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WMA formatting versus MP3; when is one better than the other and is there even that much of a difference? I have pondered this a couple of times as I was downloading things and uploading other things and making little studio remixes of my own music. So I decided maybe it was a good idea to put one next to the other and see what I could come up and pass that info on to someone else.
WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. So no, you can’t escape Mr. Gates no matter how you try. WMA is Microsoft’s cornerstone for audio production and distribution. Most WMAs can be found on internet sites and the like. They are generally larger files than MP3s and are considered by Microsoft to have a higher quality than any other format. The main boast of WMA is simply that with the bitrate, amount of bits per nano-second, that WMAs offer the audio accuracy should be more dead on than with MP3 files.
MP3 or MPEG3 stands for Moving Picture Experts Group-Layer 3, so yeah, MP3 works much better for marketing purposes. The idea behind MP3s was to make the files themselves smaller than WMAs. They do this by eliminating the audio range that has been deemed inaudible by the human ear. This greatly reduces the space needed for the audio file and enables more music or audio files to be stored. Currently MP3 files are used mostly in MP3 players for purchased and pirated- amen- backed-up music files.
The difference in quality between WMAs and MP3s is miniscule, even at the same bitrate, but still it can be noticeable by some. Of course a bad audio track will sound bad in both, but be more noticeable in MP3 format. WMAs win for that sort of versatility.
MP3 files are smaller by an average of 1/3 and that is an advantage to the format. On the smaller hard drives that came with the original digital music players, MP3 files were preferred because you could store more of them on a device. Now, this wouldn’t seem like as big of a deal, but consumers have grown used to MP3s and they have become the portable music standard. WMAs are used on computers and in a lot of games for Windows where hard drive space and processing speed are not really issues.
WMAs will play on “MP3″ players, mostly. You have to remember when music players first came out, space was limited. Because of the limited space, smaller files were preferred. The size comparison of the files has not changed any, but the size of the hard drives has. The thing is though; everyone is already used to dealing with MP3s, so stick with what you know.
If you have some WMAs and want to do a WMA to MP3 conversion, then feel free. There are all kinds of software packages that will enable you to do that. And you can even convert MP3s to WMAs, but I don’t know why you’d want to. Just remember, like everything else in life, when you make a copy of a copy, it’s never as good as the previous copy.
On the whole when you compare WMA to MP3 format, MP3 serves a much bigger audience and fulfills their needs just fine. While WMA format is in a lot of ways more flexible for the home record maker, the difference in playback between the two in nominal. It was a 4 to 5 split decision but when we went to the cards, MP3 won.
Zeeman Haus enjoys writing articles online on a variety of subjects. You can check out his latest website on Touch Screen Mp3 Players which provides top deals on touch screen MP3 players From Creative Labs, Coby, Visual Land and more.
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