Free online WMA to M3U8 converter

Programs that accept UTF-8 M3U8 playlists, such as streaming players and media servers, may reject a folder of WMA files because WMA is an audio codec/container rather than a playlist format. Creating an M3U8 playlist can organize the files, but broad playback usually requires transcoding the WMA audio to AAC or MP3 first.

What the WMA format is

WMA, or Windows Media Audio, is an audio format developed by Microsoft. WMA files commonly contain lossy compressed audio and use the .wma extension; some variants support lossless compression or digital rights management. Windows Media Player and older Windows-based recording, music-management, and editing software commonly create or export WMA files. You may also encounter them in older music libraries, downloaded audio, and legacy voice or meeting recordings.

What the M3U8 format is

M3U8 is a UTF-8 text playlist format, not an audio codec and not an audio container. It stores paths or URLs to media files, usually one entry per line, and may include metadata lines beginning with #EXT. An M3U8 playlist can reference complete audio files for local playback or segmented media streams for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).

Its UTF-8 encoding handles non-ASCII filenames more reliably than the older M3U convention. M3U8 is useful for media players, music servers, web applications, and HLS-compatible devices, but the player must support the codecs used by the referenced files. An M3U8 file does not merge, compress, or reduce the size of the WMA files.

How to actually convert WMA to M3U8

There are two valid approaches, depending on the required playback compatibility.

Create a playlist that references the existing WMA file

Use this option when the target player explicitly supports WMA:

printf '#EXTM3U\ntrack.wma\n' > playlist.m3u8

Place playlist.m3u8 in the same directory as track.wma. For multiple files, use relative paths so the playlist remains portable:

printf '#EXTM3U\ntrack-one.wma\ntrack-two.wma\n' > playlist.m3u8

On Windows, create a UTF-8 text file named playlist.m3u8, put #EXTM3U on the first line, and add each WMA filename on its own line. Avoid absolute paths if the playlist will be moved to another computer or server.

Transcode the audio, then create the M3U8 playlist

For browser, mobile, and streaming compatibility, use FFmpeg to convert each WMA file to AAC in an M4A container:

ffmpeg -i input.wma -c:a aac -b:a 192k output.m4a

For MP3-based systems, use:

ffmpeg -i input.wma -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k output.mp3

After conversion, create a playlist containing the new files:

printf '#EXTM3U\noutput.m4a\n' > playlist.m3u8

For a directory of WMA files on macOS or Linux, this shell loop converts them to AAC and writes their names to an M3U8 playlist:

printf '#EXTM3U\n' > playlist.m3u8
for file in *.wma; do
  name="${file%.wma}"
  ffmpeg -i "$file" -c:a aac -b:a 192k "$name.m4a"
  printf '%s\n' "$name.m4a" >> playlist.m3u8
done

For a no-installation option, you can use the free converter on 101convert.com to convert the file on the website. Check that the resulting download is an M3U8 playlist rather than a single audio file, because those are different outputs.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

Adding WMA filenames to an M3U8 causes no audio-quality change because it does not alter the source files. Transcoding WMA to AAC or MP3 decodes and re-encodes the audio, so it can reduce quality; use the original source when available, and avoid repeated conversions.

A bitrate such as 192k is suitable for general music playback, while speech often needs less. AAC in an M4A container is widely supported, but some HLS implementations require AAC segments rather than a playlist that points to standalone M4A files. If the target is an HLS server, the server must package the audio into segments and generate the required M3U8 manifest; simply renaming a WMA file or placing it in a playlist does not perform HLS conversion.