News
Sony to support AAC audio format
Sony has announced that it will support the AAC audio format used by Apple in the next version of Sonic Stage, its digital music management software. While the application will not be able to play copy-protected songs from the iTunes Music Store, Sonic Stage will play music encoded with iTunes in AAC format. Sony already supports AAC in its PSP gaming device and select mobile phones, and it appears Sony plans to soon do the same with its line of Walkman digital music players. “Sony’s latest strategy is taken as an open acknowledgment that it can no longer ignore iPod’s dominant lead,” says one report on Sony’s announcement.
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1
the mighty sony bends
Posted by about_time on May 10, 2006 at 7:02 AM (PDT)
2
Nice to see Sony adopting AAC. Perhaps maybe this will pave the way for other big companies such as Microsoft and Creative to adopt AAC and implement playback support in its players.
Posted by teqnilogik on May 10, 2006 at 7:16 AM (PDT)
3
Sony’s software Sonic Gate is way far from user-friendly anways...i used it back in the MiniDisc days...so even if they adopt AAC, you really dont wanna use that crappy software.
Posted by jager on May 10, 2006 at 7:34 AM (PDT)
4
Crappy or not; having Sony accept the format is a big move and others WILL notice. Betamax VHS wars relived! Hopefully they wont have to learna third time....
Posted by mike on May 10, 2006 at 7:36 AM (PDT)
5
It’s nice to know that if I go with a Sony player next time, I don’t have to re-rip all my CDs. This is big for people who have largely stayed away from buying music from the iTunes store. For those locked in, it’s not that big of deal. But it’s a good thing for the market…
Posted by BrettB on May 10, 2006 at 8:16 AM (PDT)
6
In my opinion this is the first step to an actual “ipod killer”
Posted by willhockey16 on May 10, 2006 at 8:38 AM (PDT)
7
It was inevitable that this would happen. My guess is that by next year, every mp3 player and all the associated computer software will play AAC, and it isn’t long until someone works out a royal deal with Apple for the rights to play their DRM. No one who has ripped their entire CD collection to AAC (like I did because I really do feel that it is the better format) will go back and re-rip their collections just to buy another company’s player. If Sony, Microsoft, SanDisk etc. want to have any chance to steal away some of Apple’s client base, they will neeed to play AAC, and eventually protected AAC.
Posted by Victor on May 10, 2006 at 8:47 AM (PDT)
8
This is great news; now my 15,000 AAC files might have another place to call home besides my aging iPod and my Palm LifeDrive.
Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on May 10, 2006 at 11:09 AM (PDT)
9
Having your entire collection in mp4 is no real worry, iTunes can convert mp4 to mp3. So re-ripping wouldn’t be an issue either way.
Posted by uk7 on May 10, 2006 at 11:26 AM (PDT)
10
Does it really support AAC, or is it just converting AAC format files into ATRAC format or whatever it is that Sony supports. Didn’t I read that that is how they “support” MP3 and WMA?
Posted by sjonke in Maryland, US on May 10, 2006 at 11:34 AM (PDT)
11
Hopefully this will help end the god-aful WMA format.
Posted by Peachey on May 10, 2006 at 12:37 PM (PDT)
12
are they going to make sonic stage for mac OS? it’s microsoft only now
Posted by wombat on May 10, 2006 at 3:50 PM (PDT)
13
what i would like would be for sony to support he-aac and one-up apple in sound quality. i agree that lc-aac trumps just about everything (except maybe mpc) but supposedly he-aac is even better.
Posted by avinash on May 19, 2006 at 9:43 PM (PDT)