Windows Media Player can store and organize your music library. If you want to rip your audio CDs (copy the audio tracks to your computer), you have control over which file format they’re saved as and the copied song’s quality. By default, Windows Media Player saves all ripped songs as WMA with a quality of 128 Kbps. If you’d like your songs saved in a different format or quality, follow the steps below.

Changing the file format and quality

To set the format and quality of ripped audio CD tracks in Windows Media Player, follow these steps.

  • Open Windows Media Player.

  • How do I open Windows Media Player?

  • Press the Alt to show the file menu.

  • Select Tools from the drop-down menu that appears.

  • In the Tools menu, click Options…

  • In the Options window, click the Rip Music tab (A).

  • Select your preferred format from the drop-down menu (B) and drag the Audio quality slider to adjust the bitrate. (C)

  • Click Apply (D) and then OK (E).

  • How to rip an audio CD with Windows Media Player.
  • How to make Windows Media Player rip CDs automatically.
  • How to determine the version of Windows Media Player.
  • Programs used to rip or copy audio CDs to a computer.
  • Windows Media Player cannot rip one or more tracks from the CD.
  • Windows Media Player help and support.