thomas fitzgerald.net

In article int he Guardian about Sky’s plan to launch a music subscription service they come up with this whopper.

Unlike iTunes, which is only compatible with Apple’s iPod music players, the new site, which will be launched next Monday, will allow users to download albums for use on any MP3 player.

You would think a paper as prestigious as the Guardian would manage to get such basic facts right. Since iTunes went DRM free, you can play music downloaded from iTunes on virtually any player. Most modern music players will play AAC, the format used by Apple for iTunes. I find it amazing too how many people believe this myth. Every time iTunes is brought up in a discussion you always get a few commenters who claim that apple uses a “proprietary” format that will only work with the iPod. While this may have been true in the past with Apple’s “fair play” DRM scheme, the irony is that Apple had nothing to do with the development of the AAC audio format. It was developed by a number of companies, none of whom were apple, and is actually an ISO “standard” and was declared a standard by the same Motion Picture Experts Group who are responsible for MP3.
What many don’t realise either is that almost all modern portable music players will play AAC and have done for some time. What’s more is that AAC is a far more modern and more efficient format that MP3. People who use Apple’s use of AAC as a reason to bash the company really are only demonstrating their own ignorance. I suspect though that many burgeoning audio stores are using the older MP3 format rather than AAC so as to distinguish themselves from Apple and play up the myth that AAC is not a standard. It’s a shame because the format was specifically designed to replace MP3
[Read Sky guns for iTunes market]