“It seems that almost every day I read something about people not wanting to rip their music in AAC (the default format for iTunes and the iPod) because ‘it’s a proprietary format,’ or ‘because it is owned by Apple,'” Kirk McElhearn writes for Kirkville.
“I see this in forums and blog comments from people who seem to have a fair understanding of technical issues,” McElhearn writes “Yet these thoughts are caused by confusion, a lack of information, and, perhaps, a tricky abbreviation.”
“Some people think AAC stands for Apple Audio Codec; it doesn’t, its real name is Advanced Audio Coding,” McElhearn writes. “It’s true that Apple was the first major hardware or software manufacturer to champion AAC over MP3, but this format is simply a part of the MPEG-4 standard, and is owned by a consortium of companies. Like MP3, this format is available to all for licensing, and there are even open-source encoders and decoders for AAC.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
AAC is not some proprietary Apple-only format. AAC is MPEG-4 Audio. Apple should’ve just called it MP4 to soothe simple minds. – MacDailyNews Take, October 6, 2005
AAC is an audio codec that is superior to the old MP3. Think of it as MP4 Audio, because that’s what it is. – MacDailyNews Take, April 30, 2007