that converts an Mac WAV file into an MP3 file?
Thanks
Donna

Lots of options, Donna. See:

http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?action=search&str=convert+wav+mp3

Generally, Versiontracker is a splendid place to find Mac software.

Okay - I know I have burn my WMA to CD and then rip them to MP3, but this is a painful manual process.

Instead, I'm wondering if there is a way to have Media Player "burn" the WMAs to a virtual CD drive, then "rip" them from the virtual CD drive to MP3. Such a process could remove the need for physical media, and allow for automated scripts that can convert an entire library of WMAs without human interaction.

Is this possible?

-Matt

Ok, I have downloaded the 2.6 firmware version for PSP. I have also downloaded Media Player 10.0. The PSP player will not play the music because it is protected. I have purchased the music from Walmart.com. What can I do to get the PSP to play songs that I actually purchased?

Matt, Joe, as far as I know, there's no magic elixir that makes this conversion easy or, in terms of online music purchased from Walmart.com, even possible. Sorry!

All my music is already in iTunes, I did everything that is said to do, so I went to my PSP music folder on my Windows XP and there are my songs with the little icon of the iTunes symbol, so i thought i did everythig right . so i look to find them on my PSP and is says there are no tracks!!! arg please help as soon as you can!!!

Sabrina, please see:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/i_cant_get_music_to_play_on_my_sony_psp.html

I imagine it'll help clarify what's going on!

ive done the switch program dave but all of my files r still come ing up as wma instead of mp3

hello dave i am tired of trying to get music on psp i have used Switch also xiilsoft cd ripper and still can't get it to work. Please please please please please help me i am begging you on my hands and knees please dave HELP ME!!

If they're still coming up as WMA, Daniel, then you're not looking in the folder where Switch is *saving* your output files, but the folder where the input files are found. Start up Switch again and double-check where the output's being saved.

Hi,

I have downloaded music from MSN but they are automatically saved as WMA files and encrypted. How do I transfer them to my sony walkman phone (W800i) as the software that transfers the files doesn't recognise them.

Thanks,

Chris.

As far as I am aware, Chris, there's no way to circumvent the digital rights management system on these sort of downloads. It's like buying a video from the iTunes Music Store: because of the DRM associated with it, you can't convert it to a generic MP4 and put it on any random ole' device.

Hi Dave,
I just bought a new phone, and to my surprise it won't play MP3 files anymore, but only WMA files. I would like to convert some of my MP3 music to WMA files, but I'm not sure how to or what to use. Oh... I'm on a Mac... iBook G4, OSX.

Thanks

Don

Dave, your sight is great and very informative. I am trying to switch my itunes from MP4 (what you get when you download from itunes) to MP3 or WMV so I can put songs into Windows Media Player. I have tried "switch" but it doesn't seem to work. Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Frank

hey how do you put songs on your mp3 player?

Frank, MP4 are typically DRM protected files, so I'm guessing you bought them from an online music store of some sort. In that case, you probably can't convert them to a different format, sorry to say.

"Someone", please see:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_download_songs_to_my_mp3_player.html

I have an old media player...like the one being used on an IBM thinkpad with windows 98. My music wont play on there.Any music files that i burn on cd as downloaded files wont play...

Thanks for the info and link to Switch. I have windows 2000 and WMP9 (10 doesn't work with 2000) My RealJukebox refused to rip my Kelly Clarkson CD but WMP 9 did, but only into a wma format. Switch did the conversion to MP3 easily. Didn't want to upgrade RealJukebox to their latest player, I've gotten used to it and really like it.

Vic

I cant get music on my mp3 but i no its got something to do with synchronizing please help

I dont care I'm not going to lie, I know nothing about downloading. I have been sitting here for 3 hours I am heated I thought using pspblender would be easy but all my downloads keep turning red I dont know what I'm doing wrong

i tried downloading them and it downloads them but when i go to my music it says there are no tracks but they have to be there because it takes up my memory.!!

('_>')- You are cool... without you I would be bored at school ALL day... THANKS!!! \(^o^)/

I have a Dell DJ (1st generation 20 MB) and I have songs on it that I purchased from an online store... so of course they are protected and in wma format. I just bought a new mp3 player however b/c this one is about to die (according to dell support) and I'm trying to get those songs off my old mp3 player and onto the new one. There is an explorer program offered by dell but it won't let me transfer any wma files back to my computer from my mp3 player and I downloaded some of these song through a different computer. Any suggestions?

I have a psp i did everthing you said and it worked except when it downloaded it only downloaded part of the song. What do I do?

I too have purchased music from Wal-Mart in WMA format. I have 3 different MP3 players and none of them will play WMA’s. What a bunch of @#$%.

I have been looking every were on the net to find out how I can use the music that I have purchased.
“Eureka� Last night I had an idea and I think this may work for every one.

The WMA digital right allows you to copy to a CD, which I did. I then used Windows Media Player to rip the music from the CD that I had just made and save it in MP3 format.

(Jumping for Joy)

I now have the music in a format I can use.

This is a Bull#$%^ way to have to work around, If you purchase music legally online you should be able to convert it to your player

(how many different formats are out there? As many as there are different players)

Have a great day

I did what you said to do at the top of this page but when I try to play the music on my psp it says corrputed data. What did i do wrong?

tx alot for adding the link to the 'switch' its helped me alot when downloading the files onto my psp!?!

I just bought a New Verizon wireless Razor that has the mp3 player feature, I origanally downloaded 67 songs to a 512 mb card, only 37 showd up, my friend told me that it was beacause it couldnt play WMA format, now I use Realplayer, and when u transfer songs on Realplayer, in the settings it will convert WMA's to mp3 when need be, now I checkd that, and NO songs show up on my phone, but they show up on my computer, im so confused please help?

Thank you so much!
I was so confused about this until I saw this
and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be...You are my hero

Hello. a long time ago i transferred some wma files from a computer to another via sync cable, and for some reason the licenses did not transfer over, and that old computers memory was wiped, and now the songs will not play because of no license, how can i retrieve or convert these files to a playable format?

You can use free tool wma to mp3 converter from http://www.nbxaudio.com

I found switch after upgrading to a new pc and having lost all my old file converter programs. Try to find freeware to do file converting in 2006, not so easy. I was so lucky to find Switch and I am extremely happy with it. Switch does what it is supposed to do and it's simple, what else could you ask for. This is one of those freeware programs you actually feel like paying for, rare in this day and age.

I tried this and it worked for a couple of weeks. But then the trial ended and my parents dont want to buy it..."it's a waste of money!" they say. Is there some sort of other program I can use?

can anyone walk me through how to rip itune purchased songs to mp3 for use with photoshow. i'm not sure where you find the songs once converted either.

appreciate any help.

hi i have a psp and im trying to download music to it but its really hard!!!!!!!!and right now im tyring to rip music from a cd but my windows media player doesnt say rip!!!!so can you please help me

I followed your steps and does not let me convert the wma to mp3 and sais theres an error that sais that the file is protected with digital rights management which limits the recording to limited players. thank you and I really need your help

hi im having a major problem with my dell dj, i dont have the software disc and downloads for it dont seem to be working on my computer.
is there any possible way i can get my windows media player to read my mp3 player?

thnx for the info but i really need to know how to get the switch window running but other wise great info

I LOVE your web site. I bought a new MP4 player with No information at all and was ready to toss it. But after 4 days and finding your web site I can now enjoy my new toy.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!

You are the man! Thank you so much dave. Frustrated mother with a nine year old who has no patience!

Thank you! And may God bless you, you really helped me! :)

thank you for making this awesome help page!

Hey i have got the music onto mp3 format but when i dounload it to my psp it makes a file but dosent have any items in it why?? please wright me back

that might help me... but i have some music that i put into folders organized by artist and just SOME songs dont transfer to my PSP but when im in USB mode it says its there but on my PSP it says 0 tracks when theres 10 songs off of i tunes ive pasted into my folder by artist.

Wow! Thanks for your great site Dave. I have been straining on this exact problem for a couple days and then found the perfect solution (Switch!) with you help. Much appreciated!

Mike

i used switch and it worked but when i sync it to the music file it goes to the MP Root file. how do i make it go to the music file?

thanx

Thank you for the help! However... I used Switch, almost quite successfully. It cut off the first couple of seconds of each converted song. I went to the Switch Discussion Forum, and it's apparently a known bug. Sigh. Any other suggestions of another WMA to MP3 file converter I can use?

how do I save my converted mp3 formated songs into my My Computer: PSP: Music file? please answer, I can't listen to my music without knowing how to do this! plz help me I need help.
=/

oh, how do i change the output folder from:

C:\Documents and Settings\ADMIN\My Documents\My Music,

to:

C:\Documents and Settings\ADMIN\My Computer\PSP\Music

????????????????????????????

you need to save the ripped songs to the latter file (the My Computer file) beacuse that is where all the PSP files are and in order to download music to your PSP, the ripped songs need to be saved into the My Computer file (at least, that's how it is for downloading wallpaper). You also need your PSP to be hooked to your computer via your 5-pin USB cord, and in USB Connection Mode, found on the PSP's home page under settings.

Dave------I work with computers all day, but trying to put music on my son's PSP is extremely frustrating. I have all the music options I need (limewire), but everytime I think I've actually dragged and dropped music to Windows Media Player, it states that there are no tracks on my PSP. When I get to Library, Rip, Sync what do I do from there? Please take me step by step. I will be forever greatful. Thank you,

Can someone tell me how to convert i-tune files to mp3 files for my mp3 player?

Hey Dave,
On WMP10, I have my songs in my playing list already. I have a cell phone by cingular "sync" almost like the motorola razor. In order to use my songs as ringtones. The song needs to be shorted to at least 20 secs. How do I accomplish this within Window Media Player 10? Please Help.

Stephanie

Dear Dave:

I request information about the following:

1 - NYPL(www.NYPL.ORG or see URL below) has ebooks.
To download to listen, you need to first download:
**** Click to download OverDrive Media Consoleâ„¢ that is WINDOWS only software.
2 - I want to convert to MP3 files to load and
listen to the audio on a MP3 player.
Please advise about the simplist and fastest way to make this happen.
+tks - Russ

http://ebooks.nypl.org/02405281-6977-47FA-88B9-703FA1E3A114/10/206/en/Default.htm

Russ Bartels
rbartels@nyc.rr.com
(212) 477-3959
New York, NY 10003

To convert protected music files to MP3 format, there is a software named "NoteBurner" from http://www.noteburner.com can help to convert protected music to MP3 File by using a virtual CD-RW burning method. It works as a virtual CD-RW burner, after selecting "NoteBurner" as default CD burner, then the software will convert all the music files in playlist easily.

Switch is a great tool except am I right in that it doesnt transfer tags (ID3) etc including track numbers? I got quite a bunch of wma files I want to transfer to a HDD dukebox (which needs mp3 format), but I dont fancy typing out all the tags again (especially given the rubbish I listen to!)

hi when i use that program switch it always says cannot read disk. Does my cd have some sort of protection or am i doing it wrong??

This was really a huge help, and saved me from downloading virus-ridden "free-ware." Totally easy, and your screen-capture guide helped much. Thank you!

thanx this was fab information now even my mum knows how to do it

Switch doesn't work on my computer it say's that it can't find the folder is it because I have windows Vista

dave, i just got the cingular sync phone and i bought a usb cable and a 512 memory card for music but when i connect it to my computer the phone says connected but it doesnt show up on the media player. pleassseee help. thanx

im gettin angry because i converted the songs to a mp3 and when i try and put them onto my psp it says no tracks even though the it takes up the mega byites i also have the charger plugged in so i dont know what the problem is please help me!!

BRILLIANT! worked perfectly for me....thanks a lot :)

that helped a heap THANX

How do you get to the switch menu on the window media?

Hey Dave,
I just got a new computer with the new Vista operating system (includes Window Media Player 11) and I'm trying to convert protected WMA files to MP3 files. Now, I searched online and found converting software; however, none were compatible with Vista. I did find a WMA converter that enabled one to convert a protected WMA files, but when I installed the trial on my computer it said "this product requires Windows XP or later". So, I'm assuming that this was not compatible with Vista. Do you know any converters out there that will convert protected WMA files to MP3 files that work with Vista? I already have a converter installed that works with my Vista; however, it only convertes non-protected files. Please Help!

Thanks
RSH

I had believed that converting from wma to mp3 would make the file size a lot smaller, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Any thoughts?

im thinking of buying a i pod.i just want it for music and audio books.ive been reading alot of reviews and thay say the sound quality of the apple 80 gig i pods sucks.do you know of a good player with good sound? another thing,it has to d/l from a thing called i tunes.i dont like it.i want to know if thier is a player that will let me d/l from windows media player 11.thanks for you time.

Dutch

Thank you so much!!! I must say they are all ingenious programs. Question though... what motivation does writing these programs serve you?

-Light

Hey Dave ,
My name is tyler well on my psp i put the music on it then when. I go to it it says I need to enable the WMA and I dont know how it says I need to connect to the internet but it says there is and error.

I don't know about "NoteBurner"; however I just tried "Switch" and, just like the other 99.9% of the so-called "Converters" out there - it didn't work as hyped.
When I tried to convert the tracks I was simply informed that protected tracks could not be converted.

There IS a program that actually works to convert protected, DRM encoded .wma format files to .mp3 or .wav format. It's called MEDIA AUDIO CAPTURE. Go to http://www.e-soft.co.uk/ and check it out.
The program costs $24.95 and the new batch conversion program, version 3.2, is just out that us supposed to be able to convert 999 tracks automatically (one at a time of course).
I've been using the older program that converts just one track at a time (you have to "feed" the tracks individually) and have converted over 100 tracks so far. Since I have close to 7,000 .wma tracks to convert this new version is a godsend and it works exactly as promised.

If you have a lot of .wma tracks to convert this program won't disappoint you.

I've bought a lot of programs and this is one of the best investments I've made so far.
With Media Audio Capture you don't have to burn a CD and then rip it and save it as .mp3 files. You simply play the track (the program re-records it) and save it in either .mp3 or .wav format.

Even if you've bought the license to play a .wma format track you need to renew the license if you want to transfer it to another computer, a new hard drive or play burned tracks on your car CD player.

I hate Microsoft for being so damned greedy that they can't give away their music as .mp3 format tracks are (sometimes) free and a lot easier to use and transfer or share.

Try the Media Audio Capture...you won't be disappointed.

Thanks so much for your information! I have been having this problem for sometime now, and tried to figure it out myself, like an idiot. Finally, I Googled "convert wma to mp3" and your page was the first one that came up. I'm glad it did!! Thanks again!

Hi Tracy,
I'm glad you read my post.
I've been using the updated batch conversion version of Media Audio Capture and couldn't be happier with the results.
I have an old Johnny Mathis album with 66 .wma tracks and the program mows through and converts them unattended so I can go and spend my evening at Starbucks, knowing that I'll have 66 new .mp3 files when I get back.
Try the program out and tell others about it also.
I don't work for the developers; however I'm so impressed with the program I told them that I was going to "spread the word" and bring in some business for them.

Don :-)

I am wondering how to convert all my songs from itunes to Winsows Media Player, because my wife got an MP3, which can only load songs from Windows Media Player? Do You have any suggestions Please? Thank you!

Aaron,
I did a Google search with your question and came up with this web site that, hopefully, will answer your question

http://blogs.msdn.com/joemorel/archive/2006/12/19/moving-from-itunes-to-windows-media-player-part-ii.aspx

Let me know in this forum if it works for you.

Don :-)

Matthew,
I'm no expert with video files although I have over 600 on my computer so I do have a little experience with them.
I'm always happy to try and help someone but I need to know a little more of what you're trying to do. I admit to not knowing what PSP is and how it relates to videos.
I read these posts at least once daily so the faster you can respond the faster I can try and get some answers for you.

Don :-)

How can I convert the windows media player files (WMV)to real player for watching films in my Nokia phone ) Thanks alot.

There are other two methods to bypass the DRM control.for protected music.

The first method is to burn a copy to an audio CD and then rip/encode it. Some software products take a smarter method which allows user to burn music to a Virtual CD-RW disc and then automatically rip/encode the music stored on the Virtual CD-R. This makes the whole conversion process automatically and faster. NoteBurner (www.noteburner.com) is the typical example which uses this Virtual CD-RW drive method.

The second method is to use a recording software and sound card. TuneBite is one of the most popular software.

Media Audio Capture http://www.e-soft.co.uk/ works about the same way as TuneBite; by recording the .wma track and saving it as either a .wav or .mp3 track.

It seems to be about the same price also, about $25.

The cd isnt coming up at all on Windows Media player, how do I get it to?

thanks! it looks great and i am using NoteBurner, a similar program. i will have a try and decide which one to use.

were have u been my whole life dave??? thx mate

WOW...perfect explanation! Keep on, keepin on

the switch program is a waste of time! Just change the option to rip as mp3 rather than wma in wmp.

Thanks alot, that program is the easiest on the web

OK where do I download the "Switch" program from?

When i convert the files on switch,

they come up with big red X's.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I downloaded itunes to my computer to try it, and it said it could copy the songs from Windows Media to it. Halfway through the 'copying process' the power went out. Turns out -- it didn't copy, it transfered half my music library to itunes while the other half is on Windows Media. What do I have to do to get my music library back on Windows Media? Itunes hasn't been of great help and I want to delete it off my computer but dare not risk loosing half my library. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Does anyone know how to disable the feature in Internet Explorer 7 that causes web pages to stop when inactive for a long time?
Microsoft is of no help :-(

Whe I try and send a large file with YouSendIt it sometimes takes a couple of hours to upload the file and I have to leave the page active (not hitting the "back" button).

After a 1/2 hour or so I get a message asking me if I want to navigate away from the page or cancel.

When I hit the "cancel" button it screws up my file and I have to start uploading the file all over again.
Frustrating to say the least.

Any help would be welcome :-)

Hi there

I have the version 9.0 window media player i have a cd i trying to download my music in psp sony it dont let me go in my system i dont know i did it right or what can you help me out please.

I have a question that's somewhat related to this. I used the free trial offer with urge to download a few dozen songs. When the trial period ended, the songs were no longer accessible on either my Zen:M or on my PC. I wasn't expecting it but wasn't surprised. I don't want to buy the monthly subscription because I'd have to pay every month just to listen to the same songs, and I don't expect to download that many more. My question is: Is there a way to pay for the songs I've already downloaded. Urge customer support appears to be a dead letter drop -- no response. Any ideas?

george

George,
It seems that all the tracks you've downloaded were most likely in the (license required) .wma format and that's why you can't play them now that the trial period has ended.

I'm not sure how you can buy the tracks you've already downloaded from Urge (I don't trust any of the music download services) but you can do what I've done with .wma tracks I've downloaded from Napster and that is to convert the tracks to .mp3 format.

This way you'll have them forever and be able to play them on any equipment; PC, car stereo, etc.
If you want to do that, go to http://www.e-soft.co.uk/MediaAudioCapture.htm and try out Media Audio Capture Ver. 4.1. It will batch convert up to 999 tracks at a time and I promise you - it does work exactly as promised.

I've converted close to 7,000 tracks so far.
It's not the most legal thing to do but I figure that, since I'm "renting" the tracks by paying Napster to let me play them I'm going to convert them to .mp3 and not feel bad about it.
Good luck and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any trouble :-)

Ok. Switch is a demo only, and this MediaAudioCapture is payware.

Any tips to functional and free (as in zero cost whatsoever) programs?

Thanks Don. I downloaded Media Audio Capture. It looks pretty simple, but the encoded license in the songs I downloaded from Urge seems to prevent it from being able to read them. I wonder if it will work on Itunes downloads...hmmm.

You're welcome George.
In my experience using Media Audio Capture, if you're able to play .wma files at all then the program should be able to convert them.

Sometimes I'll download a .wma file and I'll get a lemon which, of course, won't be converted in which case I'll re-download the file again and it usually works.
That may be the problem you're having.

.WMA audio files (thanks to Microsoft) are probably the most Fort Knox-like, encoded with DRM, files I've worked with but the program converts them as easy as a hot knife through butter.

Check the .wma files you're downloading to see if Windows Media Player will play them without demanding a license.
If they play than they should be able to be converted.

Let me know of any further troubles you may have and I can contact tech support as I'm a registered user.

KH,
Yes, Media Audio Capture IS "payware" but after downloading and installing some 20 different "converter" programs that don't work as promised, I gladly paid the $24.95 for the program and have found it to be the best at what it does.

That said I don't know of any free programs that will actually work to convert heavily DRM encoded .wma files to .mp3, .wav, .au or any other format.

If you find one that works and is free all I can say is more power to you :-)

Don, I think the problem was the encoding, and I can't break through it. Urge encoded them all with DRM with a self-destruct date, and I could not play them after that.

Frankly,that didn't bother me as much as the fact that I could not then go back to Urge and pay for those songs to unlock them. I either had to download them all again, after paying for them, or I had to subscribe on a monthly basis, in which case they would unlock them -- on a monthly basis. I would also then have to re-synch my Creative Zen player every month, and keep paying for life in order to listen to those songs.

So I discovered something else. I can download songs from iStore for 99 cents each -- and I really don't mind doing that -- burn them to CD and then rip the CD to my Creative Zen. Still a lot of work, but I now have them on CD as well as on the Zen.

And much more satisfying than falling giving in to the Urge.

Thank you for setting up this webpage. It has really enlightened me and enabled me to convert my wma files to mp3. Thank you so much. :-)

Hello again George,
Another thing you can do is sign up for a free trial with Napster (for about 7 days I think), download as many songs as you can convert in that time and then simply enjoy em'.

I pay $9.95 for a monthly subscription to Napster and just as soon as I download a track I convert it to .mp3 so if I decide not to stay with them I'll still have all the music I downloaded.

What's nice about them also is that, if you get a new computer or hard drive, you can copy your entire library to the other computer.

Hope this helps. It's cheaper than paying $.99 for each track.

As an aside, I'd stay away from the music download services such as MusicDownload, Inc. as most of them don't have nearly the selection of Napster although they brag about having millions more tracks in .mp3.
I could hardly find anything I wanted and getting a refund took a lot of email tag and hassle.

hi i just got a new computer with vista and i ripped a cd on my Windows xp and i tryed puttin that music on my new computer but it doesn't play and i try converting it but it won't convert but it's a wma file and it won't even play at all is there anything i can do with these tracks please help thank u

Hi Dave. I purchased a Conet 526 mp3/mp4 player. It does not have a battery, but a charger. When I place the mp3/mp4 to re-charge and then take it off, (after 4 hours) the mp3 battery indicator says its low. Can you help me?

Thanks so much for this information to "Switch." As I was wasting time last night trying to combine tracks of a book on CD into one big one, I could not get the "joining" software to work wtih the WMA files. Switch was PERFECT at converting them to MP3's (that the joiner could work with). Thanks a ton. Peter - Birmigham, AL

Dude,
You ROCK!
Thank you...:)

Great site, unfortunately I'm not sure I found an answer to my ? yet. I've downloaded some music to my MP3 player, some tracks came over with the Artist/Album/Title info intact, while others did not. I've tried going into properties of individual files, changing names, changing file extensions. I've gotten some to switch over and display title and album, but most don't. The biggest problem I think are files that are "read-only" and won't accept the change to the tags that I make. Any ideas? It seems the ones that didn't transfer are all .wma files, but I'm not sure. Thanks!

Well, if you haven't gotten coversion of wma to mp3 done, go get Jodix wma to mp3 converter. It's free.

Load in the wma files, click convert after figuring out where converted files are saved.

In WMP, go to options, and rip section, you can change file type so that WMP always rip in mp3 instead of wma

Well... I cant say more than thx very very much for such an amazing web site!!!
Go On.. U ROCK!!!

Dave:
Thank you so much for the SWITCH software information. I have been going to the library to borrow CD's and ripping them with WMP onto an external hard drive (approximately 1500 albums so far). When I first started, I was ripping them as .wma but a friend recommended .mp3 instead (which is why I'm here). The switch software seems to have worked beautifully. However, something fishy has happened. Now, when I update my WMP library, there are literally thousands of tracks that have been renamed to another song. It is still the same song but it is called something else. For example The Beatles' "Love Me Do" still plays as "Love Me Do" but in the library it comes up as Winton Marsalis' "Jubilo" from the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra's "Jump Start and Jazz" album (and I do have this album on my hard drive but, in fact, there are now hundreds of songs called "Jubilo" in the WMP library). Have you heard of this problem before and do you know how I can fix it? I wouldn't want to have to go through the "Find Album Info" exercise for thousands of songs.
Thanks in advance.
Brent

Hi everyone. I was just wondering if there is any way to put or convert videos from WMP to itunes. I have all these awesome videos i just got, but was disappointed to learn i could not put them on my ipod. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions to tell me how to get these videos from WMP to itunes. thanks

You can choose the output file type in WMP10+ in the preferences/options. 95% of people never look in options/preferences of any program.

Switch did not work for me -- error message that the .wma files could not be opened? Any ideas?

Hi Dave;
I need help taking songs from my itunes and placing them in my window media player library.
I did it before, yesterday as a matter of fact. But I can't remember what I actually did. I know I dragged a couple of songs from itunes to window media and it did it. Or is there a way I can use my mp3 player with my itunes to get the music I already have with itunes?

I have the exact opposite problem from most of the post here. I have a mac and lots of MP3s...but I want to play them on my verizon samsunp a930 phone. Vcast music software does not recognize/play mp3...only WMA format. I need to convert songs from mp3 to wma to play them on my phone.

Got a fix for that one? :-)

D

i have an mp3 player with only 20 songs on it. How do i put more songs on it without ripping a cd and puting songs on it.

Dave

I am using "Switch" to convert real audio to mp3. It is a two hour long file. No matter what I choose for encoder settings it is converted to mono and not stereo. I know that the source can be converted to stereo, because another software product convert it to stereo, but that software would not convert the entire file. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dean

Salam 4 every one,

it is good for use but i want to convert vedio (WMP.*.*) files into 3gp file....

who can help me in this matter .. ?

God bless you.

Dear Dave

When i was trying to convert my wma files to mp3 files using switch, the switch programme said it had crashed! also it said the wma files could not be opened! i tried doing it again but it crashed again! what has gone wrong?
Thanks,
Annaliese

Hey, I've lost many nights of sleep and headaches untill today. I have the program Audacity and was trying to load songs of my Windows media player into it. And then use audacity to mix the songs, add bass, slow or speed up, etc. NOTHING would work, nothing. Untill I stumbled onto this page about the switch software. The light at the end of the tunnel wasn't an on comming train after all. It was relief. Thank you!

OMG!! thank you so much, i have been looking for a solution to this problem for ages. now i can convert my wma files to mp3 and listen to them on my treo. i know that you can convert the files to mp3 directly on wmp but i have version 9 and do not have vista so it's not an option for me. thank you so much dave, love the site great info here.

does this converter convert protected wma files?

I need some serious help, Cause I dont know if I have the Switch program? Im not following how to change them to Mp3's. So please help me.

I am hoping you can help me! I have itunes (of course i have an ipod) i have alot of music on there that i would like to share with my friend who has a gigabeat, gigabeat only allows WMP i am unable to transferr the music into WMP from itunes can you help me

such a long story and no even a single word about Audacity. It's sourceforge, free, lot's of audio editing features and is able to capture protected wma music played from Win media player. It can export to mp3, wav or ogg formats.
Google for it, won't be dissapointed.

Thnx dave i can play 30 seconds on ym phone now your great!!!

Honestly, I'm a big fan of Audacity and use it for all my audio editing tasks. Never really thought of it as a simple audio conversion tool. Great tip!!

Now that I fixed my problem with WPA to MP3.
Now I have Express Burner downloaded on my computer which is great because I am using a scrapbook software to make like a movie for my kids. And was wondering how to get it onto a DVD so they could watch it on T.V. instead of my computer. What do I do know that I have that Express Burner I see that it has DVD burning but when I insert a disk it says there are no disk in there. Do I need to buy something special for a DVD disk?

Oh my, thank you so much for this!! your a legend in my books

NoteBurner can do this i easier and cheaper way. It installs virtual drive and we do not need to burn real discs but burn on virtual disc.

Dave, I'm Priya from India... I know very little about computers.
I have ACER system in which I've my music stored as wma files... Please can you tell me how to convert these files to mp3 format.

BTW.. I went throught the replied that you've given above.. can you plz tell me from where do I download switch..

Thank you.

Thank you so much! I was so angry, because I could NOT for the life of me convert my WMA files to mp3 files, from a CREATIVE product to an iPod, and now I can! Thanks!

:)

Hi Dave. It's Alaine again. I was SO excited (see above wall-post), but it didn't work. Switch tells me the files cannot be opened, and I thinks its because they are WMA-protected. Any ideas on how I can decode them?

Thanks!

hae dav

i hav the same problem but i cant find this switch program on mi lap top i hav bought a c.d and well it comes up as wma and can i chage it to mps????

\...Bulzi.../

i want to transfer pics from my kodak share camera to the computer then to a dvd that will play in a dvd player. i tried this and it works on my dvd player but not my moms or brothers dvd player. what kind of dvd do i use and how do i do it to work on everyones dvd player? thanks

There is no problem to convert ANY WMA file which you can play on your PC with Windows Media Player. Even if you occasionally ripped your music from CD to copy-protected WMA (look at WMP options attentively), you can always convert WMA to MP3 using software like TuneRaft from http://www.any-wma-to-mp3.com/

I haven't actually tried this with DRM-WMA files (but have with other audio sources) but the same makers of Switch also make an audio editor called WavePad. You can use this to record audio being played on your computer (including beeps so turn those off while you're recording). This can be saved in various formats including mp3 until the trial license expires. After that you can only save as WAV. WAV files are large but you can then use some free encoder (e.g., iTunes) to convert those into MP3. This is essentially what all these various utilities seem to be doing; they just do it in one step.

Thanks for the info on this and the corresponding free software "Switch" to perform the conversion. One gripe though, THANKS to the makers of SWITCH for adding over 2 dozen un-necessary links to my program listing and installing the crappy "Install on Demand" client. Was really happy to clean that mess up when all I wanted was a simple download. IDIOTS.

I TRIED IT AND IT WORKED!
THANK YOU SO MUCH DAVE!

I did everything you told me to do, but it failed every single time. What do I do?

hi Dave,
Can you help, I have WMA files ripped from cd's and tried converting them using switch and changed output to mp3 but when i checked the file sizes they are pretty much the same still 3 and 4 mb, the extensions have changed though, I thought they should have been smaller? i am only new to this so i am not sure what to expect.

cheers

Years ago, when i first got my PC i ripped ALL my cds unknowingly into wma format as i was a noob and didnt know/care the difference. Today as a proud geek, i need them to be in mp3's and didn't know how to convert until i read your tutorial.

Just wanted to say ty for saving me days of time that i would have spent reripping if it wasn't for you taking the time to post this!

Dave, after reading one of the comments above, i do not want additional software, program links and clients installed on my computer.

Is there another "clean" software that we can use that will do the same job?

Hi there,

I would just like to say, THANKS A MILLION mate.

I was going bonkers trying to work out how to do this without having to stuff around with Itunes. Your brilliant man!!!!

Much love, From a Chick in Oz

Sami.

ohk so here my problem i recorded a cd of my own songs and all the songs in it appear to be 1 kb and when i try sending it to people by either email or transfering suring a chat it doesnt open in their computers whys that and any ideas to help them work plz thank u

Fantastic info, a great help. I couldnt find a decent program until i read your page!

Sean x

Can anyone help???
Ive got a wav file song and want to convert it into mp3 can i do this using windows media player?

Well, I have tried EVERYTHING. Even a few things that you all did not meantion here. I have learned a few things about WMA though. They can be encoded into anything. Meaning that a WMA extension doesn't mean it's Microsoft that encoded it. In fact, there is a program that I tried on a WMA that I used as a test file. It stripped it. But only because it's on my drive as a Microsft file. I then tried other WMA files that were encoded differently. But I couldn't Strip it.

So, bottom line? You cannot strip or convert a WMA file unless you own the DRM to it. If it doesn't have a DRM, then no prob. But if you yourself did not rip it to your drive off of an Actual Audio CD, then you will not be able to Rip it unless you have the DRM for it. In fact, all the Convertors meantioned on this page had a message saying that you MUST own the rights to the WMA / MP4 file. I spent a lot of time and resources figuring this out. Did you know that REAL PLAYER has their own version of a WMA file? So, if you read everything on this page and cannot convert, then it means the program that encoded it is NOT on your computer and / or you dont have the DRM to it.

But who knows.. Maybe tomorrow someone will figure it out. (Todays date should be noted.)

Dave.... you are BRILLIANT!!!

i cant convert it says it is protected by napster can you help??

I use MelodyCan (http://www.convert-any-media.com) to convert protected files. It`s fast, simple and suitable to use.

A program called NoteCable can also do this!
http://www.notecable.com

it installed virtual sound card and then uses this to record the protected music in plain mp3 and wav format

With WMP 11 it is much easier. Right click the logo (top left) Click Tools, Options..., Rip Music, Format: MP3.

No outside programs are necessary, just rip it directly into mp3 format.

Okay I can't tell whether or not you have answered this question or not...I bought several episodes of a tv show off of Itunes...and now I am trying to make it possible to play those episodes in my Windows Media Player...I burned the videos to a DVD but I think they burned as a data file...do you know of any way that I can get it to convert from Itunes video to play in Windows Media Player??

You should check that your recommended software isn't infected with malware/viruses/etc before you recommend it, Dave.

I installed Switch, and it was bundled with malware! What fun it has been to remove the spyware and sundry screwed registry files, trojans, dialers, etc. Instead of installing one program, I installed twenty-six! Thanks A LOT.

I recommend that, next time, you check download.com, which verifies programs as malware-free.

I found ConvertLite is a malware-free conversion application.

YOU are a kind and generous person, and EYE am a grateful person.

Thanks dude, you made ripping fun :)

I need to convert my music that is wma format to mp3 format but it says it protected. Hoe do I go about geting tha done?

i am still like so confused i dont understand how to put music on my mp3!?!?!?

This has been so helpful, thank you so much, I was giving my Dad my old MP3 player for a Christmas present and was wanting to load some Golf podcasts on it from Itunes. However the MP3 player was a Creative MuVO and was too old to recognise the MP3 files I put on it (it works with wma files). However this program you recommended converted the MPEG-4 files from Itunes into WMA files quickly and easily, and your step-by-step run through helped tremendously. Once again thank you very much Dave, now my Dad gets to enjoy "Golf Talk" thanks to you!

Please help someone that knows next to nothing about PC. I'm trying to download a DVD that was made for me and it's not protected, to my PC. But I can't because I don't know how, every way I tried didn't work I have Vista with Roxio, Windows Media player, Windows Media center, and windows DVD Maker installed in my dell PC. Can you please tell me how to download a DVD movie into my PC? Also is there a software that allows to download protected DVD?
Thank you, Tony.

This error keeps popping up when I try to convert my WMP playlist to MP3s. The format is .wpl and it says the specified source format could not be read. PLEASE HELP!

Just a quick question. Its late and I didn't check to see if anybody already asked this already. Instead of using that conversion program is there a way to convert an entire library of WMA files over to MP3 with the windows media program itself? I didn't know that I could adjust the rip settings until I just read your other page about it. Thats great for the future but what about the rest of my library that is already in windows media player as WMA files? Can I get Windows media player to change the entire library over to MP3 by itself?

10x man that was really good information

hi dave, i have downloaded alot of albums of music from mininova and a bunch of other software
and found out that it was pirated software and the penalties were enormous( up to 250,000 dollars in fines for every piece of pirated software and five years in prison) and just deleted it all. im not trying to be a prick of anything but is converting protected music legal?

None of those programs worked at DRM removal excepting that NoteCable one at the end. It was easy to use, no fussing with imputs & encoders and no trying to figure the program out. EASY. Yay.

I'm trying to put legally obtained stories onto my phone chip, but the program that's supposed to do that doesn't see my portable device, so what else am I supposed to do?

ok. i download my music at walmart.com. there they have some songs that are mp3 and some that are wma. most of the songs are wma. it there any way i can convert my wma songs i download to mp3 or aac for itunes without downloading any software or buying anything or burning them onto cds??

hey where do i get "the switch" softwear???

Rae, go here:

http://www.nch.com.au/switch/

You can download it directly from the developers in Australia.

Hi. Thank you for all your help. It was confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. But I do have one problem; when I go and listen to some of my tracks, they do not work and then the title just says "Corrupted Data" and I have to delete it. how do I fix this problem?

do you need internet to music on your psp

Hey man, i just bought an iriver and its obviously not compatible for itunes of which i previously used. how do i convert all my music from itunes back to windows media player.

Thanks Dave.

I am currently using this prog to convert all my 320kbps MP3's to 128kbps....what a very useful peice of kit!!

This is gonna free up one hell of a chunk of hard disk space!!!

Why did I choose 320kbps in the first place? WHO KNOWS!!!!

how do u change a name on ure computer to stay de same on ure device...eg mp3/mp4/

thanx

Is there any way to take songs off of websites like imeem and convert them into a MP3 format? There are some songs on that site that I really want but can't find the C.D. anywhere!

Hey,

now, this may seem like a stupid question but here it is. i'm trying to put music from my computer to my sony mp3. but, every time i try, it aways says an error has occured. it never says what kind of error or how i can fix it. my mp3 isn't full because it said i only used 33% of it. i hope you can help.

I just love MelodyCan converter for iPod integration feature. http://www.melodycan.com/

useful for mp3 player, added to favorites. I also use Eufony from http://www.softe.net to convert wma to mp3.

I have bought 712 protected .wma files from Walmart over the last four years and now am faced with the only mp3 player available to play them being their 1 gb player. I'd like to buy an Ipod or something else with more storage.

Currently Walmart does not have any way for us to convert our files or redownload them for free, which I find infuriating.

I need something to batch-convert these files - am I correct after reading all of the above that MediaAudioCapture from that UK site is the way to go? Has anyone had problems with malware from it?

I need something that is safe for my computer, easy to use and will batch-convert (I don't care how long it takes, I just don't want to have to do them one at a time or burn them to CD first). I'm willing to pay up to $40 for it.

I'm in my 40s and just want the music I've legally bought - don't care about album art & all that.

sup omg i waz on the computer for about 3 hours trying to get music on my psp but it didnt work i tried to sink it but it didnt work i tried to rip it didnt work i tried everything i have media player and idk wat to do please HELP ME DAVE!

Dave, I read about you in Michael Banks' Blogging Heroes and, coincidentally, needed to convert WMA files to MP3 format. I just wanted to say thanks for this post and thanks for what you're doing online!

I got the slim psp and i try to sync my music from WMP and the file under music in my psp shows the name of the band and I try to play it and it says no tracks and Im like what the hec is going on?

when I go to "music" on my psp the screen says no tracks and when I try to sync my music from WMP it says already on device meaning already on psp what is going on and how do I solve it?

Oh My God, i have been looking for something like switch for about 3 months now, ridiculous(i Know - trust me) but thank you sooooo much you are a great help

Hi. I read the above and downloaded switch, and it still won't convert from wma to mp3. My wma files are protected, and unfortunately, the files aren't from a CD I could just borrow off a friend or anything, because they're my band's demos and I'm the only one who has them! Is there ANY way to get round this, because they're stuck as wma files.

Thanks, Alex.

Can you change WMA files to mp3's to use on ipods? Is it the same way as doing it for a psp?

hi
i turned my wma music into mp3 but my psp says that file is corrupted,i dont know how or why :(

I think iTunes will do it?

this was a TON of help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this kinda has nothing to do with this but i have ogg files that i can play perfectly fine onto my windows media player but i can't put it onto my library. What's up with that?

I have windows media player and itunes. when i hit export in itunes, i save it under my music. I go to the media player and i select the song (there are only 2 types of files i can save it from, XML and TXT) and it says that the media player can't play it because of the XML, and something that says something about the way it was compressed. What can i do to get an itunes song on my windows media player???!?!?!?!?!!!?!?

Dave, I am having a problem with downloading songs into my phone. I ripped cd,, downloaded from limewire etc. Then used a converter program to get them to mp3 format. I made sure after this that all songs in my WMP library were now in mp3 format. When I hook the cable and select the songs to sync into my new motorola rokr phone, here is where the trouble begins. They start syncing and all of the sudden WMP says on each song status line "needs to be converted" and it converts them all right back to wma format. So after going through all the time to get them all out of wma, WMP just converts them right back as it put them in my phone. How do i correct this one??? Thanks

thank you so much for making this page. i was beginning to get frustrated that my comp would only play certain songs on windows media player that it wouldnt play on itunes! thanks thanks thanks!

i cant seem to find the swith folder or the garchwin conithon on my pc

There are a lot of converters now and I like TuneCab, it has many features such as audio conversion, video conversion, extract sound from video, remove DRM, download and convert video from YouTube etc. Easy to use all in one software! http://www.tunecab.com

Thank you for the advice :p you have put music back to my ears. I thought I bought my psp fpr nothing. I almost lost hope on my psp and almost sold it.

This was all just a plug for NCH software. They are doing this all over the internet. Switch is not free, only a trial. WMP can rip to .mp3 check your options.

I posted a question last night about trying to convert napster downloaded wma files to mp3 for my new ipod, and then I went back and read more of the comments. Media Audio Capture sounded like the right solution, so I just tried it. But, I tried it on 3 songs and all three cut off before the end of the song. Then I got a message stating that protected wma files could only be recorded up to 75% of the file. Is there any way to get around this, or a different program that won't have this same problem?

licences on downloaded songs, what a joke! Even the tunes i've ripped from CD's won't go onto my psp! After reading all of your tips am i being completely stupid or is there no way of doing it?!?!?!?!

i have uploaded the program that you recommended,
however when i added my music to convert from
wma to mp3, it said that i couldnt because the file was protected by DRM ( Digital Rights Management). i have no idea why this hasnt worked for me and have you got any solutions for me?
I need this e-mail sent to me no later than tommorrow b4 i leave for austria.
thanks very much
adam kehoe

dave, thank you for this wonderful public service that you provide.
here is my dillema. I am a public lecturer. All my lectures are recorded with a olympus voice recorder. They record with WMA. I have switch, so I am able to convert to MP3. However, whenever I convert, the file stays the same size. I NEED the files to become smaller, as I email the lectures to a number of people. Any suggestions????
thank you, martin,
MA@REMAX.NET

dave when i try to convert it has a red X on the left side of the files on the right side it says
File is protected by DRM (digital rights management) is it because i downloaded the free version?

Thanks so much. This explanation made it soooo easy.

SO i've done everything you suggested up top but my dilemma now is trying not to lose all the info like the # of songs which the original WMA files hold. It would take me a couple of days to number every song that I convert. any suggestions? also is converting to mp3 my best bet? what about bitrate?? can you convert a 128 to 256? what does that do?

How do you convert WMA files already on your computer to mp3. I think I need them to be mp3 files in order to put them on an audio cd. Thanks

ermm hi dave... do u have any site to recommand for downloading free mp3 songs?i nid to put it into my psp and ive been looking for a site for quite some time and im realli fed up coz all i could find r juz websites which nids to pay to download music or pay to become a member to download.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEE help me, IM TRULY AND DESPERATELY IN NID OF HELPP!!!!!! i would realli be grateful to u..=)

with anxiety,
jake

Hey there!
Thanks for helping us out with this whole converting mess!! It works great execpt it wont let me convert certain songs even though I own them it says that they are protected by the DRM (digital rights management)?? and won't let me convert them! Can you tell me why this may be or how to fix this problem?? Who knows mybe others are having the same messages? Thanks a bunch!!
Jessie aka GizmoGirl

A trillion tanx to you Dave, spent last 3 hours feck arsing round tryin to convert wavs/mp3z etc myself & then decided to use my trusty old friend goole & discovered yer wise tips, keep up the great work, will be recommending you to all....

Use "notecable",it will strip any itunes drm off of any music and convert to mp3.I use it all the time.

this was awesome advice. i'm using moviemaker to make a video for my mom and this was perfect for adding background music. thanks so much.

Thanks a lot, Dave. That was just what I wanted, so helpful and really easy to understand. That one has been bugging me for ages.

A much quicker method of ripping CD's is to use Musicmatch Jukebox, which will rip directly to MP3 format. No intermediate step required.

Hi Dave,

I used the switch converter but it only let me do one file. When I tried to do the next song is said it already existed but still converte it. Now the first song has a red x through it and the other song is fine. I want to convert an entire album at a time. Is that possible? And if not what am I doing wrong with the switch program. I also need to know how to be able to rip the converted files to an mp3 disk.

Please help I have been on so many other sights and I am getting way frustrated!

Thank you,

Jen

It seems like you could take a basic audio conversion program and encode the DRM WMA files directly to mp3 which are unprotected. Am I missing something here? Mark

the best advice i ever got on the net!!thanks a lot!

Dave, thanks for this. It was just the answer that I needed.

Richard

Cheers mate! That was just what I was looking for :)
Big Help!

how can i convert my i tunes songs into windows media songs and or files??

Please help me. I'm having trouble viewing windows media files on my motorolla razr. It starts to look at the file but says that it doesn't recognize the file. i'm really tired of not being able to see some of the videos that my dad sends. thank you for box help in this matter

what software do i download for my mz3 and how do i do it?

HELP PLEASE!!!!!! I JUST BOUGHT A 2 GB GPX MP3 PLAYER . THE PROBLEM IS I HAVE GOOD O VISTA WARE . I NEED TO DOWNLOAD WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 OR 10 AND I CANT GET EITHER BECAUSE I HAVE VISTA !! ANY SUGG.??

I tried this, but it doesn't work for DRM protected .wma files. How can I get around this?

hvala Dave; Thank you

Just wanted to say that I rip my music into mp3 in windows media player. I just click the arrow under the rip tab and selected more options then undeer the rip music tab went to rip settings and format and chose mp3 in the drop down box. I don't beleive you can convert ones that have already been rip as wma though by using windows media.

i have music in mobile but not read to music

This works great for recording client readings in Vista which end up as WMA'S. Often these end up at a size too large for an Audio CD. When converted to MP3, they fit no pablum.

Hi Dave.

I've tried to use the Switch program on my Mac to convert a WMA file into a MP3 file, but it just says "the specified source format could not be read" when I press the convert button?? Please help me??

whats the switch program and where do i get it from

thanks a looooooot
it really solved my problem for convertin wma to mp3 format and now it will run on my cd player
thanks a lot once again

I got my twins a mp3/mp4 player for christmas and I am unable to download music from the web site 360 and is unable to download music from this site. are you able to help me

I found the following app at www.tunecopy.net very helpful. It converted my Napster WMA files into MP3 files by just selecting them. Converting 300 files took only about 3 minutes.

hi i just wanted to know that how do u put music that u have in your computer to your mp3?

Very useful tips! I also use eufony from http://www.softe.net which is so nice for wma to mp3 conversion.

Just used the free version of switch to try and convert about 5gb of music. It took it into its head to only convert every other track on the albums and I think I had it set to delete source files when converted. now have half an album in MP3 and half in WMA in 2 different places on my computer! its all backed up but before I go through it all again is the problem that Im being a cheapskate ie. do I need to PAY for the full version??

This question comes from someone with limited techie skills! :-)
I created literally thousands of wma files on another laptop from my CDs, and then copied the files to CDs and years later and trying to upload and play them on another laptop.
I only copied the files to CDs - I did nothing special via MS Media Player.
After copying the files to my new laptop, when I try to play the file, MS Media Player gives me an error - "Unable to contact the server for the requested operation".
Thanks.
Signed.
Confused in SF!

I have used the conversion software to convert a Real Player audio file to mp3. The problem I'm having is the Real Player file is a pod cast that has segments with commericals in between. The conversion to MP3 only picks up the first segment. What can I do??

Hey Dave, great advice thank you I tried to convert music files to my partners psp via windows media player - ripped the disc- into the libary and clicked on the tracks i wanted, send to sync list! Being rather "a late starter" in the pc world I followed the inructions and succesforly syncronised the psp to the pc aqnd then the tracks to psp.... WOW that was easy ish, or so i thought,until i started looking for the music!!! Argh Wot a nightmare!!

Thank-you!! :)

Is there an easier way to search for all .wma files on a computer, and get a program that can convert them all in one go instead of having to go through your entire music collection album by album? Please contact me if you have any ideas on this one! thanks!

Dave,
I downloaded the Switch program but I couldnt find the crack, and using the freeware it only allows to convert about 1 minute per song.
where can I find the crack

Hey Ed, a kind of radical idea: why don't you *pay* for this shareware application so you can get a full license? That'll help the company make more great software for all of us...

just following your radical Idea at the beginning of the post
thanks

Thank you very much!

this is a scam it dosent work it put loads of virouses on my lap top

Thx works fine for me!

I would like to burn a published C.D. onto a blank C.D.

i googled "how to convert wma to mp3" and your website was at the top, so i decided to see what's what. i read a lot of other resources that mention and describe various conversion programs, some of which are probably just as good and just as free as "switch". but i decided to go with "switch" and i am not disappointed. i have well over 4000 wma files on my computer, categorized in folders by artist name. "switch" allowed me to select the one folder all my music is stored in (as opposed to having to open each one and select the songs) which was a huge relief! now, it is busy converting all 4000+ wma files into mp3 files into a designated folder at about 15-18 seconds per song. this is awesome! i am randomly testing songs as they download and so far so good. even if i find some bumps in the process, this is still a great solution. thanks Dave!!!

Dave,
I have replay AV to record talk radio. Their converter didn't work and I have been trying to put these radio shows on my creative zen for a week. I was lucky enough to find your site and downloaded Switch and now I finally have them!!
Thank you sooo much. You really speak normal and even a "Geek Wanna Be" like me could do it.
Again, thank you !!!

Dave,
How do I convert iTunes music to Windows Media player??????PLEASE HELP

hello i keep on having a problem connecting my muvo v100mp3 and my ipod shuffle to my windows 98 computer it keeps on sayinng WINDOWS CANNOT FIND A DRIVER FOR THIS DEVICE... so wat do i do

Thanks worked great for both my iTunes files and .wma

Buy a 40$ philips DVD player with a USB port to create MPS, they create upto 320Kbps , best in market.

Hi dave,
thank you for your advise.i have ripped a couple of music cds to my laptop on windows media player into .WMA files and also downloaded the licenses to play the files off the micrsoft website. the tracks play just fine on the laptop .
however when i tried to transfer the wma files my mp3 player, it comes up with an error msg saying license required. would converting wma to mp3 solve the problem ?
thanks

I was wanting to know if the quality of the music is sacrificed in doing this. I have a external hard drive that has about 135gb of music not converted to mp3 format. Can I convert this to mp3 without sacrificing the quality thanks

Why not use CDex? It's freeware and converts your cd tracks directly to mp3. In the settings you can specify the bit rate.

Ok dave I have a psp and I converted (via swith as you recomended) my WMPs to MP3. The psp recognises the album name but says there aren't any tracks. Then I tried to drag the files to the psp music folder in my F:drive and it wont allow me to. Then maraculusly the tracks showed up in the psp music file F:drive in MP3 format and my psp still wouldn't recognise that I have any songs. It does take up memory like they are there but it says zero tracks. PLEASE HELP I JUST GOT IT!!!!

Thank you so so much for this information! I have been trying for about three hours trying to convert a CD so it would go onto my phone then stumbled across your page and it worked first time! Lots and lots of love and thanks xx

Switch seems a very easy to use software, but I prefer FreeRIP MP3. It is as easy to use as Switch but it also supports many advanced features, such like CD-Text (= reads tracks info from the CD itslef if available) and FLAC encoding.
If you want to try simply Google for FreeRIP or go here http://www.freerip.com

Hi Dave, thanks for the time and effort! Great site. I notice that alot of people are trying to convert protected files to other formats. I've never tried this, but I know there are programs that can capture the output of streaming media (eg youtube) in various formats to save to your computer. Could these programs be configured to capture the output of a protected file, then saved as mp3 or other format? just a thought...

Thank you for making what I considered a complicated problem solvable.

Thanks a lot! You saved me from searching the whole net for all my tracks in mp3!

Is there any songs which aren't protected by drm?
I tried Avril Lavigne and it says it is but what isn't?

useful tips for wma to mp3 conversion.

If you have Windows Media Player version 11, you can convert WMA files to MP3.

Just go to Tools/Plug-ins/Windoes Audio Converter and follow instructions.

Simple and easy.

I found a simple, small, FREE WMA to mp3 file conversion program just like I found this webpage; Googling. Its called "free mp3/wma/ogg converter" by CyberPower.

I didn't do anything with DRM, and it installed and worked as smooth, easy, and well as anybody could ask for. I run XP Pro (SP3), and I just converted some stuff that I'd accidentally ripped to WMA. It did great using it's automatic defaults, as well as when I did some of my own fixed and variable bitrate conversion settings. It makes you select your destination (it uses good defaults) that you have to click, so I'd say that even that is covered.

I don't think I'll use it much, but I think it's a good ad for it's maker.

As far as the WindowsMedia Player 11 converter plug-in goes, I'd have to go online and find a plugin and install it first. I didn't bother. For all I know this Cyberpower program can be used as a plugin, but I'm not gonna mess with it.

I just installed the video and audio converters from here and my AVG virus says they are infected! What is in these files I just installed onto my comp Dave?

Thank you so much for this!

Now I'll be able to put a music file onto audacity, while previously all i got was a 2 second long squeak, when it was wma.

I don't know why that was the case, but I'm happy that now everything works fine!

Thanks again.

Thanks, mate!
Very simple and easy to use.
:)

Bless your heart for posting this!! Very helpful. Thanks.

ok u lot. if u have vista the easiest way to convert any file to any other file you want is like this:
1. click on the song you want and right click it
2. click on properties which should be right at the bottom.
3.then you will be on the tab 'general' and on this tab you should be able to see your song and then it will have a '.' next to it then the file extension.
4. in your case the file extension should be .wma so it would say
e.g. poker face.wma
5. all you do is change the 'wma to 'mp3' and press ok.
the song will now be in mp3 format.
sorry only works for vista but it is soo easy i do it all the time.

thanx

email: badboy_firecat@hotmail.com

Dave
I have a music library of 20Gb in size/wma format and play via Zen Vision / dock. I want to play some tunes via an I pod connection in a car I have just bought. This means converting some or all of the library. I have tested converting with a handful of tunes but end up with duplicate tracks and the icon for the MP3 tunes is just that, no album covers. I think I would like to convert the full library in one go but do not have enough free disk space for a duplicate library. How can I convert in one go and be sure I also get the album art at the same time?
Thanks

Dennis, you might well be out of luck: if you want to convert your 20Gb music library en masse, then you'll need disk space to have each and every music file in the MP3 format too, e.g. an additional 20Gb.

How can I take the mp3 files that are in media player, and burn them to a disk? My car has a mp3 cd player, So I can fit a lot of music on one cd, if I can just figure out how to burn them. Media player wants to make more then one disk, as if it was still wma format. I went to a lot of trouble to convert to mp3, and now its just a waist of time.

I have a mp3 player but it only holds 14 hours. I hate to use it in my car too, cause its distracting. Any help please?

i downloaded switch then when i press convert it says"your hard drive is running low on space.would you like to abort the remaining coversions?" and i dont know either to press yes or no.ps.please help!!!!

when I converted my music from WPA to MP3 the songs are interrupted by a voice that say "AVS media demo" every 15 seconds. What can I do to stop that from happening?

Please help

how do yhou write an mp3 disc from windows media player

I truly cannot thank you enough!
You explained exactly what I needed to do step by step and it worked perfectly.
I needed to transfer the music within my Windows Media Player library via .WMA files to an MP3 format, so that I can copy them onto an SD card that is slipped into a Harley Davidson module that is plugged into my USB. WHEW!!!
Downloading the Switch software that you recommended was imperative.
Thank u sooo much!
Cha-Cha
Hendersonville, NC

I am trying to get live audio from a streaming site, www.sportsfrequency.com, to play on my iphone. I can't convert the file because it is live, and it is a windows media services file, http://mms:xxxxxx.com/, so it won't play on the iphone.

any ideas?

thank you

This worked beautifully. THANKS!

I have got a MP3 player today! I was REALLY excited! But I don't knoq how to downlod songs - I'm thick. Please help me!!!

Thank you Dave. Easy to use program I was looking for it for a long time.

I just downloaded Switch and it did exactly what I wanted it to, thanks!
http://nch.com.au/switch/

OK People.

Windows Media player has option to save files as mp3 instead of WMA as stated by others under options.

Media Player also has an option to disable the DRM protection for files. Won't work on files already ripped, but anything saved after you disable it will not be DRM protected, so you can do what you want with them.

I installed the program called Switch by NCH software. This tool worked great for converting an album that I originally ripped as a WMA file into an MP3 file for use on my jukebox. You can rip the files to the existing directory or a new target directory.

I am trying to figure a way to point it at the entire directory that I have the WMA files in to mass convert them. Right now I am opening one album folder at a time and converting it a a single thread operation.

That is taking almost as long as re-ripping them.

There was an option that said copy original directory structure. I tried using that and pointing to the top directory that the music wma file were in, but that didn't work.

Does anyone here have experience with Switch and can you give me any advice on using switch to mass convert the wma's to mp3s.?

I have the following structure:

Main Music folder

Artist1 folder
AlbumA folder
AlbumB folder
AlbumC folder

Artist2 folder
AlbumD folder
AlbumE folder

Artist3 folder
AlbumF folder
AlbumG folder
AlbumH folder
AlbumI folder
AlbumJ folder

I'd like to point Switch at the Main Music folder and click convert and have switch run until all files were converted.

Thank you . and thanks google for getting me here .

Thank you

I've read through a lot of helpful stuff here, but did not read it all. But ... I think my question is slightly diff. I have downloaded WMP files to my laptop and now want to transfer them to my MP3 player ... and I feel like I'm going crazy. This is not a matter of ripping CD's, so I'm not at all sure how to proceed. Yes, I'm over 50 if that matters. lol. Please help! TIA

there is an alternative, much easier:

How to convert WMA to MP3
http://www.softe.net/eufony_help/convert-wma-mp3.php

Windows Media series includes formats like WMA (Windows Media Audio), WMV (Windows Media Video) and ASF (Advanced Systems Format).

What's the difference between the ASF, WMV and WMA?
ASF could contain audio only or both audio and video stream. It could be encoded by a variety of different codecs just like an AVI file.
WMV contains both audio and video compressed with the Windows Media Audio and Video codecs.
WMA contains audio compressed with one of the Windows Media Audio codecs.

If you have lots of music in WMA (Windows Media Audio) format (e.g. a ton of CDs that you've ripped with Windows Media Player, they are always saved as WMA) but your MP3 player works with MP3 only, or certain corrupted WMA files causes seeking problem, you will need to convert WMA files to MP3.

Eufony supports WMA files with sampling rates as below:
8000hz, 11025hz, 16000hz, 22025hz, 32000hz, 44100hz, 48000hz

Follow the steps below to convert WMA files to MP3. Please be aware Eufony cannot convert DRM protected WMA files.

Converting WMA to MP3 using Eufony WMA MP3 Converter
http://www.softe.net/audio_converter.php

After launch Eufony, In the folders pane, click on the folder contains WMA files you want to convert to MP3. WMA files should be highlighted in violet, if not, they could be probably be DRM protected ones.
In the file list pane, select one or more WMA files.
Right click on the selected WMA files to bring up the context menu and select Convert.
In the Audio Format Conversion window, select MP3 from the Output->Format list.
If you want to change the output quality, select the Custom radio button. (optional)
If you want to change the destination folder for MP3, click on the Browse icon button to change. (optional)
Click Convert to start converting.

I cant get music on to a PHLIPS mp3 player
so how can I do that. Send me an email pleas.

JOHN 2/10/2009.
5:00 A.M

Hey Dave Taylor, I'm a non-techie kinda gal, and I just wanted to say THANK YOU!! for this page. Really helped, and I didn't have to follow thirty five steps, pay for help, stand on my head, curse out loud, and then have my files converted.

Simple and fast...if only everything were like this....

I was searching for an app to do this and nearly tore my hair
out on the search most of the time switch does the trick for me
but i had 2 20mb wma files I wanted to put on my ipod

and none of the above worked for me
not even 2 minutes ago I found an app
and converted my my files at last

heres the link

theres a free trial but that was enough to do
the job for me as I only had 2 small files to convert

if all else fails give it a go
http://blog.bitcomet.com/post/103259/

good luck

Hello Dave,

I came across your website by accident and was really impressed by it. I thought maybe you could help me here.

Recently, when I search Limewire and mp3 rocket for mp3 files, the softwares show me a list of wma files that are protected. I cannot play the files in a normal player nor can I acquire a license through my Windows Media Player. Can you tell me of a software that unlocks these files and also why does Limewire display wma files instead of the normal mp3. This never used to happen before.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards

Pierre

My computer sorta crasahed recently and all of the MP3 files that had been saved as a CD are still on the computer but it does not recognize any of the CD's. Individual files are O.K. I have an MP3 Disc with all of the files on individual CD and I attempt to save the MP3 files on the CD but the computer will not accept them. How may I do that without going through the necessary MP3 conversion and filing. I have about 40 MP3 disc with some 225 to 275 tracks on each one.
Thanks,

it didnt work =[ it says the file is protected. how can i change that ??

OMG...just downloaded switch into my computer....
IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!!!! WHY????????
When I tried convert my wma's from a cd in Switch it said I needed a program for windows...flip4mac....so I downloaded that...
They still just turn to X.....NO CONVERTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE help...what do I do??? This is essential....it's all my music since I was...well my whole life's MUSIC!!! (I'm ONLY 24 hahahhaa)

PLEASE HELP!!!!!
Will I get an email as well with the answer??? =)=)=)=)
THANK YOU

Thanks! The switch works just fine for me!

Hi Dave,

I loved the way you explained it step by step........it made it fantastically easy.

Thanks, Bushra

help, how can i disable drm from my microsoft vista windows media player so i can rip my cds to my sony phones walkman. posted 27/10/09

How do i get to switch cause i guess without that i cant do this and my music still isnt getting onto my PSP