.wma
Low riskWindows Media Audio
Microsoft's proprietary audio codec. Paired with WMV, it was the default for Windows music services and voice recorders in the 2000s.
MIME types
- audio/x-ms-wma
Category
audio
What opens this file
- Windows Media Player
- VLC
- foobar2000
How to open by OS
Windows
- Media Player, VLC, foobar2000.
Mac
- VLC, Flip4Mac.
Linux
- VLC, Audacious.
Ios
- VLC.
Android
- VLC, Poweramp.
Safety notes
- DRM-protected WMA will not play without a matching license.
Common mistakes
- Distributing WMA leaves iOS and macOS audiences stuck — re-encode to AAC or MP3.
- Some voice recorders default to WMA; long sessions produce surprisingly large files.