While we’re all more than familiar with the MP3 format, how many of us actually know what it really stands for? In this issue I’ll be giving a brief introduction to the three famous types of music formats that we’ve all come to know only by its initials.

CK Ng

MP3: The King of Them All
MP3, short for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, was first introduced to the public back in 1994. The first real-time MP3 player software came during 1995, which enabled the possibility of ripping music CDs into digital format.  From 1995 through the late 1990s, the MP3 format was beginning to gain worldwide popularity through the Internet due to the introduction of successful softwares such as Winamp and Napster, with the latter allowing users to easily search for any music through its peer-to-peer network software. The world’s first MP3 player was Korean brand Saehan’s MPMan (no, it wasn’t the iPod), which was sold back in 1998. The Korean company has all but disappeared after the introduction of MPMan.
Because MP3 is capable of recording in different bit rates, which is the number of bits of encoded data that are used to represent each second of audio, it gives users much freedom to choose their desired quality. It’s relatively simple to understand how bit rates are defined: the higher the bit rate, the better the sound quality. If you want CD-quality music, then encoding in 320kbps is a must, but keep in mind that the higher the bit rate goes, so does the file size. A 4 minute track encoded in 320kbps can easily go up to a 10MB size.




AAC: Sleeping Giant
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) was first promoted as a successor to MP3 format for audio coding at medium to high bit rates. Some of the improvements that AAC has over MP3 are better sample frequencies and more flexible joint stereo, which means the sound quality is equivalent, if not better than MP3 at similar or lower bit rates. For example, a 96kbps AAC file can give nearly the same sound quality as a 128kbps MP3 file.
In 2003, Apple Computer announced that its iTunes and iPod products would support songs in AAC format, and that customers could download popular songs in a protected version of the format via the iTunes Music Store. Even mobile phones from big manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson have supported AAC playback. Many manufacturers announced dedicated MP3-playing mobile phones, such as the Sony Ericsson W800, Nokia N91 and Motorola ROKR E1 with AAC playback capabilities. The support for AAC from Nokia is also shown through its usage of AAC format ringtones in their mobile phones. Even Sony’s PSP is capable of AAC playback with firmware version 2.0 or higher. With the list of companies adopting AAC format growing impressively, there’s bound to be more to follow suit.


OGG: The Rising Contender
Ogg, also known as Ogg Vorbis, isn’t as common as the ones aforementioned, but is definitely heading towards the right direction. Due to the licensing of MP3 and AAC, users would have to pay the licensing fees if they wanted to write an MP3 player program. But thanks to the Ogg format, which is a patent-free, open source codec, similar to Linux operating system; it’s totally free of charge. Files ending in the .Ogg extension may be of any Ogg media file type, and because the format is free, Ogg’s various codecs have been incorporated into a number of different free and commercial media players such as VLC Media Player.
The advantage of the Ogg format compared to MP3 format is having a smaller file size when comparing two same files with similar bit rate. Currently the majority of Korean branded MP3 players such as iRiver and Samsung are capable of playing Ogg format, with many other brands expected to follow the trend soon. 


Bottom Line
MP3 format still remains as the undisputed choice among all music aficionados, and looks unlikely to be taken down its throne for quite some time. Stay tune for the next issue as I will be recommending some of the easiest, user-friendly music converters.