Windows Media Audio
| Filename extension |
.wma |
|---|---|
| Internet media type | audio/x-ms-wma |
| Developed by | Microsoft |
| Initial release | August 17, 1999 |
| Type of format | Audio |
| Open format? | No |
| Free format? | No |
| Website | microsoft.com/windowsmedia at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-02-11) |
Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. Audio encoded in WMA is stored in a digital container format called Advanced Systems Format (ASF).
WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular MP3 and RealAudio codecs. WMA Pro, a newer and more advanced codec, supports multichannel and high-resolution audio. A lossless codec, WMA Lossless, compresses audio data without loss of audio fidelity (the regular WMA format is lossy). WMA Voice, targeted at voice content, applies compression using a range of low bit rates.