The WMA MP3 War

WMA as opposed to MP3 formats. Really, this depends on the individual a lot believe it or not. Not too long ago I was trying to figure out the difference myself and I just couldn't come up with any clear answers. I mean really, the format is the difference, but what does that mean exactly?

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.

MP3s are smaller files and have slowly become the standard over time, so that is something that definitely works in the MP3's advantage. WMAs are still mostly used on computers, where bitrate and to an extent, size is not as much of an issue as a personal player. So on a player it's advantage MP3 for storage capacity saved. On computer it's WMA for versatility and performance.

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.