I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft, and I really don't want to use their audio format, but it seems to me that it's really beginning to catch on. If you want to use one of the new pay-to-download Web sites, you can either choose iTunes or something else that uses WMA. I don't have an iPod, so iTunes isn't all that great an option for me at the moment (and it doesn't appear that it will become a significantly better option anytimes soon). I choose not to use the services that are giving us WMA files. I've also read that some music companies are going to start making CDs that can't be ripped, but that come with pre-ripped WMA songs. Here's my question: Does this bother anyone else as much as it bothers me? I don't want to have to buy an iPod just to take songs I purchase one iTunes with me. (I hope Apple doesn't mess this up by not licensing their proprietary copy protection that they use with the AAC format to other hardware MP3 player makers, thus locking iTunes users into using an iPod or nothing at all. Remember the last time you chose not to license your stuff, guys? Look where that got us!) I don't want to purchase songs in WMA format either, regardless of how many different players will support it. Do you think we'll ever see more choice? (I realize it's still early in the pay-to-download service game.) Do you think music companies could get away with offering pre-ripped WMA files rather than letting people rip CDs in whatever format and with whatever bitrate they choose? I hope not. But then again, if we can live in a world where Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office both have over 90% of the marketshare, I don't know why WMA can't do the same (shudder). It's annoying to me.
I agree with you TraJ -- I am not a huge fan of the WMA format either (not to mention IE or MS Office), and I'm disappointed to see how far it's caught on. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be like this for a long, long time. I'm not surprised Ogg Vorbis never caught on, but I never thought WMA would take over MP3 . . . for those of us who use different platforms, it's a disappointment.
I figured I could count a fellow MozillaFirebird and OpenOffice (although I haven't jumped the MS Office ship yet) user to agree. And I'm still running Windows.
Rest assured that someone out there will (if they havent already) make a proggie that will convert WMA to mp3. There are way too many people who, like myself, hate MS's proprietary(sp?) formats.
The thing for me is that there are better formats available. Even if someone comes up with a way to convert WMA to some other format, it's still only as good (and possibly even worse) than WMA. The end product isn't going to be any better than what you started with. The resulting file may not be copy protected, but it's still only going to be as good as the original WMA file. You know?
