CAN WE FORMAT A NEW FUTURE IN MUSIC?

I am writing this as a live blog whilst taking advantage of some sky high WIFI (WI-FLI maybe in this case?) in response to the recent Music Week national poll.  The poll is to "assess user interest in quality audio files for music."  They state "This is your chance to make a difference and get rid of sub-standard MP3 files NOW".

This statement really got me thinking and I would welcome a discussion / feedback on the below to see what people really think?

I am someone who takes a keen interest in new technologies and especially new file formats, their history and their future.  So I am keen to know just WHO is (or would be) developing this new file format being discussed?

By gaining support from professional musicians, engineers and producers what will the owners of the file format do with all the royalties they make if their new format is embraced by us all?

I am aware of how difficult it is to get a new format taken on by large manufacturers - it has to come from the biggest corporate powers otherwise it doesn't reach enough people and so therefore isn't adopted as a standard by the all important general public.

The thing is that none of these major corporations (like Apple) are keen on letting someone outside of their organisation make all that money, they would prefer if at all possible to create their own format to use on devices.  However this of course also causes deadlock - unless of course one company has a complete stranglehold over the market.

I was once lucky enough to meet a gentleman whose company owned MP3 (M-PEG layer 3 patent) whilst on a trip to Japan.  This guy earns a royalty for EVERY device in the world thats plays, reads or records MP3 format files.  It seriously blew my mind.

He was at the AES Japan show launching his new MP3 HD format.  I had got chatting to him as was the first person that day to correctly identify the different bit depths and sample rates of the files he was using for listening tests on his booth.  The MP3 HD format offers exactly the same quality as CD (16 bit 44.1kHz) he said it would be the next big thing.  This was back in 2008, 5 years later and nothing has changed as the industry didn't embrace it.  i think perhaps they do not want to send him any more cheques!

Passing the new format onto someone else i'm not against; by all means let someone else forge a new format into our audio world with better quality.  My main worry is a different issue.

I do not believe that any consumer or music maker likes sub-standard audio.  I believe that its the money machine behind the consumer industry, the big corporations that are stopping the flow of a new format coming to market.  The technology for better audio already exists.

So, let me pose this:

Imagine if a file format offering better quality audio was created, owned and patented by a not-for-profit organisation (maybe a fuse of industry organisations like MPG, APRS, AES, MU etc).  If this was then embraced by the wider international community of industry individuals, imagine all the good that could be created by the profits from the format.  If you let your imagination run, this could be a whole new form of income stream into the wider industry or used for research, education, community work, independent funding pools - options are vast.

I think this is also the best chance to get major corporations on board as they would then not be supporting a competitor but embracing an industry that gives them content and helps them sell and market their products globally. They could see it as a brand credible endeavour and embrace the format without fear of driving the competitors revenue, or making another single person incredibly rich.

It would need to be a format that DAW software titles allowed you to save / bounce down work to and that download stores offered for sale and that manufactures of hardware allowed compatibility with to read / play.  A big task, but not impossible?

Thoughts?

Sarah x