[KLUG Members] ogg v. mp3

[Big M]

--- Tony Gettig <tony@voiceoversnow.com> wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> From http://www.vorbis.com
> "Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio
> encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open
> Source."
> 
> One of my many part time activities involves recording voice parts
> for
> various projects, whether radio, TV, animated features, etc. For
> those
> clients that want to get their sound files via my website, I've
> always
> just converted the audio to mp3 and they download it. Very
> convenient.
> 
> What is the momentum behind ogg/vorbis? Should I be considering using
> this format over mp3? I'd have to put a link to a decent player for
> Windows on my website, but I would do it to raise awareness of the
> option. I can't very well get rid of mp3 files altogether (my clients
> would likely disappear if they can't easily retrieve and play their
> files!). Is ogg/vorbis expected to surpass mp3 at some point in the
> future?

As far as I have been able to determine, you cannot legally create mp3s
without paying royalties for any commercial use at all. It does not
matter whether you charge anything for them or not. And in the case of
completely non-commercial use, you cannot even charge anything for the
distribution medium, such as, say, a dollar for the cd you put them on.
The license is very restrictive. So if you are providing mp3s as part
of your services for your clients, legally, you must be paying some
portion of your profits in royalties.

This is one of the incentives for ogg. Another, in your case, is that
ogg can do better voice compression than mp3. You can use lower
bitrates and still have it sound good. I think about the lowest you can
go in mp3 is 32 kbps. I think lower rates won't play in older players,
and you'll start to get artifacts in the sound, anuway. I think ogg can
go down to about 8 kbps (don't quote me on that). 

To me, asking whether ogg will surpass mp3 is like asking if Linux et
al
will surpass Windows. I think most people won't care and will just use
the easiest and most hassle-free solution. What matters is what you
think is the right thing to do.

Mike


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