The vast majority of songs on filesharing systems have been in the MP3 file format since Napster propelled the idea of digital music into the mass market in 1999. But that could change over the next decade. Files encoded in the newer and better AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format could become more popular, as people start to share unprotected songs bought from Apple’s market-leading iTunes Music Store.
Also, support for MP3 could falter if the newly-merged Alcatel-Lucent telecoms giant can assert its claims to have (pricey) patent rights over the format.
The market was opened up earlier this month when EMI, one of the four “music majors”, made a joint announcement with Apple. The gist of it was that EMI would continue to sell music with DRM (digital rights management) copy protection, but that better-quality files would also be offered without DRM for a small extra charge.
As part of the deal, Apple said it would offer non-protected 256kbps AAC files alongside its current protected 128kbps AAC files.
This should give AAC a boost in its battle with MP3. EMI press officer Dylan Jones says EMI is “format agnostic”: it supplies digital masters of songs to music libraries, who then do their own encoding. They could offer 320kbps MP3 or 256kbps WMA (Windows Media Audio) or Sony Atrac or whatever they think they can sell. Music stores are free to choose the encoding and the quality, says Jones, “above a certain level”.
Growing support
When EMI experimented with selling unprotected tracks last year — such as a Norah Jones song sold via Yahoo! and eMusic — it used MP3, which is still the format with the widest support. This could still turn out to be the most common choice — we don’t know what the music libraries will do. But iTunes has most of the legal online music market, so most files bought online could still use AAC.
Support for AAC is also growing in other areas. Apple was the first company to bring the format to the mass market with the iPod in 2003, but AAC files now play on a growing number of devices. These include Microsoft’s Zune, Sony’s PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and some Walkman MP3 players, and lots of Nokia and Sony Ericsson cellphones.
Also, AAC is already an important format for digital radio. It is coming into use for web-based radio stations, it is the standard format for Digital Radio Mondiale broadcasting, and it’s the chosen standard for DAB+ digital radio, which is expected to replace the old DAB-standard MP2 format almost everywhere except the United Kingdom. All this should soon make AAC very attractive for music players with built-in radios.
However, this may not mean you can go back to “taping” the radio, because digital radio often uses much lower bit rates with the AAC+ or HE (High Efficiency) version.
Steve Green from digitalradiotech.co.uk, who writes a radio column in Hi-Fi World magazine, says: “The audio quality on DAB+ and Digital Radio Mondiale+ is very unlikely to be better than the 128kbps AAC tracks on iTunes. Music stores will use best audio practice prior to encoding files, whereas audio that’s played on the radio has had dynamic range compression applied to it, and some radio stations don’t apply best audio practice, so a track on iTunes should sound better than it would on the radio.”
AAC may also have received an unexpected boost from a United States patent case brought by Alcatel-Lucent, which led to Microsoft being fined $1,52-billion in February. Microsoft argued that it had already licensed MP3 from the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, like everybody else. If the judgement stands, thousands of companies could be at risk of fines.
AAC is also heavily patent protected and companies must pay high fees to license the patents. However, there’s a “patent pool” and a safe one-stop shop at Vialicensing.
Under normal circumstances, it’s very hard to dislodge a common file format. Most music stores would probably have continued to use MP3 if the music labels had not insisted on copy protection. MP3 doesn’t include DRM, so suppliers switched to AAC, WMA and other formats that they could protect to some extent. This started MP3’s decline.
Legal threats
Now things are changing again. There is a fair chance that the other music majors will follow EMI in offering DRM-free options to online music stores. This would allow them to revert to MP3, which already has a wide market with DRM-free sales.
But the legal threats against MP3 may change their minds. If so, AAC will benefit.
The future of Microsoft’s WMA would look bleak in a DRM-free world, but it will continue to be used for services that still require DRM, including subscription libraries. Also, according to Green, it’s a relatively cheap and convenient option for some suppliers, including WMA/WMV and DAB-IP broadcasters. Price comparisons are difficult; Microsoft doesn’t license patents, it offers a complete software system. It’s clear though that WMA is not going to take over the world. But then, it never was.
Sounding them out
MP3
Old file format that generally works badly at bit rates below 128kbps but can sound good at 160 to 196kbps, especially with Lame encoding. At higher bit rates with Lame VBR (variable bit rate) encoding, the audio quality should be equivalent to CD, for most people.
Drawback: large file sizes.
AAC
Multichannel replacement for MP3 that works well at bit rates of 96kbps and below, and produces smaller files. At 128kbps can be not far short of CD quality, and at 160kbps or higher, it should be equivalent to CD for most people.
Drawbacks: complex, heavily patented and has many varieties.
WMA
Microsoft format with Standard, Pro and Lossless versions. Standard outperforms MP3 only at low bit rates and sounds worse than AAC at the same bit rates. The newer multichannel pro version is similar to AAC at 128kbps and above.
Drawbacks: proprietary, and few devices support WMA Pro 10. – Guardian Unlimited Â