Digital Home Thoughts: C|NET: "iPod Undermines Microsoft On Copy-Locked CDs"

"When a copy-protected CD hit No. 1 on the U.S. music sales charts last month, it marked a breakthrough for the antipiracy technology in all but one sense: The music still wouldn't play on Apple's iPod. Now the two companies responsible for most copy-protected CDs are scrambling to create new versions of their technologies that are compatible with Apple's popular digital music player. In the process, they're both making substantial changes in the way CDs are digitally locked, changes that could ultimately be a setback to recent Microsoft strides into the music business."

The ever increasing struggle between Apple's AAC audio format and Microsoft's WMA technology is really starting to get interesting. The bottom line is that while WMA is on nearly every PC and portable device, only the iPod plays back AAC encoded audio. And with every legal music download service (outside of Cupertino) choosing WMA technology, that makes Microsoft the default standard - right? Well, it's not quite that simple. The problem is, while WMA is more widely supported, the iPod is the most widely popular audio player on the market. Meaning that, technically, AAC is the dominant audio format. And this is causing a major shift in strategies among copyright protection companies such as SunnComm and Macrovision who are now rethinking their reliance on Microsoft technology in favor of support for AAC.

Ultimately I suspect both formats will become widely popular and well supported, following Al Reis's Law of Duality (In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race).