Windows Media Audio (WMA) was developed by Microsoft and is an audio data compression technology. WMA is generally used to refer to the audio file format or the audio codecs. A part of the Windows Media framework, the proprietary technology consists of four distinct codecs that include WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless and WMA Voice. The original WMA codec was developed as a competitor to the MP3 and RealAudio codecs. The more advanced codec, WMA Pro, supports multichannel and high resolution audio while the WMA Lossless compresses audio data without the loss of audio fidelity.
WMA Voice is however involved in voice content and applies compression with the use of low bit rates.
The first codec was referred to as MSAudio 4.0 that was officially released as Windows Media Audio. Over the years, newer versions of WMA have become available and though earlier versions of Windows Media Player played WMA files, WMA file creation support was made possible only with the seventh version. The WMA files are encapsulated in the Advanced Systems Format container format. The container format features a single audio track in one of the four WMA codecs. The container can optionally support DRM (digital rights management).
The audio encoded with WMA provides better sound than MP3 at the same bit rate, as claimed by Microsoft. Also, they claim that audio encoded with WMA at lower bit rates sound better than MP3 at higher bit rates. WMA compression formats can be played using Windows Media Player, ALLPlayer, VLC media player, RealPlayer, MPlayer, Winamp, Zune Software and other software media players.
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