I’m definitely going crazy here. I have a ton of CDs that I’ve ripped with Windows Media Player 10, but they’re all apparently in WMA format, not the MP3 format that my new Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) needs for me to listen to them. I checked and there’s no “save as” capability in WMP, so how the heck do I fix this problem?
This is an astonishingly common question for Sony PSP owners, a question sufficiently common that even Sony’s heard your complaints: the latest version of the PSP firmware (version 2.6) includes the ability to play WMA (Windows Media, Audio) files directly on the PSP. I haven’t tried it, and I have heard that some people are anxious that you have to be online when you accept the terms of the player upgrade, so your preference can be registered with The Man, but that’s certainly one solution.
But there’s another way to fix your audio files, a solution that works with all MP3-compatible players and will even let you then import your previously ripped CDs into Apple’s iTunes. That’s to use an audio conversion program, and whether you’re a Mac or Windows person, there are oodles of ’em available.
For this article, I picked out the freeware application Switch for Windows, developed by a team of Australian programmers. (don’t like that? Try the 24/7 supported application Smart Audio Converter instead)
The first thing I did was to rip a new music CD, Dave Grusin’s The Gershwin Collection, with Windows Media Player. It looked like this as it was being ripped by WMP:
Now, with that album ripped, I start up the Switch program and get, well, a blank window:
Click on “Add Folder” and I can select the newly ripped CD by looking in My Documents\My Music:
Almost ready to go. The last step, one that’s not obvious when you first start working with Switch, is to pick the output format of your choice, as shown here:
I’ve chosen MP3, but you can see the program supports a wide range of options!
With the audio input files selected, the output format selected, and the destination disk specified, all that’s left to do is select all the files to convert and click on the “Convert” button on the top right. You’ll get a progress window like this:
When it indicates that the conversion is complete, voila, you now have MP3 audio files from your WMA format files. Quickly and easily done.
There are also Mac utilities for converting audio file formats, as I write about here: Converting WMA to MP3 on Mac OS X
Hii.. i downloaded this as my music appeared as windows media file. and everytime i dragged music into it to change into mp3. it wouldnt work and kept coming up with crosses. please help me !
I have a MP3 player that is powered by USB only. I download all my music from UTube through realplayer. At first they were through media player, now they are MP3 audio and I have to convert them first or they are flash videos and won’t play. Anyway, the player does not seem to acknowledge the original songs, will I have to download them all again? Thanks for this wonderful service.
hi please help, i have tryed to convert my cd songs from medis player with the switch programme and it keeps sayin file is protectedby DRM. is there anything i can do?
thank you heidi.
thanx so much for providing easy instructions & a link to a freeware app to do it all with it! this is the best answer i’ve ever gotten for this question. thank you!!!
It’s a download, Michael. Go here and you’ll be able to get the software and try it out: http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
how do you get a switch
Hi Dave,
I tried to convert some WMA files which I bought on Napster into mp3 files using Switch but it didn’t work because of DRM. Is there a way around it? Thanks.
Dave, this is a great program. Thanks for putting me onto it! Exactly what I’ve been looking for. Why don’t the “big boys” include these cool features in their own stuff?
Dave, I was under the impression that the programs that were utilizing “lame encoder” were the best to convert. Am I mistaken and do you have any “front end’s” you could suggest that do utilize it?
Will this program to change from Windows Media Player to MP3 work on Windows 7? If not, is there another program to do this? I have them on the computer, but want to play them on my CD player.
Hi, I needed to change a wma. to mp3. and followed your advice to download Switch. Spybot Search and Destroy didn’t like that software at all and suggested it be removed. well, I removed it. Now what? Is there another way of changing the format so I can email to friends who cannot seem to play the wma. ?
Thanks
Dee
Very Good Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!
hey,
Thought I’d say cheers and how good this site has been! all my music files are in wmp format and wouldnt play on my motorola dext as needed mp3. found this site right away and got to work. Easy as that. so thank you!!!! 🙂
Hey that australian mp3 converter worked like a charm.
Thanks for the link!
Thank you Dave!
in WINmedia there is now an option to rip all CDs to a peticular format
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow
Hi Dave, to add to my previous query, I am unable to burn onto CD those files on my WM Player, although they play fine on the player itself. Thanks, Ian
Hi Dave
I have audio files in the library of my Windows Media Player which, after a search, I can find nowhere else on my computer. I want to access and transfer these files using Switch, to Mp3, but cannot transfer them out of the WM Player so Switch can pick them up. Can you help?
hey-
does this take up more space on my computer?
i converted some files to mp3, but the wma’s are still there, so do i have double the music now?
i don’t wanna overload this thing.
I have purchased a preowned car which ahs a audio player in it. It plays the audio cds but not the MP3 songs. Is there any hardware which can convert this audio player in MP3 player as Audio CD stores only 8-10 songs whereas MP3 can have more than 100 songs and I have a buch of them. Please help
Thanks much!
A colleague asking how to convert from WMA to MP3 and this looks like a good one to work with Windows Media Player. So asking my colleague to try this 😛
flat program= downloaded in few seconds.
worked first try
thanks!
thank you very much 😀
How do i get to switch cause i guess without that i cant do this and my music still isnt getting onto my PSP
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
Hi Dave,
I loved the way you explained it step by step……..it made it fantastically easy.
Thanks, Bushra
Thanks! The switch works just fine for me!
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
it didnt work =[ it says the file is protected. how can i change that ??
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,
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
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
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 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
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’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
Thank you
Thank you . and thanks google for getting me here .
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.
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 just downloaded Switch and it did exactly what I wanted it to, thanks!
http://nch.com.au/switch/
Thank you Dave. Easy to use program I was looking for it for a long time.
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!!!
This worked beautifully. THANKS!
I am trying to get live audio from a streaming site, http://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
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
how do yhou write an mp3 disc from windows media player