AAC Audio Format Selected by BMG and Universal Music Group for Commercial Music Downloads
DMusic Companies Choose State-of-the-Art Audio Compression for Delivery of Legitimate Digital Music

  San Francisco, Calif., August 30, 2000 -- Dolby Laboratories announced that Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and Universal Music Group are using the AAC audio compression standard in their respective programs for legitimate digital music delivery. AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is the latest audio codec standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as part of the MPEG specification. Compared to MPEG Layer-3, popularly known as MP3, AAC provides higher-quality audio yet requires approximately 30 percent less storage space and bandwidth.

``We have chosen to distribute our artists' music in AAC format because of its ability to deliver a superior audio experience to the consumer,'' said Karl Slatoff, vice president new media, of BMG. ``Our announcement is intended to provide the software and consumer electronics industries with the information they need to deliver SDMI-compliant products into the market that will support legitimate music from BMG artists.''

``Universal Music Group recently began using the AAC format in the trials of bluematter(TM), our new digital music product,'' said Laura Goldberg, vice president, P.C.-Based Digital Music, Global e. ``AAC is an attractive format for us because it offers consumers high audio quality but requires a limited amount of bandwidth for downloading.''

In addition to higher-quality music reproduction, AAC is being used in conjunction with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies, which control the unrestricted copying and unlawful distribution of songs. BMG's and Universal's legitimate digital music delivery programs embrace the latest technologies and protect the rights of copyright holders.

AAC is high-quality audio coding technology and the solution of choice for many broadcast and electronic music-distribution applications. AAC is compatible with all digital rights management, encryption, and watermarking solutions available today. In independent tests, the coding efficiency of AAC proved to be superior to MP3, providing higher-quality audio reproduction at lower bit rates. AAC provides up to 48 channels of audio, sample rates of up to 96 kHz, and can achieve ITU-R broadcast quality at 320 kb/s for a 5.1-channel audio program. Developed and standardized as an ISO/IEC specification by four industry leaders (AT&T, Dolby Laboratories, Fraunhofer IIS, and Sony Corporation), AAC is supported by a growing number of hardware and software manufacturers.

Source: Dolby Laboratories
Web: www.dolby.com