http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1528654,00.asp

By Jim Louderback
"Why isn't MP3 dead yet," complained reader Matt Bieschke to me in an e-mail. "I've been waiting a long time for MP3 to die, and it just seems to get more popular."

Are there better Alternatives? There are, and they solve the problems. Microsoft's WMA, MPEG-4 AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) used by Apple's iPod and iTunes, and Ogg Vorbis all create much smaller files that sound as good or better than MP3s. Ogg Vorbis is free for all, both on the encoding and the playback side. WMA includes built-in digital rights management (DRM), and Apple has appended its own DRM to AAC—which makes music sellers happy.
Why hasn't MP3 been unseated? Formats, once widely adopted, are very hard to change. MP3 has become a lowest-common-denominator format: A device simply cannot be successful without supporting it. Why? Because so many users have invested so much time in creating and downloading MP3 files, and they'll resist going through gathering and encoding all over again. There's simply too much material in MP3 format floating around for us to change over, even with all the benefits of newer formats.
I don't disagree with your assessment of the MP3 format...
MP3 will never die.
it's not about adopting new standards; it's really about making money.
What's it going to take to change? I've developed a law of technology adoption, which I modestly call Louderback's Law: Unless a new technology includes breakthroughs in at least two different dimensions—without adding hardship along the way—it will not supplant and older, established one.


The idea of "LOWest COMMON DENOMINATOR" is a strong idea. BIC has become LCM of the pens. MP# has become the LCM of music. VICKS has become LCM of cold-relief balm in India..and SURF has become LCM of washing powder....very very difficult to replace the first movers advantage. First mover, that went to the masses....

Power of LCM is a greatly unarticulated that defies the idea of value creation through premium branding and the language of 'desire through scarcity'. At least we can say that it works slightly differently for a mass-marketeer visionery. Trading products under one brand umbrella and creating a product that flows like water in the market is totally different ball game.

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