In this article, you will have the opportunity to walk through the best WMA players for both Windows and Mac. Kick it off right now!

Part 1: Introduction to WMA

For starters, there are a few things that you need know about WMA. WMA, the abbreviation of Windows Media Audio, is an audio format equaled to MP3 format that created by the Microsoft company. Under the usual circumstance, the WMA format is superior to MP3 format in the matter of compression and audio quality, even better than RA(Real Audio). This format can produce better audio quality even under low sample frequency. In general, the file that uses Windows Media Audio encoding format is applied to WMA as an expanded name. And there are few pure audio ASF files that use Windows Media Audio encoding format and its all contents is also apply to WMA as an expanded name.
WMA can used for a lot of encoding files with different formats. The common applications that support WMA include Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder, RealPlayer, Winamp, etc. Other platforms like Linux and software & hardware of portable device also supports this format.

Part 2: 5 Best WMA Players for Windows

There are tools to help you play WMA files on computers. But you may have problems about which one is the best one. Don't worry. Read on and you will find it out.

Top 1: Leawo Blu-ray Player

As a 100% free Blu-ray/DVD/Video Player, Leawo Blu-ray Player is the best online WMA player that you can find out on the market. To quote from TECHSPOT, "With Leawo Blue-ray Player, HD movie enjoyment on Windows 8 would be greatly improved". Such compliments are all over the places on the Internet. As a matter of fact, you can use it to playback Blu-ray/DVD disc, folder or ISO on Windows. That's where the name of 6-in-1 suite comes from. With its intuitive interface, Leawo Blu-ray Player provides comprehensive solutions for you to playback Blu-ray, DVD, ISO files, common video, HD video and audio files on Windows/Mac PC smoothly. When it comes to WMA files, Leawo Blu-ray Player can be the No.1 choice to play WMA files without any quality loss.

Top 2: RealPlayer

RealPlayer can playback your videos with quickness and good quality, which is also counted as a good WMA player. In addition, it can play RealAudio format like .ra, .rm and RealVideo format like .rm, rv, rmvb. Technically, the media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm, including MP3, MP4, QuickTime File Format, Windows Media format, and the proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats. It is absolutely one of the oldest media players in the world.

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Top 3: VLC player

As an open-source media player for Windows users, VLC cannot be ignored. It acts as a free and open-source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It supports tons of video and audio formats. In terms of audio files, it perfectly supports MPEG Layer 1/2, MP3 - MPEG Layer 3, AAC - MPEG-4 part3, Vorbis, AC3 - A/52, E-AC-3, MLP / TrueHD>3, DTS, WMA 1/2, WMA 3, FLAC, ALAC, Speex, Musepack / MPC, ATRAC 3, Wavpack, Mod, TrueAudio, APE, Real Audio, Alaw/µlaw, AMR (3GPP), MIDI, LPCM, ADPCM, QCELP, DV Audio, QDM2/QDMC, MACE. Therefore, it is very trustworthy for you to play WMA files on VLC.

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Top 4: Windows Media Player

The most familiar player to play WMA files must be Windows Media Player, which serves to play almost every kind of video and audio files, from the most known such as MP3, MP4, or WMA to others such as ACC, DivX, Xvid or MOV. As technology evolves, windows media players have been upgraded from time to time and from version to version, optimizing all the features they provide to users across the globe. Therefore, it is regarded as one of the best WMA players in the market.

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Top 5: Free WMA Player

It is a compact and efficient WMA player for users to play WMA files effortlessly, however this does not mean that it only supports WMA, instead, it supports a wide range of video and audio formats. It is really a lightweight program that suits to everybody's needs.

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Part 3: 5 Best WMA Players for Mac

Top 1: Leawo Blu-ray Player for Mac

Likewise, Leawo Blu-ray Player for Mac is a free app that supports Max OS 10.6 and above version. With easy-to-use interface and flexible switch function, it can supply much more fun to you. It plays almost everything so WMA is absolutely fine with this player. You are permitted to set up videos as you like. Have fun.

Top 2: Elmedia Player

Elmedia Player is another free Mac media player that help you to play WMA files on Mac. As advertised, it can even play video of rare formats like FLV, DAT, MKV, etc. More important, the app can provides you with smooth playback in a minute. Enjoy it.

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Top 3: VLC for Mac

As discussed above, VLC has also provided a Mac version that allows users to stream files right on your Mac. VLC for Mac OS X, same as VLC for Windows, is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. In the Mac version, all file formats are supported so WMA can be easily open and played within VLC.

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Top 4: 5KPlayer

Actually it supports both Windows and Mac so users for Mac can directly choose the Mac version to play any file. Basically, WMA is one of the most common audio formats so it can be accepted within 5KPlayer without any problem. This new style media player is integrated with HD video player, music player, AirPlay media streamer and online video downloader.

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Top 5: MPlayer for Mac

This intuitive media player for Mac adopts the simple, beautiful, and powerful interface to provide users with best-ever playback experience. Technically speaking, MPlayerX is armed by FFmpeg and MPlayer, which means it could handle any media format in the world without extra plug-ins or codec packages. Therefore, it is a capable player for WMA playback.

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Part 4: How to Play WMA Files on Windows with Leawo Blu-ray Player

Now we will show you a tutorial guide to play WMA using the most competitive WMA player - Leawo Blu-ray Player. It is extremely simple and here we go.

Step 1: Install Leawo Blu-ray Player and open it on your computer.

Click on the button below to download and install the free media player. Note that here we use Windows version for reference so we install the Windows version accordingly.

Step 2: Add WMA sources for playback.

Click on Open File to navigate to the folder where your WMA files are kept, select the target files to load them to the player. After loading completes, these files will be displayed on the right panel playlist.

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Step 3: Set up related settings.

Right click on the main interface of this software, there are several pop-out options for you to set the WMA files like video, audio, subtitles. You can set these up during playback, which could be a very point for this excellent point.

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Step 4: Enjoy the file.

Now you can enjoy the file. Note that this player can stream audio files at the best audio quality.

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Part 5: Conclusion

WMA is very common to all and it stores the audio files, which indicates a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. As far as we know, WMA is often used for streaming online music. Moreover, WMA Lossless represents a lossless codec that compresses the audio without losing quality, that being said, the media player to play WMA has to be able to retain the file quality without any loss.

Therefore, we have chosen and picked top-ranking media players for Windows and Mac, respectively here for your reference. These media players are fully capable of handling WMA files at zero quality loss. No matter free WMA player for Mac, WMA player for Win, or even online WMA player, all of them can be very handy and helpful to both beginners and advanced users. In short, with the help of these powerful media players, WMA, as well as other files, can be played back without quality loss.

Given the information above, with the power to play all kinds of video formats on Windows 8.1/8/7/XP/Vista, or Mac OS X, etc. for free, it is simple to learn that Leowo Blu-ray Player is the best WMA player both for Windows and Mac. Moreover, it allows you to set up audio, subtitle and all related parameters. Best of all, Leawo Blu-ray Player comes in totally free so not a dime is required for the excellent video/audio playback experience. If you ever need a WMA player, don't miss it.