Look for future digital music formats

The dominance of MP3 since 1999 may no longer be in the next decade when higher-quality AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) coding techniques become popular and people start sharing unlicensed music. DRM rights.

In early April, one of the biggest names in the music industry, EMI, joined Apple to continue selling digital rights-protected music (DRM) songs, along with high-quality music files. providing free DRM without a slight price increase. Under this agreement, Apple will provide 256 Kb / sec AAC files with DRM, along with 128 Kb / sec AAC files, with the current protection. This is considered a great motivation for AAC in the competition with MP3.

Source: berkeley.edu EMI's representative Dylan Jones claims they are not interested in the format but only offer digital music to retail channels so they can do the coding themselves. "EMI will provide MP3 files at 320 Kb / sec or WMA 256 Kb / sec or Sony Atrac, which can be anything, as long as they are sold. Music retailers are free to choose file format and quality, of course based on a certain level, "Jones said.

Apple was the first provider to bring the AAC format to market with iPods in 2003. The audio file used by this standard is emerging on more and more devices, including Microsoft's Zune, PSP, PS3. and some Sony Walkman MP3 players, and many mobile phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. In addition, AAC is an important format for digital radio technology, used for web-based radio stations.

MP3s do not have DRM features, so music providers who want to convert to AAC and WMA or some other format to some extent maintain the ability to protect content ownership. In addition, it is likely that support for MP3 will be severely affected if Alcatel-Lucent telecom group gains control of copyright on this format.

However, some major music companies follow EMI to provide DRM-free products for online music stores. This allows them to return to MP3 with a large market with high sales (DRM-free).

Meanwhile, the future of WMA format by Microsoft seems to be unclear in a world of non-DRM digital music. This standard will continue to be exploited in copyright-focused services, including music libraries that require subscription. Moreover, WMA is a relatively inexpensive and convenient standard for some music providers.

MP3 is the most "aged" format, generally performing poorly at 128 Kbps but has an advantage of 160 - 196 Kbps, especially with Lame encryption. At higher speeds when using Lame VBR (variable bit rate) encoding, MP3 audio quality sounds similar to a CD. Limitations: large file size.

ACC works well at 96 Kb / sec and lower, small file size. At 128 Kb / sec, the sound quality of AAC is "nearly equal to" CD, while at 160 Kb / sec or higher, it is equivalent to CD. Limitations: complex, expensive copyrighted technology and too many different versions.

WMA is Microsoft's format with 3 Standard, Pro and Lossless versions.Standard is superior to MP3 at "bit rate" but lower than many AAC at the same speed.The newer Pro version is comparable in quality to AAC at 128 Kb / sec or more.Limited: copyrighted, not many devices support WMA Pro 10 version.