Even though software media players such as iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player are able to burn music to CD, you will have probably discovered that most are very limited on what they can do. Using a dedicated burning program gives you the flexibility to burn music, video, and other types of files to CD, DVD, and even Blu-ray; this can open up a lot more possibilities on the way you use and store your digital media. The software listed below has been selected specifically for its usefulness and ease-of-use when dealing with digital media.
1. CDBurnerXP Pro 4
CDBurnerXP has very good support for burning music to CD as either an audio CD, or a data CD (MP3, AAC, OGG, etc.). If can be installed on Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista and offers a user-friendly interface. You can create audio CDs using MP3, OGG, FLAC, WMA, and WAV files. A neat feature of CDBurnerXP is the facility to directly add tracks to your compilation from audio CDs without having to rip the tracks first. Finally, this free CD burning program also comes with a convenient integrated audio player in order to play your music.
2. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free 6.75
Even though Burning Studio Free only supports MP3 and WMA formats, it more than makes up for this shortfall by its sizable feature set. This free burning program supports CD, DVD, and Blu-ray drives giving you flexible storage options. It’s intuitive interface gives you access to tasks such as ripping and burning audio/data CDs, backup files and folders, burn movies, create ISO/BIN images, and a copier for duplicating CDs,DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.
3. Express Burn 4
Available for the Mac and PC, Express Burn is a CD authoring program that supports a wide array of audio formats. This light-weight, but functional program supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, WAV, AU, RA, AIFF, and a few other obscure audio formats like .RAW and .AMR, etc. The program is also capable of copying data CDs, burning seamless audio tracks, and more.
4. FinalBurner Free
FinalBurner Free enables you to create data/audio CDs, video DVDs, and make ISO images. There’s also a built-in CD ripper that is capable of encoding MP3 and WMA files in varying bitrates. FinalBurner has good file format support when creating audio CDs. You can import MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, along with less popular formats like MID, and music modules (XM, MOD) that are used in music sequencers (trackers). As with all the burning programs in this article, FinalBurner has enough options to be a good substitute for expensive products such as Nero, etc.
5. Free Audio CD Burner
If you just want a simple program to create audio CDs then you won’t go far wrong with Free Audio CD Burner. Even though it only supports the writing of CDs, it can decode MP3 and WMA files in realtime, thus saving time and hard drive space.
