On Slashdot, there is a post about Apple’s deal with EMI to release non-DRM’ed music in AAC format may change how music is distributed on-line. While the conclusions drawn by this article may be suspect, I think there are aspects that are worth considering.

First of all, AAC is a standardized format that was devised by multiple industry players such as Dolby, Fraunhofer, AT&T, Sony and Nokia, and so it’s not completely proprietary like Microsoft’s WMA format or Real Audio. Given the open standard, the creation of a GPLed encoder and decoder for AAC was less fraught with licensing issues than creating one for the MP3 format. (For a couple of years, the LAME project, now GPLed, was only a patch to the reference code from ISO, which had a restrictive license.)

Secondly, distribution of AACs does not require a licensing fee (although you do have to pay for distributing encoders and decoders)

Thirdly, there are some technical merits for adopting AAC. At lower bitrates (at which most music is encoded), AAC is definitely better than MP3, and at higher bitrates, they are pretty much on equal footing.

Fourthly, DRM-free AACs would allow third-parties to take advantage of the iPod’s dominance of the market.

I would love greater support for open formats like OGG and FLAC, too, but this is probably farther from the horizon.