[vorbis-dev] more vorbis press!

[Jack Moffitt]

http://news.webnoize.com/item.rs?ID=11136

or

Quietly Slipping into Audio Software, Vorbis Wants to Dethrone MP3 
          by Mark Lewis

          Confident they can oust the MP3 format from dominance,
developers of Ogg Vorbis, an
          open-source, royalty-free audio encoding format, say they are
making headway, getting their
          technology into software players, portable devices and game
software. 

          When Ogg Vorbis developers first released a beta version of
their encoder/decoder software in
          July, the Internet audio community seemed skeptical. The MP3
format was a de facto standard
          among consumers, and other high-quality formats such as Windows
Media and Advanced Audio
          Coding were either mainly used for promotional content or
couldn't be used by consumers to
          encode their CDs. 

          But German audio research lab Fraunhofer, which holds 12 patents
on underlying MP3
          processes, said it would start charging royalties on MP3
encoders and even MP3 files. That
          sounded a wake-up call to an industry that widely believed the
MP3 format was a free
          technology. Vorbis developers declared that new businesses and
developing artists need open
          standards for Internet media because they reduce licensing costs
and create more progressive
          technology. 

          "The music revolution was getting off to a good start, but got
clamped down when all this
          proprietary crap came long," said San Francisco Vorbis developer
Jack Moffitt. 

          Formerly employed by iCast, CMGI's soon-to-close entertainment
portal, Moffitt and Vorbis
          creator Chris "Monty" Montgomery recently regrouped their
open-source projects under the
          name Xiphophorus. Having refined Ogg Vorbis software through
three beta versions, they plan to
          release their first official version on January 10, Moffitt
said. More than 100,000 people have
          downloaded source code of the beta versions. 

          Vorbis' dissemination strategy is two-fold: get developers to
support Vorbis in software and
          hardware, and encourage artists to use it as a higher-quality,
ultimately cheaper format than
          MP3. Software players Sonique, XMMS and Unsanity Echo for the
Mac now come with built-in
          Vorbis support; America Online's Winamp player doesn't
officially support it, but Vorbis
          programmers distribute a free plug-in. Several freeware and
shareware ripper/encoding programs
          support Vorbis. 

          On the hardware side, Iomega built a prototype of its new HipZip
portable device that supports
          Vorbis, and Moffitt expects one will reach the market next
year. One player is far cry from what
          the format needs to achieve ubiquity, but Moffitt is
confident. "It took Microsoft two years to get
          into hardware, and we did it in less than six months since our
initial release." 

          Vorbis isn't aiming only at consumer audio. Game developers are
a large potential market
          because they may not want to pay "up to $2.50 a box" to use
Fraunhofer's MP3 encoding for the
          small amount of music included with each game, Moffitt
said. Several game engines already
          support Vorbis, and Maxis, a division of major game publisher
Electronic Arts, is evaluating the
          technology. 

          Vorbis Promoter Brian Zisk has additionally set his sights on
Internet radio. "I'm hoping that
          Fraunhofer will charge for the streaming MP3 format," he
said. "Then, [Internet radio company]
          Live365 will switch over [to Vorbis]. I predict Vorbis will
surpass MP3 next year." 

          A shift of that magnitude will require major change among more
than 150,000 unsigned artists
          who distribute their music in the MP3 format. MP3 tools are
widely distributed, and major
          independent artists sites such as IUMA.com, MP3.com and
Riffage.com use the MP3 format. 

          Moffitt believes artists will be lured by Vorbis' higher
fidelity -- since the technology is based on
          more advanced math than is used in MP3. And like game
developers, artists may feel economic
          pressure to use Vorbis should Fraunhofer proceed with a plan to
charge them one cent for every
          file they distribute. But so far, artist adoption is slow: a few
artists are distributing sample Vorbis
          tracks on the Vorbis site, and a small digital record label,
Vorbisonic, is exclusively distributing
          Vorbis tracks. 

          Once developers and creators adopt Vorbis, they are supposed to
create a supply-side
          transformation that will trickle down to consumers. "If artists
are producing content and encoding it
          in Vorbis, and developers are supporting it, [consumers] can get
any content in the world and it
          will work," Moffitt said. "The point is we don't want people to
hunt for the technology." 

          One new Vorbis area to watch is video compression, an area
stimulated by Project Mayo's work
          on a new version of DivX as much as RealNetworks' and Intel's
improvements to streaming video
          [see 11.8.00 Preparing New DivX, Project Mayo Faces Commercial
Challenges]. Vorbis
          programmers are gradually working on an open-source video codec
called Tarkin, Zisk said.
          The compression technology is intended to give the video
industry an alternative to proprietary
          video formats, which are often tied to expensive server
software. 

          Vorbis programmers don't know when they will finish Tarkin, so
it could enter the market too late
          to become the next "MP3 of video." But if Montgomery and Moffitt
get lucrative consulting jobs or
          if Xiphophorus gets a new corporate sponsor, programmers could
make rapid progress, Zisk said.

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