In a rather pointless campaign Britain’s music download retailers are going to market the fact that MP3s work across different devices.
The Entertainment Retailers Association, the trade body behind the move, says their “MP3 100% compatible” initiative should also help consumers identify legal sites.
Horse. Bolted. Gate. Shut.
Oh the irony. The number of mp3 files that don’t actually work across players is huge – it is actually really easy to get encoding settings wrong, leaving the file useless on some players. Not that some podcasters seem to realise that :s.
“Compatible” mp3? thats groundbreaking… welcome to 1998!
Save your cynicism, dear mike, for the mug punters who to continue to buy their tracks on itunes in proprietary AAC format. Is it not the case that AAC is only playable on apple corp. devices? This lock-in is great business for apple but not for the consumer. Apple is the evil empire, MP3 is good for the consumer.
you sadcase
In other news, all shoes are to be emblazoned with signs reading “100% compatible with feet”. As well as preventing confusion among shoppers who might try to wear shoes on their hands, this will stop people buying stolen trainers out of the back of a van.
This isn’t as dumb as it sounds. Anyone who with the reasonable expectation that they could buy a (non ‘Plus’) song from the iTunes store and put it on their non-Apple media player / mobile phone may be grateful that such a logo exists. Let’s not forget that not everyone is as understanding of media formats as we are.
LOL
Also: only cool kids chill in ogg vorbis.
Agree with Paul and PJ, this is designed for the ‘laggards’ in the online music market. It’s still a little late, but then so are iTunes Alternatives.