
WMA is not a natively supported format on macOS. A WMA player for Mac is required to open these files. And on Windows, you may want to try alternatives to the default media player. This article contains information about some popular media players for Windows and macOS, including their features and advantages. With this info, it will be easy to choose a third-party app for all your WMA needs.
Elmedia Player is a WMA player for macOS that can also open many other media formats, including WAV, FLAC, WMV, AVI, and FLV. Elmedia Player opens and exports .m3u playlists, and has a 10-band equalizer. There is an audio visualization option with several different modes. Playback can be slowed down or sped up.
Elmedia Player can make full use of AirPlay and DLNA devices, streaming to a wide variety of WiFi dongles and Smart TVs with high sound quality. This makes it one of the best music players for Mac. It’s also compatible with AC3/DTS, for those hi-def audio setups. With its large set of lossless codecs, Elmedia Player can definitely be called a Mac FLAC player. The basic version of Elmedia Player is free, and it’s worth trying.
Open the app and add your music to the playlist:
Supported audio formats: MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, M4A, AAC, WMA, MKA, AIFF, APE, and others.
Supported OS: macOS
Price: free version available, PRO with added features costs $19.95
Mac App Store Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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VLC Media Player is available on Mac and Windows for free and it can open almost any audio format, including WMA. Despite being totally free and open-source, VLC includes a large amount of sound settings, including an equalizer, pitch adjustment, compressor, and spatializer. An audio visualizer is included. Playlists can be imported and exported. VLC can play tracks from the hard drive, streams, radio channels, or remote files over FTP. DLNA, AirPlay, and Chromecast devices are supported via the Playback > Renderer option.
Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, Vorbis, AC3, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, etc.
Supported OS: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Price: free
Trustpilot Rating: 2.2 out of 5
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5KPlayer by Digiarty is a WMA player Mac and Windows app. It’s able to stream over DLNA and AirPlay. There’s also an equalizer with presets. Playlists can be opened and created in the internal 5KPlayer library, but not exported. This player combines many different pieces of software in one shell. For instance, 5KPlayer includes a converter and a simple video editor. Sadly, the interface is not very convenient. It’s also a bit pushy with the requests to register, which, when combined with the fact that the app is free, create a cause for suspicion.
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, AC3, OGG.
Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: freeware
Trustpilot Rating: 3.7 out of 5
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Vidmore Player’s features are centered around DVDs. It can load Blu-rays and open .iso files directly, without mounting. This is useful if you have a collection of ripped music CDs, since you won’t have to convert them or divide them into separate music tracks. Vidmore is totally compatible with surround sound and technologies such as Dolby Digital. However, it doesn’t have a built-in equalizer, which is not great for a WMA player. In addition, the player is prohibitively expensive - the price of the lifetime license is $59.95 at the moment of writing.
Supported audio formats: ISO, FLAC, OGG, MP3 WMA, MKA, AAC, AIFF, and others.
Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: $59.95
G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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Cisdem Player for Windows and Mac is simple and does the bare minimum that’s needed from a media player. It has a built-in playlist with shuffle and repeat functions, fast forward/rewind, volume controls, and that’s about it. It does not include an equalizer. On the other hand, the cost for this WMA player is pretty low at $9.99.
Supported audio formats: WAV, OGG, FLAC, MKA, and others.
Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: $9.99
Mac App Store Rating: 4.4 out of 5
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KMPlayer is a video and audio WMA player for Windows and mobile platforms. It integrates streaming services. In addition to many audio formats, including WMA, it can open mounted DVDs and Blu-ray discs. KMPlayer comes with an equalizer and playback speed controls. It also includes a normalization filter, but we don't recommend normalizing high-fidelity audio, since that tends to degrade the quality. KMPlayer is free, but it's filled to the brim with ads. Which are, by the way, listed as a positive feature on their homepage.
Supported audio formats: WMA, MP3, FLAC, WAV, etc.
Supported OS: Windows, iOS, Android
Price: free, but with ads
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Windows Media Player mainly plays Microsoft proprietary formats. In that regard, it’s way more restricted than third-party players. For instance, it can’t play MKV or OGG, which aren’t all that rare.
Despite the claims, you can’t simply change WMA to MP3 with Windows Media Player. Any MP3 conversion is only possible from a CD, and burning files to a CD is not worth it when compared to any other solution.
Supported audio formats: WAV, FLAC, CDA, M4A, AAC, MP3, MID.
Supported OS: Windows 11
Price: free, built into the system
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MusicBee is a Windows-exclusive WMA player with an open developer API. It has dozens of add-ons available, including UI skins, visualizer modules, and various functional plugins. The player allows users to choose between a 10-band and a 15-band equalizer, and has other audio tools, such as logarithmic scaling and surround sound upmixing. This community-built app is totally free, and it’s very advanced, even when compared with some paid ones.
Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, M4A, ALAC, FLAC, WMA, WAV, Opus, APE, others.
Supported OS: Windows 10, 11
Price: free
TechRadar Rating: 5 out of 5
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If you don’t want to look for a WMA player for Mac, there’s a temporary solution. Try using an online converter service - most of these are free. Convertio is one of these websites. Make sure to choose a format that can be opened by the default player, such as MP3. This is not a viable solution if you have many audio files, since converting each one by hand is a bit slow and tedious.
Most mainline players are already compatible with WMA, so there’s no real need to look for a specific category. We recommend trying general-purpose apps like Elmedia Player. Sometimes, even slight differences in interface design can make or break the player. Try choosing your WMA player based on how convenient and simple it is to use.
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