Music Format Standards Battle -- Bad News For Everyone

from the yay,-more-anti-consumer-activities dept

Back when there were just MP3s, everything worked well. The quality was good enough for most, the compression was reasonable and everyone could make it work. But, of course, the recording industry freaked out, and now we have a tower of babble of different music file standards -- so it should be no surprise that the percentage of music files in the MP3 format on the average hard drive is declining, as some other formats start to make inroads. However, there seem to be a few reasons why this is happening. First, most downloads are MP3s, and people see downloaded MP3s as "disposable" -- so they're deleting them faster than they're downloading new songs (which gives plenty of weight to the idea that people use file sharing networks for sampling music). Meanwhile, people ripping CDs to digital music files often end up putting them in AAC or WMA because that's the standard way iTunes and Windows Media Player rip them. However, if you ask people, they simply assume that both players rip to MP3. In some sense, MP3 has just become a generic term for digital music file -- which is only going to lead to problems later when the AAC and WMA files don't behave the same way MP3 files do. Once again, the industry is doing more damage by fragmenting the way in which people store their digital music. There's no benefit to the end user, but it will lead to confusion and anger -- which isn't the way you should want your customers to feel.
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2004 @ 9:50am

    No Subject Given

    VHS & BetaMax

    The best format will win in the end ...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Steve Mueller, 15 Oct 2004 @ 2:13pm

      Re: VHS vs. Beta

      VHS vs. Betamax is a bad analogy. While "best format" is subjective, most knowledgable video people will admit that Beta had better quality. In fact, I recall reading that Sony developed VHS (or something very similar) but rejected it because the quality wasn't up to their standards.

      My understanding is that VHS won for two reasons. First, at standard speed, Betamax only gave one hour of recording time; VHS gave two, which made movie rentals possible. Second, JVC licensed VHS more freely than Sony licensed Betamax, so more machines were available in VHS, which made VHS look more popular.

      On a standard tape, VHS eventually had a six-hour maximum, while Betamax had five, so the movie rental reason eventually disappeared, leaving only the licensing terms. Does better licensing really make for a better format?

      You could argue that better licensing is why Windows is dominant over Macintosh, too. Does that mean Windows is "better" than Mac OS?

      For the record, all of my VCRs were VHS and all of my PCs ran Windows, some I'm not some disgruntled Betamax or Mac user.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 15 Oct 2004 @ 10:14am

    Go OGG!

    woot!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RJD, 15 Oct 2004 @ 11:13am

    ---

    Choice is good. Standards are nice but they are meant to be deviated from.

    I suspect WMA will become to defacto standard simply because Mr. Softie made it so on his machine and folks simply go with the default (which is why most of the world is using windows media player, Internet Explorer, etc. See no reason why it should be any different this time. Which is to say people aren't getting any smarter.

    One day some one is going to understand that by allowing Microsoft to control the OS and provide applications that they are able to create monopolies in just about any arena they can get a windows box into.

    At least the EU gets it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Lemon Obrien, 16 Oct 2004 @ 10:47am

      Re: ---

      i think this may be true also. our new product will stream all three, mp3, wav, and aac...the best qaulity is 16-bit wav, and not patent bullsh*t.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2004 @ 6:33pm

        Re: ---

        The reason I have less MP3's is because I can't find any more music worth downloading, sadly enough. I stream some stations in the genre I like using Shoutcast to find them, and its fine background music but not good enough to take my time to find and download it.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2004 @ 12:23pm

    Not true

    iTunes default music format is MP3

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jynell G, 15 Oct 2004 @ 2:15pm

      Re: Not true.... no

      The default for iTunes (via mac machines) is ACC. You have to change it in the "Preferences" section. And if you download anything from iTunes the format will be ACC.

      Are you using iTunes via PC box?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Mike (profile), 15 Oct 2004 @ 3:25pm

        Re: Not true.... no

        Since I just used iTunes for the first time in my life last week, and ripped a CD, I can attest that the default format is NOT mp3. I had to go in and change the preferences.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2004 @ 6:47pm

    DRM

    No DRM == no music company support

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2004 @ 6:36am

    iTunes == MP3

    If you have iTunes since before AAC, it leaves MP3 as default music format

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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