Convert WMA to OGG — Free Online Tool
Convert WMA files to OGG Vorbis entirely in your browser — no uploads, no software installs. This conversion replaces Microsoft's proprietary wmav2 codec with the open-source Vorbis codec inside Xiph's OGG container, making your audio fully compatible with open-source media players and Linux-based systems.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your WMA file here
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Free — no uploads, no signups. Your files never leave your browser.
Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
WMA files store audio encoded with Microsoft's proprietary wmav2 (or older wmav1) codec inside a Windows Media container. During conversion, FFmpeg fully decodes the WMA audio to raw PCM, then re-encodes it using the libvorbis encoder into an OGG container. This is a full transcode — not a remux — because OGG does not support WMA codec streams. The default quality setting of -q:a 4 targets a variable bitrate of roughly 128–160 kbps, which is broadly comparable to the WMA source's typical 128k bitrate. Because both the source and output are lossy formats, this conversion involves a generation loss: audio is decoded from one lossy format and re-encoded into another, meaning some subtle quality degradation is unavoidable. Any metadata tags embedded in the WMA file (artist, album, title) will be mapped to OGG's Vorbis comment metadata fields where FFmpeg supports the translation.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg command-line tool, which is the engine running inside this browser tool via WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm). The same binary handles both the WMA decoding and OGG Vorbis encoding in a single pass. |
-i input.wma
|
Specifies the input file — in this case a WMA file encoded with Microsoft's wmav2 (or wmav1) codec. FFmpeg reads the Windows Media container and demuxes the audio stream for decoding. |
-c:a libvorbis
|
Sets the audio codec to libvorbis, Xiph's open-source Vorbis encoder. This replaces the proprietary wmav2 stream with a patent-free Vorbis stream suitable for the OGG container. |
-q:a 4
|
Sets the Vorbis variable bitrate quality level to 4 on a scale of 0–10, targeting approximately 128–160 kbps. This is a sensible default that roughly matches the perceived quality of a typical 128k WMA source without producing unnecessarily large files. |
output.ogg
|
Defines the output filename and tells FFmpeg to write an OGG container. The .ogg extension causes FFmpeg to automatically mux the libvorbis audio stream into Xiph's OGG format, which is the standard container for Vorbis audio. |
Common Use Cases
- Replacing WMA files in a music library with open-format OGG Vorbis files to play on Linux desktops, Android devices, or players like Rockbox that don't license WMA decoding
- Removing Microsoft DRM concerns by converting legally unencumbered WMA files to an open format before archiving or sharing
- Preparing audio for upload to platforms or web apps that accept OGG Vorbis but reject proprietary WMA containers
- Converting old WMA downloads from early-2000s digital music stores into OGG so they can be played in Chromium-based browsers via the HTML5 audio element
- Batch-converting a podcast or audiobook library from WMA to OGG for playback on open-source media servers like Navidrome or Jellyfin
- Stripping WMA's closed-ecosystem association from corporate training audio files and repackaging them in OGG for distribution on an intranet that uses open-source tools
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, to a small but real degree. Both WMA (wmav2) and OGG Vorbis (libvorbis) are lossy codecs, so converting between them requires decoding the WMA audio to raw PCM first and then re-encoding it as Vorbis — a process called generation loss. The result is audibly transparent at the default -q:a 4 setting for most listeners, but it will never be identical to the original pre-WMA recording. If you have access to the original lossless source (WAV, FLAC, etc.), it is always preferable to encode OGG from that instead.
OGG Vorbis is natively supported on Linux and Android, and plays in all modern browsers via HTML5. On Windows and macOS, native OS media players (Windows Media Player, QuickTime) have historically had limited or no OGG support, but VLC, foobar2000, and any Chromium or Firefox-based browser will play OGG files without issue. If your target audience is primarily Windows users relying on built-in apps, MP3 or AAC may be a more universally compatible choice than OGG.
FFmpeg automatically maps standard WMA metadata fields (like WM/AlbumTitle, Author, and Title) to their equivalent Vorbis comment fields (ALBUM, ARTIST, TITLE) during the conversion. Most common tags transfer correctly. However, WMA-specific metadata like DRM license information, Windows Media Player rating fields, or custom Microsoft-proprietary tags may not have direct Vorbis comment equivalents and could be dropped. You should verify your tags in a tool like MusicBrainz Picard or Kid3 after conversion.
Adjust the -q:a value in the command. The libvorbis quality scale runs from 0 (lowest, roughly 64 kbps) to 10 (highest, roughly 500 kbps), with 4 being the default (roughly 128–160 kbps). For example, use -q:a 6 for higher quality (around 192–224 kbps) or -q:a 2 for smaller files (around 80–96 kbps). The full command at quality 6 would be: ffmpeg -i input.wma -c:a libvorbis -q:a 6 output.ogg
Yes, on Linux or macOS you can use a shell loop: for f in *.wma; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "${f%.wma}.ogg"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.wma) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "%~nf.ogg". This processes every WMA file in the current directory and saves matching OGG files alongside them. The browser-based tool on this page processes one file at a time, so the FFmpeg command is particularly valuable for bulk conversions.
No. DRM-protected WMA files (common with purchases from early Microsoft PlaysForSure stores) cannot be decoded by FFmpeg or by this browser tool, because the DRM encryption prevents access to the underlying audio stream. FFmpeg will typically report an error such as 'DRM-protected content' and produce no output. Only WMA files you own outright and that are free of DRM restrictions can be converted. If your WMA plays without any license check in standard players, it is likely unencrypted and safe to convert.
Technical Notes
WMA's default codec, wmav2, is a proprietary Microsoft format with no support in most open-source or Linux-native pipelines without additional licensing workarounds. OGG Vorbis (libvorbis) uses a variable bitrate (VBR) quality model rather than a fixed bitrate, so the -q:a 4 default maps to a target quality level rather than a guaranteed kbps figure — expect roughly 128–160 kbps in practice, which is well-matched to a typical 128k WMA source. The OGG container supports multiple audio tracks and chapter markers (making it useful for audiobooks), though a converted WMA file will have only one audio track and no chapters unless you add them separately. OGG Vorbis does not support DRM, which is a fundamental design decision — the format is intentionally open and unencumbered by patents. Compared to the alternative OGG codecs (Opus and FLAC), libvorbis is the best general-purpose choice for music converted from WMA: Opus is optimized for speech and low-latency streaming, while FLAC would be lossless but cannot improve quality already lost by the WMA encoding. File sizes after conversion are typically similar to or slightly larger than the WMA source at matching perceived quality levels, since Vorbis and wmav2 have comparable compression efficiency.