Windows Media Audio

Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary compressed audio file format used by Microsoft. It was initially a competitor to the MP3 format, but with the introduction of Apple's iTunes Music Store, it has positioned itself as a competitor to the advanced audio coding format used by Apple. It is part of the Windows Media framework. An initial reason for the development of WMA might have been that MP3 technology is patented and has to be licensed from Thomson for inclusion in the Microsoft Windows operating system.However Windows Media Player 10 for Windows XP now also includes MP3 encoding as an option for CD ripping.

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