MP3 technology may soon face tough competition

NEW YORK: MP3, a popular format for downloading music from the Web, is under

pressure from leading technology companies such as Microsoft Corp., the Wall

Street Journal reported in its online edition Thursday. Microsoft and

Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc. are working to subtly wean consumers away from

MP3 technology, encouraging them to use proprietary software formats instead,

the paper said.

The technology companies, which have the music industry's blessing, are

encouraging those who download music to use new proprietary software formats

that make the audio sound significantly better but also make it harder to share

copyright-protected songs, the paper said.

Microsoft, for instance, plans to severely limit the quality of music that

can be recorded as an MP3 file using software built into the next version of its

personal-computer operating system, Windows XP, according to the report. Music

recorded in the Redmond, Wash., software company's own format, called Windows

Media Audio, will sound clearer and require far less storage space on a

computer, the paper said.

Other formats gaining popularity are based on the relatively new Advanced

Audio Codec created by AT&T Corp. of New York, Dolby Laboratories Inc. of

San Francisco, Sony Corp. of Japan, and the Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte

Schaltungen in Germany, the paper said.

MP3 is the format used to by controversial Internet music-sharing service

Napster, whose operations has delighted consumers as it has enabled access to

free music but has infuriated the record industry for stealing copyrighted

material.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.