MusicBrainz' Robert Kaye is mouthing off again. (And making sense, as usual.)

The bottom line is that Ogg Vorbis is the only format we can really trust to be patent and royalty-free.

What exactly can we expect from an open platform? Does that mean that they will offer Ogg/Vorbis downloads? Ogg/Vorbis is just about the only truly free codec that is available -- everything else is encumbered by patents or other crazy royalty schemes.

Even classic MP3 doesn't fit this anymore since FHG/Thomson have started collecting royalties. So, Echo, if you are listening, please make your content available in Ogg/Vorbis format! I can't think of a better way to get geeks to buy your music.

(Reminds me that I'm pretty lame for not making my music files available as Oggs yet....Tsk. Tsk. Time to look for a good encoder for OSX. Any suggestions?)

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/2676

Will Echo offer Ogg/Vorbis downloads?
by Robert Kaye
Jan. 27, 2003
URL: http://www.echo.com/technology/index.html
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Today's unveiling of Echo Networks brings about a new online music venture formed by Best Buy, Tower Records, the Virgin Entertainment, Wherehouse Entertainment, Hastings Entertainment and Trans World Entertainment. Echo plans to license music from the recording industry and offer it to the Internet community, along with a broad range of real-time community features tightly integrated with the listening experience. Their web site states:

Echo will seek to unify the industry through a standard and open platform for the delivery of digital entertainment.

What exactly can we expect from an open platform? Does that mean that they will offer Ogg/Vorbis downloads? Ogg/Vorbis is just about the only truly free codec that is available -- everything else is encumbered by patents or other crazy royalty schemes.

Even classic MP3 doesn't fit this anymore since FHG/Thomson have started collecting royalties. So, Echo, if you are listening, please make your content available in Ogg/Vorbis format! I can't think of a better way to get geeks to buy your music.

Robert Kaye is the Mayhem & Chaos Coordinator and creator of MusicBrainz, the music metadata commons.