“Over the weekend, I read several mainstream articles about the iPod and iTunes (as well as several other digital music stores and players), including a well-written but somewhat disagreeable piece in the local San Francisco Bay Guardian. After immersing myself in audio codecs (as research for a future article) and re-ripping most of my own collection, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really like WMA — and I really don’t like the whole iTunes/iPod thing,’ Jason Cross writes for ExtremeTech.
“AAC is a perfectly fine audio format. It sounds good. I don’t really want the music I pay money for to be encoded at 128k, but none of iTunes’ competitors are offering a higher bitrate, so I don’t have much choice there. The problem with AAC is that it doesn’t really have digital rights management, so songs you buy through the iTunes Music Store have an Apple-specific proprietary digital rights management scheme called FairPlay attached to them. AAC may be a format that many desktop applications (like Winamp) can understand, and it’s certainly possible for non-iPod portable players to build in support for it, but iTunes and iPods understand FairPlay. If I buy music through the iTunes store, it will only play on iTunes or an iPod. That’s it, until the end of time. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t cut it for me. How do I know what music player I’m going to want to buy in four years? How do I know my next car won’t have a built-in digital music player? I certainly don’t expect Apple to make a CarPod. All those iTunes songs I pay for today are going to be useless tomorrow. I generally don’t want to play back my music through iTunes — I want to use a smaller, faster, less obtrusive playback client like Winamp. With music purchased through iTunes, that’s not an option.”
Full article here.
Well, with six billion people on the planet, someone had to prefer WMA. Shame he had access to a website though.
>> If I buy music through the iTunes store, it will only play on iTunes or an iPod. That’s it, until the end of time. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t cut it for me. How do I know what music player I’m going to want to buy in four years?
Just between us girls, this is a compelling argument. Of course, I can always burn an audio CD and then rip it into any format I like, but that can’t be good for the file quality. Hopefully, Apple is making efforts to spread the FairPlay technology to other devices and applications.
He’s essentially crystallized the DRM issue that the market is facing. The fact that he prefers WMA to AAC is misguided. The problem isn’t that one format is better than another–the problem is that there are multiple DRM formats, and some players won’t work with some formats. It’s true that we have no idea if any of the songs purchased today will work on any hardware available in 5 years. That’s not a problem with AAC, that’s a problem with the entire industry. For all we know, WMA may cease to exist.
The biggest shame in this argument is that he is saying… Microsoft will monopolies the format like it did the computers, so why not just save the trouble of fighting it. It is a sad day. But I will fight the good fight!
Matthew
Can’t he burn it to audio cd and then rip it as his preferred format?
“I generally don’t want to play back my music through iTunes — I want to use a smaller, faster, less obtrusive playback client like Winamp. With music purchased through iTunes, that’s not an option”
Click the minimize button and it becomes “less obtrusive” – dumb*ss
i dont notice any loss of quality when i rip it into another format so you could then innfact transfer it to another player. but then again why would i want to. i can use this product with the same interface and ease of use across multiple platforms how many other players can boast that. there is no advantage to wma. its as simple as that. aac is an industry accepted format. apple also has the largest library of music of any service and it continues to grow daily. windows users just cant beleive apple has finally gotten a strong hold on a market and windows is unable to compete due to lack of competence. they cant even get the service out there to start making a draw. imagine how far behind longhorn will be and as they rush it there wilkl be MAJOR holes. would you trust your songs that you paid for to that?
Most people know this, but you can transfer a protected iTunes AAC to ANY player, stripped of all DRM, with NO quality loss and NO hacks, by the SAME well-known re-rip-from CD method. How? Rip to lossless WAV or AIF. The price you pay is file size, but don’t overlook the option.
Also, there’s VERY good reason to say AAC is better quality than WMA. (That means truer to the original–not that one person can’t prefer whatever they like.) Link:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/consumer/20020712/2u4u-05.html
PS you can totally Hide iTunes and control it from the Dock icon’s popup menu, even giving ratings… or use a menu bar controller like PTHiTunesNotifier. Obtrusive?
This kind of comment gives you lots of confidence in a writer
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“The problem with AAC is that it doesn’t really have digital rights management, so songs you buy through the iTunes Music Store have an Apple-specific proprietary digital rights management”… Hmmm….
(PS, if you’re looking to the “future” as a reason not to use any one company–except the beloved MS–then in the “future,” HDs will be much cheaper than today, making the lossless WAV solution an even better last resort to help you sleep at night. Oh–and there are of course many car options for iPod–including a slick in-dash one from Alpine.)
Luckily, a few ignorant people who cling to MS aren’t enough to stop iTunes’ popularity.
http://lovemarks.com/list.php?order=pop&self=YES
Dont know about you guys… but im more than happy playing my AAC files on iTunes and iPods….. When you have the best software, and the best hardware, why would you want to play your music on anything else? (Although now that you mention it, windows users never were terribly good at knowing quality when they used it….) Cheers to iPod and iTunes year 2010.
Oh my g_d, freak’n RETARD!
But really, do we want someone this stupid walking around using the same thing as the rest of us? There has got to be someone left to tease.
Nag, remember we are looking at iTunes as Mac users. On the PC side, it does mean extra software running, which could be what this writer is talking about in terms of obtrusive rather than screen space. I still think he’s a little bit mental to prefer WMA. Everyone I know who have listened to both formats prefers AAC, with the general consensus that WMA sounds flat in comparison. Even Windows users are saying the same.
speaking of itunes usability, I just down loaded this great app:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ipod_itunes/xtunes.html
Now I can bring up itunes contols and song info with apple-space key combo.
I love it.
What is the definition of ‘proprietary’? Is everything Microsoft does ‘standard’?
Apple controls like 70% of the legal digital music. Shouldn’t their stuff be the ‘standard’?
I am sick of ‘tech writers’ who think that everything Microsoft does is the defacto standard and everybody else should conform. With that thinking, computing will never progress.
Why should I buy this album? Who knows what music player I’ll use in 5 years.
Why should I buy this 8 track? Who knows what music player I’ll use in 5 years.
Why should I buy this cassette? Who knows what music player I’ll use in 5 years.
Why should I buy this CD? Who knows what music player I’ll use in 5 years.
This guy is a MS pimp.
What he is really saying is that despite the fact that Apple has sold more legal downloads than all the others combined, he feels uncomfortable with any standard that is not MS
Everyone is entitled to their preferences, but blind loyalty to M$ is a misguided way to be at best. If anything, at the rate things are going, WMA is the one that will be a dead format well before AAC will be. I hate to inform the guy of this, but people have been predicting Apple’s doom for over a decade now. Maybe they should start looking at the company’s financials or something, because Apple is hardly in any danger of going away anytime soon. I think it’s a case of sour grapes to me, he just simply doesn’t like anything that doesn’t have M$’ name on it and in the case of digital music, M$ is losing badly right now.
Hey Shh, with digital music, you are not necessarily going to lose quality by transferring from one format to another. It’s not like copying a copy of a copy of a tape.
This writer, as with many others, seems to be looking for a reason to avoid Apple. That’s fine. I look for reasons to avoid Microsoft.
Artist, you make a great point. This guy needs to keep doing his homework.
You guys crack me up. The writer stated right up front that he was an open-source fan. Doesn’t care much for Microsoft. Then you rip him because he thinks that WMA sounds as good as AAC. Who cares? This isn’t what he’s talking about. He believes that WMA will win out in the end because it will be available on all players. I’m afraid I might have to agree with him. Steve Jobs may be letting another opportunity slip away. My reasonings:
Steve Jobs says that the iTMS is really a trojan horse to sell more iPods. Fine. But iPods aren’t the cash cow he thinks they are. iPod sales will dry up in the next couple of years. But I think he’s got tunnel vision.
The cash cow is in the format. I personally hate DRM of any kind and if I had any spine whatsoever, I would never buy a track from iTunes Music Store because of it. We don’t accept copy protection or DRM on cd’s why should we accept it on downloadable music? If only iTMS wasn’t so easy to use.
This could all be a mute point in the future if the record labels would give up on DRM and we could buy AIFF, WAV, or FLAC from the online stores. But until that day comes, he who controls the DRM will be king. Which leads me to Fairplay. I’ve heard some on these sites say that Apple is licensing Fairplay. I find that hard to believe. Why would the owner of Fairplay license it only to Apple? Thats suicide. Therefore, I believe Apple owns Fairplay and is not willing to license it to other music stores and/or digital players for fear that it will hurt sales on iTMS or hurt sales of iPods. If this is the case, then Apple is, like I said, having tunnel vision. They are being blinded by short term profits from the iPod and not seeing the long term profits in licensing Fairplay.
Digital players will one day be like portable cd players and portable cassette players. Apple won’t be able to keep up with the $50 digital player made in mass quantity. Remember, digital players are still in their infancy. They will become a mass produced, cheaply made product capable of storing hours of music on them. Flash memory will eventually overtake hard drives on these players. I’ve already heard there is now a 1 GB compact flash memory card coming out. Its expensive now, but give it a few years.
The easiest way to prevent all the format wars is to sell the music without digital rights and to sell it in a lossless format (i.e. AIFF, WAV, or FLAC).
Trying to find software to either encode or decode an ACC file is difficult and can be frustrating.
Yeah, who’s ever heard of iTunes?
I can’t see where losing about 80dB above 14khz, like WMA does, can be good for fidelity. Even the MP3 chart looks better than that.
In the end, such comparisons are only good for audiophile equipment. In the real world, the vast majority of playback equipment is quite inaccurate, so it comes down to what sounds good on your equipment. With a 10-band EQ (like iTunes’) you can make about anything sound good. And Shhh, don’t tell anybody about Wire Tap (freeware) or Audio Hijack (shareware), or they’ll realise what a minor inconvenience DRM is.
I agree with the writer, mostly. I didn’t expect any of you fanatics to read the article with your eyes open, so your silly responses don’t surprise me.
One thing that I am curious about is this: who is controlling the enforcement of the DRM?
In order to play an iTMS song, your computer must contact Apple’s server and get authorized. Apple keeps track of which computers the buyer has authorized to play his/her purchased music. It also keeps track of CD burns, and whatever else is restricted.
So, in order to play a MusicMatch song, whose server does your computer contact to get authorized: MusicMatch’s server or Microsoft’s server?
If the answer is MusicMatch’s server, then the writer’s reason for preferring WMA is invalid because his music will last only as long as MusicMatch.
If the answer is Microsoft, then the consumer benefits greatly. Any encrypted WMA song purchased anywhere is authorized by the same server. It’s very simple.
Of course, Microsoft would never abuse such power, would they?
resistance is futile – you will be assimilated.
he must be smoking a new form of crack.
Hmmm… a biased article from the get go. For someone wanting flexibility, he sure has a twisted view of it. Let’s think here. WMA really is meant for Windows only and the Mac version of WMP is nothing significant nor that usable. AAC works on all 3 platforms; Windows, Mac, and Linux. WMA is intended for Windows use.
The iTunes Music Store works on both Mac and Windows, as compared to all the other digital music stores working only on Windows (BuyMusic and Napster are the best examples).
WMA locks me into one platform; Windows. AAC lets me choose at least 2 platforms if not 3 (Windows, Mac, and Linux).
AAC was developed by Dolby Laboratories, while WMA was developed by Microsoft. I wonder who the sound quality experts are?… hint, hint; Dolby!
Of course I don’t use Windows, so this argument is irrelevant to me
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Jeff S.
Your argument seem reasonable, so if I look at this from Apple’s point of view, if iPod sales is going to dry up in few years anyway, why not get as much revenue out from iTMS and iPod now. May be that is what they are doing.
I believe, there will be flood of practically free players within few years. Many record clubs (BMG and Columbia House) probably will start giving them away, so they can get people to join their music download club (where club members must buy at least X albums). If that happens, would anyone buy $200 iPod? Actually fair number of people will still buy players ranging from $10 ~ $400 (look at the sales of radios and calculators), but these players will support whatever DRM free players will use or record labels will realize DRM was a bad idea and just forget about it (hopefully latter).
If one believes DRM will go away, then they should maximize their profit by holding on to DRM. If they are wrong, then the other DRM will win. Apple seem to be taking the first track. If that is the case, then we should not be afraid of being stuck with iTune music. Apple can easily distribute DRM removal tool for AAC/Fairplay, when record companies agree to distribution of such tool.