How to Burn music to a CD using Windows Media Player

‘Burning’ is the name given to the process of copying music from a computer to a CD and changing it so that the CD can be played in a car or stand-alone CD player.

(Note: The music on the CDs that can be played in cars and CD players is in a different format to the music that can be played on a computer.)


1) Start a program call ‘Windows Media Player’.

     (To see how to start a program click here).


2) The Windows Media Player will look like this -  

3) The image below shows the various parts of the media player. It shows the list of music tracks on the album. On the right hand side there will be 3 buttons at the top, 'Play', 'Burn' and 'Sync', Click on the 'Burn' button to show the burn panels that are shown in this image.

The top part of the burn panel shows a small picture of a CD and shows the amount of free space on the CD. Below this is the 'Burn List' which will contain a list of all the music tracks to be burnt.

The music tracks can be copied to the Burn list one at a time or by copying multiple music tracks.
There are two ways to do this,

a) by using menus   or
b) by 'dragging and dropping'.

See the bottom of the post to find out how to do multiple selections and Drag and Drop.

4a) Add music tracks to the Burn list by Selecting and using menus.

4b) Add music tracks to the Burn list by Dragging and Dropping.

In the image below, the music tracks are selected and then 'dragged' over to the Burn list. When the mouse button is released, the music tracks will be copied to the Burn list.

5) Burn the CD.

When the tracks have all been copied to the Burn list, the CD can be burned by clicking on the 'Start burn' button as shown in the image.

6) Burning the CD.

Before the CD starts burning, there will be a lot of whirring and clunking as the computer checks the CD, positions the write head to the correct place and then starts. 

During the burning process, a progress bar can be seen next to small picture of the CD, here it shows the progress at 44%.

Another progress indicator is shown at the bottom of the screen, also showing 44%. 

7) The CD burning ends.

When the burning process finishes, the CD tray will open, the progress bar by the small picture of a CD will show the message, 'insert a blank CD' and the message at the bottom of the screen will say, 'Burn complete'.

At this point, you can either close the program or put another blank CD in and burn another CD with the same music or burn a completely new lot of music tracks by clearing the old list (click on the 'Clear list' button under the 'Burn' button) and adding new music tracks to the Burn list.