How to replace WMAs with MP3s

Question

Around 60% of my music collection has been ripped using Windows Media Player and thus in WMA format. I want to convert them to MP3 so they are more compatible with other music players.

Is there a way to replace the WMA with and MP3, not duplicate to an MP3 without losing quality?

Answer 1

We'll do a little trick to create a WMA to MP3 "converter" for you to ease your conversion.
First of all, download FFMpeg. It's free, and you can get it here.

1) If your files are in one directory, you can write in batch file:

FOR %I IN (*.wma) DO <path to ffmpeg.exe> -i "%I" "%I.mp3"  
ren *.wma.mp3 ????????????????????????????????????????.mp3
delete *.wma

Now copy that batch file to directory where are placed your WMA files and run it.

2) If you want to select them and convert manually (with drag'n'drop), then write in the batch file:

ffmpeg -i %1 -ab 32 %1.mp3  
ren *.wma.mp3 ????????????????????????????????????????.mp3
delete %1

Now your "converter" is ready. Drag and drop your files on it to convert files.

Answer 2

I wouldn't use MP3. MP3 is a lossy compression format, meaning that you lose quality when you use it. Especially if you encode files that have already been encoded once, they will suffer from generation loss.

I'd go with something like AAC if your media player supports it (all Apple devices do). AAC is also lossy, but provides better quality than MP3.

If you're using a Zune, keep them as WMA because they can play those.