How to convert WMA to MP3

September 2, 2005

Hello, guys!

Did you know that you can convert your WMA music files to MP3 format? You don’t need expensive software to do it!

I’ll share with you a technique that works in both Windows and Linux.

Basically, we will use MPlayer and Lame to convert WMA to MP3. Like most Linux programs, MPlayer and Lame come free of charge. Their corresponding Windows versions are free, too.

I will assume that you are using Windows. If you’re using Linux, then adjust the steps accordingly.

Our general procedure is as follows:

1. Convert WMA to WAV.

2. Compress WAV to MP3.

Before anything else, you should have a ZIP file archiver installed. I recommend 7-zip (which, unlike WinZip, also comes free of charge). 7-zip can also handle different compression formats besides ZIP, like TAR, RAR, GZIP, and BZIP2.

Download the latest version of MPlayer from the MPlayer site. Create a folder called C:\mplayer, then extract the contents of the MPlayer ZIP file into there.

Download also the Windows essential codecs for MPlayer. Then go to the C:\mplayer folder and see if the codecs folder exists. If not, create the codecs folder in C:\mplayer. Extract the contents of the essential codecs ZIP file into C:\mplayer\codecs.

Finally, download Lame from the Lame site. (Click any of the “lame-3.96.1″ links there.) Create a folder called C:\lame, then extract also the contents of the Lame ZIP file into that folder.

Now here comes the fun part. Let’s say that you have a WMA file called stay_cueshe.wma. The file resides in the C:\music folder. You want to turn it into stay_cueshe.mp3.

First, bring out the Command Prompt and enter the following command: (Commands are in green. Do not type the blue one.)

C:> cd c:music

Next, type this command on a single line:

C:music> mplayermplayer  -vo null-ao pcm:file=stay_cueshe.wav-af resample=44100 stay_cueshe.wma

The file stay_cueshe.wav will now be created.

Finally, type this command (on a single line):

C:music> lamelame  -b 192  -h stay_cueshe.wavstay_cueshe.mp3

And we’re done! You can delete the WAV file if you want.