Okay, I posted this in the Off-Topic forum yesterday, but it's been somewhat buried without an answer, so I'm reposting it here. If any mods or staff take umbrage with this and feel it should be locked for being reposted, then I'm fine with that 
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So, I happen to have a load of music that I want to convert, and yet have no reasonable way of doing it.
I'll start at the beginning to make it easier to understand. I have a lot of CDs. And I mean a lot. These were all bought and then ripped onto my family computer ages ago, and somehow ended up as a file format for iTunes, called the 'm4a' format. When I got a new laptop recently, I decided to transfer all my files (including the music) to the new computer, which has Dell Music Stage included. However, to play music in Music Stage, the files need to be .wma format. Any CD I rip to my computer now is included in .wma format, since I'm ripping them with Windows Media Player, but the rest of my music is .m4a instead. I can go through everything manually and convert the files that way, but lose the artist and album info, plus it'll take me hours to do. I could also delete all the music and rip them again seperately, but again that would take hours, and quite frankly I have better things to do with my time.
So, my question is this. Is there any way of converting lots of files automatically to the format I want, retaining all the extra info attached to the files (i.e. album and artist info)? I've tried a few programs downloaded from the internet, but they're all trial versions (I'm not paying £20 for something I'll only use once) and thus have 2-3 minute limitations on the length of songs converted, which is useless to me.
Finally, first person to post something that is actually useful and solves my problem completely gets a free wallpaper design for their computer, whatever that person's request is (I'll PM the winner to let them know), as a little incentive to help.
.So, I happen to have a load of music that I want to convert, and yet have no reasonable way of doing it.
I'll start at the beginning to make it easier to understand. I have a lot of CDs. And I mean a lot. These were all bought and then ripped onto my family computer ages ago, and somehow ended up as a file format for iTunes, called the 'm4a' format. When I got a new laptop recently, I decided to transfer all my files (including the music) to the new computer, which has Dell Music Stage included. However, to play music in Music Stage, the files need to be .wma format. Any CD I rip to my computer now is included in .wma format, since I'm ripping them with Windows Media Player, but the rest of my music is .m4a instead. I can go through everything manually and convert the files that way, but lose the artist and album info, plus it'll take me hours to do. I could also delete all the music and rip them again seperately, but again that would take hours, and quite frankly I have better things to do with my time.
So, my question is this. Is there any way of converting lots of files automatically to the format I want, retaining all the extra info attached to the files (i.e. album and artist info)? I've tried a few programs downloaded from the internet, but they're all trial versions (I'm not paying £20 for something I'll only use once) and thus have 2-3 minute limitations on the length of songs converted, which is useless to me.
Finally, first person to post something that is actually useful and solves my problem completely gets a free wallpaper design for their computer, whatever that person's request is (I'll PM the winner to let them know), as a little incentive to help
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