Jason Cartwright wrote: > Of course, this won't happen (it be being popular, IMHO), because nobody > cares what format they consume their content in - they just care that it > works (which MP3 does). As proved by the BBC OGG trial years and years ago.
You are right. It's true that people don't care. Until they do. And then it's too late. And that's the problem. Crowds are morons - we all know it. Would you seriously get a bunch of people off the street to select a media format. They won't have a clue. Of course if you do a simple, short-term and capitalist analysis then mp3 makes a lot of sense. You cash in before the crowds realise you're ripping them off. Unless, of course, you're supposed to be acting in the best long term interest of the crowds. Unless you have a sense of responsibility. Unless you have the intelligence and domain knowledge to analyse the problem better than the man off the street (who may well, however, be a master builder who can design and build a glass wall that holds the entire front of your house up - so they're not morons individually - they just rely on *you* doing your job right and not building a digital solution that collapses in a few years. In the building trade they're called cowboys). Another analogy that might make sense: audio quality on CDs. http://www.mindspring.com/~mrichter/dynamics/dynamics.htm The music is already lost. Seriously. Even if DRM still works in 30 years - the noise will be there but the sweetness of the music is already gone. Short term profit has destroyed our future heritage. Could you see the BBC sound engineers doing this? Do they have a *huge* amount respect? David - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
