What about my WMA files?

I've got about 22+ gigs of music on an external HDD currently, all of which is in (DRM Removed) .WMA format. Can I import/convert the files via iTunes? (If I can I may make the switch to iPod, [from Zune]) Or do I need to use a 3rd party application (Like Switch) to convert all the files.

Also, when I go to import music that I do have in mp3 format, I can only do it one song at a time, and am unable to get the album art/info.

Any online guides that can help me through this debacle?

[edit]
Also, if I do have to use a 3rd party app to convert the files, is there one that will automatically delete the old files after it's converted them?

iTunes on Windows can convert them - but I don't think iTunes on Mac can read .wma files.

If you install Flip4Mac you can read WMA files (and convert them if you buy it).

http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm

jsgreen said:

iTunes on Windows can convert them - but I don't think iTunes on Mac can read .wma files.

Click to expand...

That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Making iTunes on windows viable for people switching from Mac to PC, but not vice versa.

Joe Redifer said:

If you install Flip4Mac you can read WMA files (and convert them if you buy it).

http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm

Click to expand...

I have Flip4Mac, (haven't tested yet) but does that mean I can play my .wma files via iTunes now?

AJcorex said:

I've got about 22+ gigs of music on an external HDD currently, all of which is in (DRM Removed) .WMA format.

Click to expand...

I had to bite the bullet on this one, so I feel your pain. I had 18 gigs of CDs that I spend a week ripping to .m4a on the new iMac. Good luck with the downloaded .wma.

AJcorex said:

I have Flip4Mac, (haven't tested yet) but does that mean I can play my .wma files via iTunes now?

Click to expand...

They will play in Quicktime. Let me see if that carries over in to iTunes as well..

**checks**

Nope! Quicktime only. You may want to try some other solutions to convert WMA files (in order from best to worst):

Easy WMA

Music Man

Windows Media Player

Some of those might be shareware or no longer supported. Next time, go with MP3 which is supported by everything. Microsoft has very little interest in having WMV and WMA files playable on the Mac platform.

I can understand the reason for wma files as you get a smaller file size for the same quality.

I had to change all my wma's to mp3 when i switched.

Download Switch and install http://www.nch.com.au/switch/plus.html

Run it, and select which files you want to convert from wma to mp3/etc, it will then prompt you to download Flip4mac and away you go.

This is free by the way...

The Physicist said:

Download Switch and install http://www.nch.com.au/switch/plus.html

Run it, and select which files you want to convert from wma to mp3/etc, it will then prompt you to download Flip4mac and away you go.

This is free by the way...

Click to expand...

Well I tried this, (just with 1 album as a test) and I successfully converted the .wma to .mp3 no problem, but when I imported the album into iTunes, it wouldn't let me retrieve the album info, or get the album art. Also, it would only let me import ONE song at a time.

I'm almost positive i'm doing something wrong as far as iTunes goes. And it took about 5 minutes to convert one album, I am not looking forward to converting 22ish gigs of music

AJcorex said:

Well I tried this, (just with 1 album as a test) and I successfully converted the .wma to .mp3 no problem, but when I imported the album into iTunes, it wouldn't let me retrieve the album info, or get the album art. Also, it would only let me import ONE song at a time.

I'm almost positive i'm doing something wrong as far as iTunes goes. And it took about 5 minutes to convert one album, I am not looking forward to converting 22ish gigs of music

Click to expand...

Ah yes I have that problem too - it just seems to convert each song individually and not group them together as albums. Maybe someone with some iTunes experience could point us in the right direction?!

Could you try the free Video utility iSquint? I have a feeling it MAY convert just audio streams if that is what is passed to it...worth a shot. And it supports batch processing extremely well.