Convert WMA to ALAC — Free Online Converter
Convert Windows Media Audio (.wma) to Apple Lossless Audio Codec (.alac) online for free. Fast, secure audio conversion with no watermarks or registra...
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Upload your .wma file by dragging it into the upload area or clicking to browse.
Choose your output settings. The default settings work great for most files.
Click Convert and download your .m4a file when it's ready.
About WMA to ALAC Conversion
WMA is Microsoft's proprietary audio codec family — WMA Standard for lossy compression, WMA Pro for multichannel, and WMA Lossless for bit-perfect audio. ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), open-sourced by Apple in 2011, provides lossless compression within the M4A container and plays natively on every Apple device. ALAC typically achieves 40-60% compression compared to raw PCM.
Converting WMA to ALAC decodes the WMA audio to PCM and re-encodes it losslessly with ALAC. For WMA Standard sources, this preserves the decoded quality in a lossless container suitable for the Apple ecosystem. For WMA Lossless sources, the conversion produces a true lossless-to-lossless transfer.
Why Convert WMA to ALAC?
If you are migrating from a Windows-based music library to Apple devices, ALAC is the ideal target format. Unlike FLAC, ALAC plays natively on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, HomePod, and AirPods Max with hardware-accelerated decoding. Apple Music uses ALAC for its Lossless tier. The M4A container supports rich metadata including album art, lyrics, and chapter markers.
For WMA Lossless collections specifically, converting to ALAC preserves bit-perfect quality while gaining Apple ecosystem compatibility. Both codecs are lossless, so no quality is lost in the transfer. The resulting files play everywhere Apple hardware is used.
Common Use Cases
- Migrating a Windows Media Player WMA library to Apple devices with lossless quality
- Converting WMA Lossless collections to Apple's native lossless format
- Preparing audio for Apple Music upload where ALAC is the preferred lossless codec
- Building an iTunes/Music.app library with proper metadata from WMA sources
- Archiving WMA recordings in a future-proof open lossless format within the Apple ecosystem
How It Works
FFmpeg demuxes the ASF container, decodes WMA audio to PCM, and re-encodes using the ALAC encoder (-c:a alac) into an M4A container. For WMA Lossless sources, the decoded PCM is bit-perfect, making the entire pipeline lossless. For WMA Standard sources, the decoded PCM reflects the lossy WMA quality, which ALAC then preserves exactly. The output inherits the source sample rate and bit depth. Metadata from ASF tags is mapped to MP4 atom tags for iTunes compatibility.
Quality & Performance
ALAC encoding is lossless — it preserves every decoded sample from the WMA source. For WMA Standard inputs (lossy), the ALAC output perfectly captures what WMA preserved, artifacts included. For WMA Lossless inputs, the conversion is end-to-end lossless — the ALAC output is bit-for-bit equivalent to the original pre-compression audio. The ALAC files are larger than WMA Standard but smaller than uncompressed WAV.
Device Compatibility
| Device | WMA | ALAC |
|---|---|---|
| Windows PC | Native | Partial |
| macOS | Partial | Native |
| iPhone/iPad | Partial | Native |
| Android | Partial | Partial |
| Linux | Partial | Partial |
| Web Browser | No | No |
Recommended Settings by Platform
Spotify
Resolution: N/A
Bitrate: 320 kbps
OGG Vorbis preferred
Apple Music
Resolution: N/A
Bitrate: 256 kbps
AAC format required
SoundCloud
Resolution: N/A
Bitrate: 128 kbps
Lossless FLAC/WAV for best quality
Podcast
Resolution: N/A
Bitrate: 128 kbps
MP3 mono for spoken word
Tips for Best Results
- 1Prioritize converting WMA Lossless files first — they transfer to ALAC with zero quality loss and gain full Apple compatibility
- 2Map ASF metadata tags to MP4 atoms during conversion to preserve your library organization in iTunes/Music.app
- 3For WMA Standard at 128 kbps, the ALAC output is larger than the WMA but guarantees no further quality degradation during future editing
- 4Use batch conversion to migrate an entire WMA library in one operation
- 5Verify album art transfers correctly — some WMA cover art formats may need special handling during the metadata mapping
Related Conversions
WMA to ALAC is the cleanest migration path from Windows Media to the Apple ecosystem. WMA Lossless sources convert with zero quality loss, while WMA Standard sources are preserved at their decoded quality.