Headline of the best short guide to the insanely confusing world of MP3, WMA, AAC, and the like I've yet to come across.
It was written by S.J. Sebellin-Ross for last Sunday's Washington Post.
Here's the article.
- How To Navigate the Digital Music Scene
Buying digital music can be confusing.
On one hand, you have an alphabet soup of acronyms, all referring to varying formats.
On the other hand, you have a slew of online retailers, each furiously competing for your hard-earned music dollar.
And in the middle, you have an avalanche of players, each of which offer different features and work with different formats.
So what do you do? For starters, you can use this guide to figure out which digital music format is right for you.
THE FORMATS
There are already multiple choices, all with their own advantages and disadvantages, and companies eager for a slice of the lucrative digital music pie are scrambling to introduce even more.
For longevity, stick with the mainstream:
• MP3. The good news is all digital music players can play MP3s. The bad news is all MP3s deliver inferior quality (think of the flat sound of radio compared with the rich sound of CDs).
• WMA (Windows Media Audio). Not only does this format sound better than MP3, but it does so at a smaller file size, which means you can fit more onto your player. Although it's supported by most players, WMA is not supported by all, including the iPod.
• AAC (Advanced Audio Coding). Music in this format, a descendant of MP3, sounds better. Because the only major company supporting AAC is Apple, however, the only major devices that can play it are iPods.
THE RETAILERS
The number of organizations striving to score your cash is changing even faster than the number of digital music formats. To get you started, here are three of the biggest:
• MSN Music (www.music.msn.com). Atypical of Microsoft, which tends to stick to middle-of-the-road offerings, MSN Music offers a surprisingly large and interesting mix of artists. The con: no audiobooks. The pro: Because the files are in WMA format, and because most players support WMA, you should have no trouble finding a player you like.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
I have the Dell Axim X50 - and my main uses for it are e-reading and music - the audio is very clear, and easy to control - larger UI than an iPod, say, and more functional.
2 - Tom Johnson
MP3. The good news is all digital music players can play MP3s. The bad news is all MP3s deliver inferior quality (think of the flat sound of radio compared with the rich sound of CDs).
This is untrue on both counts. The new Sony Network Walkman will not use MP3s, as Sony has opted instead to force users to use their proprietary ATRAC format. Check out sales figures from this past holiday season to see how well that went over (and expect a change soon.)
And only really low bitrate mp3s sound poor. 128kB/s may be the "standard," but I have found through extensive testing that anything over 160kB/s sounds excellent and most people won't be able to tell the difference between it and CDs. For the extra picky, 192kB/s is indistinguishable from CD audio.
That said, I'm using Apple's (proprietary) AAC format in my Ipod because it gives sound quality that is comparable or better than the next-highest quality mp3. I'm using 128kB/s and find that it's superior to mp3s at 160kB/s. But at least I have the option of using mp3s if I want to, unlike the Sony unit.
3 - Eric Berlin
This is a really interesting and comprehensive discussion.
I'm getting closer to figuring out something I've been wondering about for a while: I assumed (wrongly, I guess) that the songs I bought from iTunes were mp3 format. Now that I see that they are AAC, is that why they won't play (at least some of them, I believe) when I burn them to CD-R? Might I have to tweak something to fix this, or am I simply SOL?
Thanks for this piece -- very good info.
~ Eric B.
4 - Tom Johnson
Eric, did you burn them as data files or burn them as audio from Itunes? The AAC files ITMS sells are a copy-protected version of AAC (important note: discs you rip yourself into AAC format are NOT protected files.) I'm not sure how the license works, but the protection's there to prevent you from sharing those files with others (I believe you can actually use them on a limited number of computers.) You should, however, be able to burn actual audio CDs from your Itunes purchases. Itunes is blocked for me here at work, so I can't point you to the actual information on the site, but it should be pretty easy to find in their FAQs somewhere.
5 - Aaman
Eric,
I can work with you on this - perhaps you could mail me separately and we can work on this.
6 - Eric Berlin
Tom - Thanks for the info. When I couldn't burn to CD-R straight away (from audio from iTunes -- I've never burned to a data file before) I assumed it was due to copyright restrictions.
I'll check out the FAQ, and thanks again.
~ Eric B.
7 - Lono
Good piece (not a phrase I utter often), so I'd like to contribute. You forgot the most important term in music and coding: wav. Wav format is how they are burned onto professional CDs.
Second point, as someone who is an INSANE music buff (check out my post history, 90% music related) I have to say that I have heard NO qualitative difference between MP3s and proper wav CDs. I bet if I were to run a taste test of playing a good MP3 file through a proper system you would not know the difference.
Incidentally, the iPod is now my new home systems. CDs are obsolete. They cost WAY too much and are easily damaged.