MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG and DRM
dSounds.com is For Sale

Coming to an audio file near you: Popup Ads

Overpeer, the firm that floods P2P networks with bogus files, is corrupting files even more by placing popups and (potentially) adware in some WMA and WMV files.

The company gained it's notoriety in 2002 by working with record companies to flood P2P networks with bogus files that matched commonly searched songs. These bogus files made it difficult to find true song copies and made life difficult for many using the more popular networks targetted by the company.

Overpeer plans on selling advertisements based on key word searches. An advertiser could purchase, say, U2, and not only will the user get a bogus file, the bogus file could prompt a number of popup advertisement windows to popup on the user's machine.

It's not a stretch to think that this "feature" could be used for more malicious means, pointing instead to a server that would download malware onto a users machine.

Overpeer has long been a friend of the industry, but will this put them on the industry's bad side? The RIAA doesn't like to see people profiting from illegal file-sharing, which Overpeer will most certainly be doing.

Contributed by
Tinfoil Music - Digital Media and Music News

Apple fixes Real’s Hack

Apple has taken its liberty and tweaked the firmware code in the iPod that was previously reverse engineered by Real Networks to allow songs from Real to be played on the iPod.

Only discovered very recently was that Apple has changed the firmware code on the iPod to not allow Real’s Helix DRM system. There is some head scratching however over when Apple actually changed the firmware code. There was an update in October that seems like the one as the firmware update on November 15 was only for two models of the iPod. Since it has only now, a month and a half later, that the news has been widely publicized it seems that Real’s Freedom campaign was not as overly successful to iPod users as Real had hoped.

For the full story:
The Register - Apple iPod out of tune with Real's Harmony

MP3 format shrinking

After brining the light to digital music the MP3 file format is slowly slipping away as more people are deleting their MP3s faster then they are acquiring them. The two formats that are growing in popularity are, you guessed it, AAC (iTune’s file format) and WMA (Microsoft’s file format).

In the past year the MP3 digital music format slipped from about 82 percent to 72 percent of people’s digital music collection. NDP MusicWatch Digital is the project that surveys hard drives and provides this information. They have stated that Microsoft’s and Apple’s proprietary file formats have gained about five percent “hard-drive share” in that time.

NDP has also stated that it may not be that MP3 is losing its popularity but people are finding them as “disposable.” Another possible trend, that NDP pointed out, that would lead to the change with the MP3 format is a shift from file trading to people ripping their collections of CDs into the default format by what ever program they may be using, iTunes or Windows Media Player.

For the full story:
CNet - MP3 losing steam?

Ballmer isn’t an iPod fan

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has further set up a bitter rivalry between Apple and Microsoft by calling all iPod users thieves.

"We’ve had DRM in Windows for years," Ballmer stated while in London, "the most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen'."

Ballmer predicted also that the industry is at a tipping point and that the future will be in devices that integrate video, audio and computer functions. Ballmer also believes its up to Microsoft to innovate with its Media Centers, Players and media software driving the new future with digital music.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Microsoft calls iPod users 'thieves'

Sony’s plea

"We all have to sell music, not formats. That's what consumers want," stated Sony Europe senior marketing and sales manager Peter Durr in an attempt to pull together the industries’ various digital music formats and anti-piracy technologies.

Lately Sony has been receiving criticism on only supporting the ATRAC3 file format on its digital music players.

Sony will also under go a major marketing campaign for its Connect digital music service in Europe next week. Sony will be promoting the four new Walkman products that are capable of storing and playing digital music.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - 'Sell music, not formats' - Sony

aacPlus

The aacPlus file format for digital music has been standardized by Coding Technologies.

With this new audio codec being standardized it means that service providers can use a single open standard to provide high audio quality at low bit rats, perfect for cell phones and 3GPP devices that would use mobile streaming or downloads. A high quality song can be delivered directly to mobile phones with file sizes as lo as 500 kb a son.

The digital music format is already in use with digital music download services O2 and Vodafone. Apple also currently uses a variant of the AAC codec with their iTunes Music Store.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - AAC music on mobiles move

Copy protected Cds now for iPods

Macrovision, who is responsible for one lock down solution on Cds, has told customers that it will have support for iTunes and the iPod in its next fiscal quarter.

For this to happen it would seem that Apple has allowed FairPlay to be used by another company, something that RealNetworks has been begging for. Apple’s move to allow FairPlay access to Macrovision is a strong move as it allows for other options, besides Microsoft, for the formats available of locked down CDs created by Macrovision. It also doesn’t leave iTunes users our in the cold.

For the full story:
The Register - Macrovision: iPod support for lock-in CDs in Q4

Newest iTunes DRM hack

A new hack has become public knowledge about how to easily hack though the FairPlay DRM songs purchased through the iTunes Music Store.

Using iMovie, an application that ships free with every Apple computer a user can simply and effectively eliminate the DRM on a song.

To do so you have to import the song into iMovie then using the share menu select the option QuickTime and compress the new “movie” through expert options. After the new movie is made just import it back into iTunes. This new file will not have restrictions on how many people can listen to it or how many times it can be copied to CD.

This hack was originally reported by MacNews.de.

The full story is available from:
Macworld UK - iMovie offers iTunes hack

Apple vs. Real – Harmony

Apple seems very agitated over the release of ReaNetowrk’s new software, Harmony, that allows music from Real’s music service to be used on all sorts of different digital music players with different DRMs including the iPod.

Apple believes that the Harmony software is a hack against iTunes and is investigating if RealNetworks has violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Real has retaliated that it followed a well-established tradition of fully legal, independently developed paths to achieve compatibility.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - No Harmony in Real v Apple dispute

Bringing Harmony to formats

RealNetworks has created a technology that will enable consumers to transfer music with DRM between devices, including iPods.

This technology allows music listeners to transfer their music (while still maintaining the digital rights management) to market leading devices including Apple’s iPod, and devices from Creative, iRiver, RCA, Rio, Samsung and PalmOne.

The RealPlayer Music Store can now claim the support more devices then any other store but their support does not include helping users make this happen.

Both record companies EMI and BMG are supportive for this initiative.

The first public performance will be on Tuesday July 27 at the Jupiter PlugIn conference in New York City.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Real brings Harmony to format wars

3D sound

From the same people that created the MP3 format a new, better, surround sound has been created.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Media Technology has created “losono” a product that is truly three-dimensional. Current surround sound works great but only for a small sweet spot that is typically only a few feet wide. This new system would allow a whole movie theater audience to be able to hear a horse gallop down the middle aisle. Everyone in the room would have the same realistic illusion.

Led my Karlheinz Brandburg, a team of co-developers are in Los angeles this week talking to Hollywood studios and giants including Disney.

For the full story:
Cnet News - returns

IPod compatibility is an issue

With a great stride forward on copy protecting CD the industry should be happy, however they are not. A copy protected CD became number on in the charts last month but it was not compatible with the iPod.

The two companies responsible for creating most copy protected CDs are getting bombarded by customers who are requesting iPod compatibility. SunnComm International and Macrovision are scrambling to make their copy protection iPod compatible.

The shift in how copy protection works, as it becomes more compatible with iPods, could leave Microsoft in a tough spot. Currently a CD with copy protection will have two different versions, one is locked down and the other is digital tracks that can be transferred to a computer. Since Windows Media audio can be played back on most every computer and a number of different portable players it was the choice format for the digital tracks. This could have given Microsoft a very powerful ‘in’ with the music industry but that is now changing since the iPod does not support the WMA format.

For the full story:
CNET News - iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDs

EMI wants 100% digital catalogue

EMI wants to be able to allow consumers the ability to buy 100 percent of its music catalogue digitally.

EMI chairman and CEO Alain Levy predicted that the digital music market, which would include downloads, ringtones and other wireless applications, could amount to 25 per cent of all music sales by 2007 to 2009.

Levy also said, “We will endeavour to maintain a very flexible model, where we will provide our content to retailers in all relevant formats, and where we will enable our retailers and business partners to pursue the widest range of legal business models."

For the full story:
Macworld UK - EMI 'wants catalogue digitized'

Apple gets praise for its lossless encoding

With the new version of iTunes 4.5 a feature that allowed Lossless Encoding was introduced and has been deemed very good.

The new iTunes feature lets users reduce the size of CD audio tracks by 60-70 percent with no correspond loss of quality in with the Post-Standard reported, "Simply amazing."

To get equivalent quality, a MP3 or AAC encoding must be at least 256kps. The lossless encoding is very comparable to FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) which is often used by bands who want to release their music online but don't want to loose quality.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Thumbs-up for Apple Lossless Encoding

Real asks Apple to team up against Microsoft

In an email from RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser to Apple CEO Steve Jobs a tactical alliance was purposed to combine forces against Microsoft’s dominant Windows Media Player.

Real’s move is odd because the company has the only media player, RealPlayer 10, to support a majority of the media formats currently available. Glaser is also known to have dismissed Apple’s iTunes Music Store in the past. However, Real is six months to a year away from rolling out their European subscription based music service, RealRhapsody, while iTunes is expected to enter the market shortly.

Microsoft has taken the lead in the digital content player market due to the fact that it bundles Windows Media Player with its Windows operating system. The European Commission however felt that move was unfair and fined Microsoft $611 million and requested that they bundle other media players. This will definitely help both Apple and Real in their conquest of higher market share.

The email was supposedly leaked by a staffer at Apple and revealed to the New York Times.

Related articles:
Real Player 10 now available
EU hits Microsoft hard

For the full story:
The Register - Real Networks 'seeks alliance' with Apple

OS X MP3 Trojan not harmful

The first Trojan for Mac OS X disguised itself as an MP3 file and played laughing when opened with iTunes but did nothing to harm the users system.

The Trojan, called MP3Concept or MP3Virus.Gen, was really just a proof of concept that a Trojan could enter into Mac OS X due to the operating system allowing for hidden file extensions and any number of icons.

For the full story:
Wired - OS X Trojan Horse Is a Nag 

MP3 in surround sound

By July 2004 you will be able to listen to MP3 with surround sound and still maintain small file sizes.

Fraunhofer Institute has developed a way to add a small amount of information into the MP3 encoding stream that will allow different pieces of audio to be spatially orientated, allowing surround sound. In the past to do surround sound multiple channels would be required, one for each direction. The new system is also backwards compatible with older technology allowing it to play on digital and mobile devices just like it had in the past without surround sound.

For the full story:
BBC News - MP3 surround sound system debuts

AAC - the story

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is a digital music format that is pushing out MP3 from the digital music spotlight. The format is newer as it has been introduced more recently than it’s MP3 competitor, and is being implemented in a variety of different ways through different technologies.

AAC was developed by the MPEG (Motion Picture Export Group) which includes Dolby, Fraunhofer, AT&T, Sony, and Nokia. This group was also involved in the development of other digital audio formats such as MP3 and AC3 (Dolby Digital). Originally known as MPEG-2 NBC (non-backward compatible), one of the motives for developing the format was to create an efficient way to do surround sound using five different channels. The format became a standard in April of 1997.

Like other perceptual coding schemes such as MP3, AAC uses the masking properties of the human ear to reduce the amount of data necessary. The AAC format uses the same coding tools that are used with MP3, however MP3 is a decade old format so encoding into AAC uses these tools in a variety of better ways. This is primarily because AAC does not have to be compatible with earlier versions.

When compared to the MP3 format AAC is able to have the same quality as 128 kbps MP3 when only encoded at 96 kbps. This allows for similar sound quality at a smaller file size for AAC, which makes it ideal for internet usage.

The move to digital rights management has become a necessity for digital music, due to the RIAA, in the recent past. AAC files can incorporate DRM and that is one reason Apple Computer has been pushing the format hard. However AAC files that incorporated FairPlay (Apple’s DRM), were broken in November 03 by the same hacker that broke the DVD encryption scheme. MP3 have only recently been able to incorporate DRM thanks to a module incorporated developed by Fraunhofer to bring MP3 up to speed.

Apple has made a strong move to using AAC and incorporates the format with its iTunes Music Store as well as with its Quicktime format. iPods and their mini version support the format. RealNetworks also supports AAC but does not support the proprietary version of AAC that includes the FairPlay DRM.

The format has also become the core of the MPEG-4, 3GPP, and 3GPP2 specifications, which deal with 3rd generation wireless/mobile devices. Modern PDA’s and cellphones are now better able to playback multimedia thanks to these standards based off AAC. The Digital Radio Mondiale (also DRM) system, which is the next generation of radio broadcasting under 30 MHZ, builds on AAC as well.

Although the MP3 format is beat out by AAC on technical merits, the former format has a much greater adoption across the internet. MP3, with its new DRM module, will now be able to compete against both AAC and WMA as the audio format used in online download services. However, the success Apple has had so far with their digital music service and players, as well as their adoption of MPEG 4, has catapulted AAC into what may potentially be the winner's ring.

Written and edited by Jesse Lakes

Sources:
VIA
Fraunhofer IIS
MP3-Tech
The Register - iTunes DRM cracked wide open for GNU/Linux.
Apple - MPEG 4: AAC
PC World - Pondering Digital Music's Future

MP3 to include DRM part II

The Mp3 format now has the extended technology to be able to do Digital Rights Management, thanks to the Fraunhofer Institute. The Light Weight Digital Rights Management System, the signature system to protect MP3s, will be presented at CeBIT later this month.

The Light Weight Digital Rights Management System (LWDRM) requires a digital signature to register a file. The technology won’t allow the file to be copied until the owner ‘autographs’ the content with his personal signature. If the file is signed then used on a Peer to Peer network (P2P) the person’s digital signature will show who allowed the file to be traded. LWDRM originally was developed for MPEG 4 audio and video and has been in use since 2002.

Adding DRM to MP3 files has been a task that others have attacked in the past. Liquid Audio experimented with the concept and Napster, before its crash, worked on a similar technology.

LWDRM, like other DRM, requires a compatible player to be played but this can be overcome on existing MP3 players with a firmware upgrade. It also meets Fraunhofers goal of creating a file type that could be distributed in online digital music download services. The biggest downfall of the new system is the fact that users have to register themselves, which is a not very consumer friendly. However there is no reason that the music vendor could not issue its own signature that was tied to the buyers credit card.

For the full story:
The Register - MP3 DRM to demo at CeBIT

MP3 to include DRM

The MP3 format is being revisited by Thomson and Fraunhofer, the license and patent holders of the format. They plan to make the format capable of blocking unauthorized copying.

The intentions behind creating an add-on for the format is so that it can be used with authorized music distribution services such as iTunes and Napster. These services currently sell their music with incompatible proprietary technologies while MP3 formatted songs are typically distributed free of any copy protection.

Thomson and Fraunhofer’s digital rights management (DRM) will be largely based off of open standards the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the Open Mobile Alliance are adopting. The companies will provide free use of the copy protection technology to anyone who licenses the MP3 format.

For this DRM to work it will first have to be supported by software players and chipmakers. Thomson and Fraunhofer are currently talking with chip manufacturers and music distribution services now. The release date for devices and services supporting the newly protected MP3 format should be by the end of 2004.

For the full story:
C|net News.com - MP3 getting antipiracy makeover

MP3 here to stay

The audio format MP3 has been around for a long time and only seems to be getting more popular. Though there are better alternatives and big problems with MP3, the overall task of converting the overwhelming amount of audio in the MP3 format is too great.

The MP3 format has drawbacks. Although MP3 file sizes are much smaller then their alternative uncompressed audio files, MP3 files are now almost double the size of the newer formats being introduced. MP3 is also a copyrighted format and software and device makers must pay royalties to be able to play the format. MP3 also lack any type of Digital Rights Management.

The better alternatives include the WMA format produced by Microsoft that includes built in digital rights management. AAC, which stands for Advanced Audio Coding, from Apple, has quickly grown popular and also includes digital rights management. A third alternative is Ogg Vorbis and this format is totally free for both the encoding and the playback. Each one of these formats produce as good as if not better sounding music with smaller file sizes then MP3.

It seems that MP3 have become the lowest-common-denominator format. There has been such a substantial amount of material converted into MP3 all over the internet that encoding it all into a new format would be a very cumbersome task. The new formats are better but they are not revolutionary. They are less expensive and create smaller files but that does not warrant the pain of doing mass conversions on all your audio files. The move from LP to CD was revolutionary however. CDs sounded better, never skipped, seemed indestructible, were smaller and easier to store, and were more portable. This is why we use CDs today instead of LPs.

Although the MP3 format will not last forever, it will be around for a while longer. The format is too entrenched into everyone and everything now, its is also easy to use and through the years it has become a standard for digital music and audio.

For the complete story:
ABC News - We're Stuck With MP3