The music format "war" is being positioned as the computer platform war of the aughty-aughts (as our forebears called this decade a century ago). The battle is between Apple's AAC/FairPlay platform and Microsoft's Windows Media Format, with Apple in the interesting position of dominating the market. At issue is Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) and iPod music player, which both utilize the AAC/FairPlay music format, while Microsoft's WMA format is supported by the every other music service and music player on the market.

I should, perhaps, add "unsuccessful" to "every other," because while the iPod is the #1 music player in the industry with more than 30% of the market, the iTMS controls perhaps 70% of the music download business. For all intents and purposes, AAC/FairPlay is the dominant music format in the music download business.

Microsoft is working hard to position WMA as a "standard," despite its lack of market share, its closed nature, and the fact that it is controlled by Microsoft. This compares to the AAC/FairPlay platform which is also closed, is controlled by Apple, but has market share in its favor.

All the while, the real music format that is in control of the market is MP3. While the iPod supports AAC and AAC/FairPlay, and most other players support WMA, they all support MP3. More importantly, while open standard AAC offers much higher music quality, the vast, vast, vast majority of digital songs are being encoded and traded back and forth (and pirated) in the MP3 format. For now, MP3 is the real standard.

Enter a TechNewsWorld story published today that examines, or attempts to examine, the issues. From the article:

While Apple may have lost the operating system battle to Microsoft, it ha become a major player in the digital music market, thanks to the company' successful iPod player and iTunes online music store. However, Microsoft ha managed to make its Windows Media Audio (WMA) music format the standard of nearly all other online music stores and players -- with the notable exception of PC partner HP, which recently announced a partnership with Apple to adopt its competing music format.

There are indications that the recording industry -- one group that could effectively force interoperability -- is pushing for universally compatible players and services, but analysts told TechNewsWorld that, even with the recording industry's leverage, universal interoperability is unlikely to happen soon.

"The labels are in the position for pushing it, but I don't see them doing it in the near term," Yankee Group senior analyst Mike Goodman told TechNewsWorld. "They're much more focused on trying to sue people."

Mr. Goodman hit the nail on the head, at least on that front, but he is also quoted as saying it's a horse race between WMA and AAC/FairPlay. From the article:

Apple is credited with gaining the dominant position in the online music category with its successful iPod player and iTunes Music Store -- which led the way with the 99-cent song model -- but Microsoft has managed to make its WMA format the standard of most other online music services and digital players.

"It's pretty much an even race," Goodman said. "Apple is the dominant player in the hardware space. However, Microsoft is rapidly becoming the dominant distribution method with WMA."

Except that it isn't. Support for WMA on all these other players means next to nothing. Yes, there's potential for Napster 2, BuyMusic, ad infinitum to sell music to people with these other players, but they aren't doing so now, and that isn't likely to change any time soon. Without music downloads, WMA is hardly a distribution method as the vast majority of people are encoding music as MP3s. Indeed, even if all of the other services combined could equal the amount of business Apple is getting through the iTMS, it wouldn't equal the number of CDs ripped to MP3, and songs traded on the piracy networks in any given day.

In other words, if there is a race between WMA and AAC/FairPlay, it's a race for second place, and Microsoft is likely to show.

Format war, schmormat war.

There are issues with Apple being slow to license out its AAC/FairPlay, and I think the company would be better served by being more aggressive with new partnerships like the one just announced with HP; but I also think that Apple is firmly in the driver seat (or in the jockey uniform, to extend that horse racing metaphor to its furthest).

In the bigger picture, however, I don't think any of this matters all that much. DRM is destined to fail in the long run, and I see the current online music download business as a stepping stone to more change in the music industry. That change is going to leave companies like Apple that embrace open standards like AAC in the better position, while Microsoft-controlled WMA will be left behind.

Format war? Don't get caught up in worrying about it, because we will all be laughing at this nonsense in a very few short years.