How to change default music ripping settings on Windows Media Player

Here are the steps to change the default music ripping settings on Windows Media Player.

Windows 7 logo with green background

Most of us don’t carry audio CDs anymore, now you save your music into your computer and then you sync them to your portable music player. The process of making a copy of a song and storing it into your computer’s hard drive is called Ripping. What you might not know is that the default settings in Windows Media Player to rip audio CDs is .WMA at 128 kbps, which is fairly common audio quality.

Today, we have a lot of devices that enables us to play music files, and the most common  file format supported is MP3. As such, instead of using the default settings on Windows Media Player, you can change them to copy your favorites songs in MP3 audio file format.

How to rip music as MP3 on Windows Media Player

  1. Open Windows Media Player.

  2. Press the Alt key.

  3. From the menu choose Tools, and the options.

    Rip Music Settings window in Windows Media Player 12

  4. Click the Rip Music tab.

  5. On the Rip Settings section, and select MP3. You also have the choice of Rip CD automatically, this means that every time you insert a new audio CD into your computer WMP will automatically rip it. 

  6. Change the Audio Quality settings. Remember, the bigger the number of kbps the better your music will sound. The catch is that the bigger the number of kbps the bigger the file sizes will be, and if you have a lot of audio CDs it will take more hard drive space in your computer. It’s recommended to use 192 kbps or 256 kbps.

    More settings in Windows Media Player 12

  7. Click Apply

  8. Click OK to complete the task.

Now every time you insert an audio CD into your computer and click Rip your music will be save in the MP3 file format.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert and founder of (est. 2010). With over 21 years as a technology writer and IT Specialist, Mauro specializes in Windows, software, and cross-platform systems such as Linux, Android, and macOS.

Certifications: Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP), VMware Certified Professional (VCP), and CompTIA A+ and Network+.

Mauro is a recognized Microsoft MVP and has also been a long-time contributor to Windows Central.

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