Down with mp3, m4a and aac. Give ogg & flac some noise!!
Ok folks. I know each of us probably have a million or two mp3 files on our hard disk of our favourite music. We can say we’ve almost taken the mp3 format for granted all these years. A little known fact to those not in the business though is that mp3 is a proprietary format and they are actually charging a hefty sum for royalty payment!
Little do we know that when we do podcasting with mp3 files. While the sound that comes out of the file is copyrighted by us. The fact that you’re using a mp3 format to stream your podcast is enough for you to pay for a license before you use it!
Those in the business knows all about this. They also know about an open-source alternative codec that is truely free to use and distribute and free from royalty called ‘Ogg Vorbis’. But for one reason or another, major manufacturers of mp3 players (Apple) are not incoporating support for ogg files on their players!
Many smaller manufactuers of mp3 players such as iRiver have been incorporating such features for a while now! Guys, I believe it is time to re-encode all our files into ogg.
Come on, make some noise for ogg! (Flac is a lossless alternative format)
I’m officially switching alliegance to the ogg format. Though my iPod nano has no chance in playing ogg. I’ll have to just endure a slight delay when I use iTunes to re-encode ogg into aac for the iPod. No biggie, and at least I know that I’m not paying some tossers who’ve come up with the mp3 file format just to have some sort of patent on it and collecting royalties for something that should never have been.
I would like to pledge those who’re in the music ’scene’ to start releasing files in ogg format!
Later
/rant over
