MP3 Format Still Gathering Momentum

PoliTech sends us over to Billboard.com for a detailed article about the coming tipping point in the music business in favor of MP3. The two biggest drivers pushing Warner and Sony BMG toward MP3 are an upcoming massive Amazon-Pepsi download giveaway and a positive move by the usually maligned Wal-Mart (according to sources): "...Wal-Mart [alerted] Warner Music Group and Sony BMG that it will pull their music files in the Windows Media Audio format from walmart.com some time between mid-December and mid-January, if the labels haven't yet provided the music in MP3 format."

I'm still a little skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

I am waiting for MP3.1 to come out before I try it.

Re:I'm still a little skeptical

[Jarjarthejedi]

I'm just gonna go ahead and wait for MP48's, so I can play them on my HHDDVVDDBVD player.

good news

[javilon]

die .wma die a horrible drm'd death!!!

Re:I'm still a little skeptical

[Winckle]

Oh man, you mean you still haven't got a HHDDVVDDBVD+ player?!?

It's got higher definition than outside.

This is a strange feeling....

[8127972]

.... as I actually find myself cheering for the evil WalMart empire who doesn't seem so evil at the moment.

My mind is going. I can feel it.

Re:Funny how

[Anonymous Coward]

You're doing the stereotypical geek black & white thinking thing, where things are either GOOD or BAD and nothing lies in between.

You might like the taste of a fresh home made meal over a reheated pizza slice that's been sitting in a servery for six hours drying out... but you'd still rather eat the pizza slice than start chewing on a dog shit off the sidewalk that's been vomited on by six drunks.

See. The world's not black & white. Reality is complex - unlike ones and zeroes.

mp3PRO, MP4, MP5

[tepples]

I am waiting for MP3.1 to come out before I try it.

MP3.1 could be mp3PRO [wikipedia.org]. But a lot of people have moved on to MP4 [wikipedia.org], and the gun nuts are even using MP5 [wikipedia.org].

Re:What about quality?

[xornor]

I was listening to "Serenade in Bb K361-370a [Gran Partita] - Adagio" on Volume 5 of the Complete Mozart Edition by Philips right before I came across this article and was appalled at the poor quality of the high notes (oboe). It was so terrible I had to skip the song, it couldn't even reproduce the right note. Too bad my car cd player only supports mp3 cds.

PWM?

[tepples]

Actually, it is the geek 1 & 0 thinking thing.

But can you do pulse width modulation [wikipedia.org] to simulate a shade of gray?

Maybe.

[crhylove]

It matters where you live. Send me the specs for your yard.