We all love music, don’t we? Music helps us stay happier. Listening to music after an intense workout or exercise helps us feel relaxed and calmer. Music can serve as a distraction from a bad mood, negative thoughts, worries and uncertainties.

But managing a large music library may not be an easy task. While downloading new music, you might have faced the issue of unsupported file format. Thankfully, you can easily convert your music to a supported file format using many freeware and open-source solutions.

Convert a Music to Another Format in Windows 11 & Earlier

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a free, open-source and cross-platform media player. It shouldn’t be mistaken as an ordinary media player. It can convert your media to other formats, stream content from a streaming server, add subtitles, play DVDs and Blu-rays, record your screen, and supports basic video editing.

It is also an audio-video converter. VLC Media Player can be a handy tool if you’re looking to convert your music to a compatible format, or reduce its size.

VLC Media Player supports a long list of audio-video file formats. The additional file conversion options in VLC offer you to explore additional codecs, if required.

Steps:

1. Download and install VLC Media Player.
2. Click on the Media menu, select Convert/ Save. Alternatively, you may use the shortcut Ctrl + R.
3. In the new Open Media dialog, click on the File tab.
4. Click on Add.
5. Select the music file you want to convert.
6. You can add multiple music files you want to convert.
7. Click on Convert/ Save.
8. Select the Convert option.
9. In the Profile drop-down box, select your desired output format.
10. Set an output file path in the Destination file textbox.
11. Click on Start.

Audacity

Audacity is a free, open-source and cross-platform audio editor. It is considered a strong alternative to premium tools like Adobe Audition, Apple Logic Pro, and countless others. Audacity provides fantastic audio editing and recording features in addition to a huge library of plugins.

1. Download and install Audacity.
2. Click on the File menu.
3. Select Open.
4. Select the music file you want to convert.
5. Your file will be loaded.
6. Click on File, select Export.
7. Select the new file format from the drop-down box.
8. Click on Save.

Bonus Tip: Find Duplicate Music by Music Tags

Duplicate music can have a negative impact on your listening experience. It can be frustrating hearing the same song repeatedly. Moreover, such duplicate music can shrink your storage capacity.

It’s easy to find duplicate music by numerous tags (album, artist, bit rate, year, etc.). DupInOut Duplicate Finder does a brilliant job finding and removing duplicate music. You can also find duplicate music by calculating file hashes.

Steps:

1. Download DupInOut Duplicate Finder.
2. Click on the New Search tab.
3. Click on Add, and browse your Music folder (C:\Users\UserName\Music).
4. Click on the Music Search toggle button.
5. You can view and change the music tags used to identify your duplicate music.
6. Click on Start Search.
7. Once your search results are gathered, click on Review & Fix.
8. Use the “Mark Duplicates” button menu to automatically mark hundreds of thousands of duplicate music files by highest/ lowest bit rate, longest/ shortest duration, large/ smaller file size.
9. The “Selection Assistant” button menu helps you mark duplicate music using custom parameters such as name, size, path, etc.
10. After marking the music files you want to fix, click on the “Select Duplicates” button and choose an action (Move to Folder, Delete Permanently, Rename Files, Replace with Shortcuts, Move to Recycle Bin, etc.)