Convert wma in bulk?

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This is not an Apple-specific question, though it does apply to my iPad. I have a large amount of music digitally encoded (over 100gb) but sadly much of it was ripped to wma. These wma files are spread throughout my collection. What is the least labour intensive way of converting these to mp3? If I have to select each individual file it won't happen. Ideally I'd like to replace each wma file in situ with an mp3 of comparable quality. For software that definitely works well and does what I want I'll gladly pay, but I won't buy a pig in a poke.
 
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I should add that my collection is arranged by folder, and I do not want to change that arrangement. I do not use program's like iTunes which order individual files based on meta information and ignore folder structure. In general my music files have no useful meta data.
 

pigoo3

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I'm not an expert in this area...but have you tried some internet searches with the term "wma to mp3"?

This will at least get you started in the right direction.:)

- Nick
 
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Thanks - I've not found anything that does what I want. All solutions will be incredibly labour intensive.
 
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Sounds ideal! Many thanks. Now to try it.
 
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Sounds ideal for sure ... but I can't use it. For whatever reason (undisclosed) it won't accept either of my two UK-based payment cards. They say they must have valid card information, though they promise not to charge anything!

So thanks, but no thanks (to Media Human).
 
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Oh these crazy people! I've just got my card accepted - by putting in my middle name. Yet they specifically asked for my first name and my last name - no mention of a middle name. Why the heck don't they ask for what they actually want? They're a software company after all - you'd think they understand the importance of strictly precise information!
 
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chas_m

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What is this about a payment card? The program is free (per my original link).

Oh, you probably mean you donated. Good on you, and even better for sticking with it through the card issue!
 
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Although they say there's no charge, they insist on payment card details being inserted. Neither of my UK Visa cards is accepted (contrary to what I thought above) so I can't download or use this software. Clearly they want the card information for more than just possibly collecting payment if I decide to upgrade, but since they don't say there's nothing I can do about it. I smell the NSA somewhere in this.
 

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Although they say there's no charge, they insist on payment card details being inserted.

As an experiment I tried downloading the app via the link chas_m provided. I had absolutely no problems downloading it. No requests for credit card or payment details.

I smell the NSA somewhere in this.

Sorry...the "nose" is malfunctioning! No conspiracies here.;)

- Nick
 
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How weird! I'm not imagining it, honest. I'll set my VPN so I'm in the USA and try again - before I was "in" the UK.
 
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With myself "in" the USA it worked perfectly, and no card details were required!

The application itself works well, but doesn't have the automation I wanted - converted files are put together into single standard place, not adjacent to the original files as I would like. So there's still a fair amount of manual effort, because my wma files are contained in upwards of 1000 folders, and that's where I need the mp3 files afterwards.
 
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chas_m

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That's VERY weird that you got asked for payment details at all. I have a sickening feeling you got "redirected" to a scam site and your cc details are now compromised. I would watch the activity on that card SUPER carefully if I were you.

As for the filing of music -- see this is what iTunes is supposed to do so you don't have to waste all that time managing that manually. If I had a batch of WMAs to convert I would just do them all in one go, then drop the resulting MP3s into iTunes. Boom, sorted by Artist->Album->Song. So easy.
 
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Thanks for the warning! I'll watch out very carefully. But it SEEMED genuine enough. As to iTunes, I was put off it permanently when I gave a friend some music for her iPod and a lot of it was rejected by the machine as not having valid licensing information. But it was all ripped from my own CDs, which I didn't have with me so I couldn't try again. They played perfectly on VLC, which is what I prefer to use.
 
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chas_m

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While you're not supposed to pirate music and give it to other people (it's illegal and against the rules here), iTunes does NOT block such things, so I can only presume that the error was on her end or that the CD you ripped had some kind of copy-protection embedded in the tracks specifically to stop exactly what you were doing (many CDs have this now).

In either case, iTunes had nothing to do with it.
 

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