[Reader-list] Fwd: Mp3 under pressure

[Supreet Sethi]

Forwarded From: Jaswinder Singh Kohli <jskohli at fig.org>

>  MP3 format under pressure
> 
> 12 April, 2001 07:28 GMT
> 
> 
> 
> NEW YORK (Reuters) - MP3, a popular format for downloading music from
> the Web, is under pressure from leading technology companies such as
> Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
> 
> Microsoft and Seattle-based RealNetworks are working to subtly wean
> consumers away from MP3 technology, encouraging them to use proprietary
> software formats instead, the paper said in its online edition on
> Thursday.
> 
> The technology companies, which have the music industry's blessing, are
> encouraging those who download music to use new proprietary software
> formats that make the audio sound significantly better but also make it
> harder to share copyright-protected songs, the paper said.
> 
> Microsoft, for example, plans to severely limit the quality of music
> that can be recorded as an MP3 file using software built into the next
> version of its personal-computer operating system, Windows XP, according
> to the report.
> 
> Music recorded in the software company's own format, called Windows
> Media Audio, will sound clearer and require far less storage space on a
> computer, the paper said.
> 
> Other formats gaining popularity are based on the relatively new
> Advanced Audio Codec created by AT&T, Dolby Laboratories, Sony and the
> Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen in Germany, the paper said.
> 
> MP3 is the format used to by controversial Internet music-sharing
> service Napster, whose operations have delighted consumers happy to
> access free music but infuriated the record industry.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> Regards
> Jaswinder Singh Kohli
> jskohli at fig.org
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> The Universe is a figment of its own imagination.
> 
> 



-- 
su -