How to Convert Any Type of Audio in Windows Media Player

Using a CD to Convert Audio

1. Insert a blank CD into your computer. Windows Media Player technically can't convert audio from one format to another. To do this, you'll need to burn audio files to an audio CD. You can then use Windows Media Player to rip the audio CD and save the audio files to WMA, MP3, WAV, ALAC, or FLAC formats.

   1. It's best to use a CD-RW for this step since you can burn, erase, and re-burn a CD-RW hundreds of times before needing to replace it.
   2. If your computer doesn't have a DVD drive built into it, you'll need to buy and attach a USB DVD drive.

2. Open Start

   . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

3. Type in windows media player. This will search your computer for the Windows Media Player program.

4. Click Windows Media Player. It's the white "Play" button on a blue-and-orange background that's at the top of the Start window. Doing so opens Windows Media Player.

   1. If you don't see Windows Media Player here, it isn't installed on your computer. WMP is installed if you clean-install Windows 10 or if you upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.^[1]

5. Click the Music tab. This option is on the left side of the Windows Media Player window. A list of your Windows Media Player's music will open.

6. Click the Burn tab. It's in the upper-right side of the window. This will open the Burn pane on the right side of the window.

7. Add music to the CD. Click and drag each song that you want to convert into the Burn pane. You can select up to 80 minutes of music for most CDs.

   1. If the music that you want to add isn't already in Windows Media Player, find on your computer the music files in question and then click and drag them into the Burn section of Windows Media Player.

8. Click Start burn. It's at the top of the Burn section. Your music will begin burning onto the CD.

9. Wait for the burn to finish. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Once the CD is burned, you can enable CD ripping so you can rip it back to your computer in the desired format.

10. Click the Organize tab. It's in the upper-left side of the Windows Media Player window. A drop-down menu will appear.

11. Click Options…. Clicking it prompts a window to open.

12. Click the Rip Music tab. It's at the top of the window.

13. Select a save location. Click Change near the top of the Rip Music page, then select a folder and click OK.

14. Select a file format. Click the "Format" drop-down box in the middle of the page, then click the file format that you want to use.

    1. Popular formats include the universal MP3 format and the lossless WAV format.
    2. Any format labeled "Windows Media" is only compatible with Windows, so avoid these options if you're trying to convert your audio files into something that you can play anywhere.

15. Adjust the quality. Click and drag the slider at the bottom of the page to the right to increase each file's prospective quality if necessary. Keep in mind that increasing quality will also increase the file size for each music file.

16. Click Apply and then OK.

17. Insert the CD you ripped. Your computer will treat it like a normal audio CD. You can go ahead and hit the pause button so it stops playing.

18. Click Rip CD. It's at the top of the Windows Media Player window. Clicking it will prompt Windows Media Player to begin copying the CD's files onto your computer in your specified file format. This will usually take between 10 and 30 seconds per song. Once the rip is complete, the files will appear in the directory you selected in the desired format.