Did Amazon Kill MP3?

Hard to imagine how different things could be in ten years time when I look back at the early days of setting up a CD ripping service.

I am amazed that people like us are still in business given the number of times I've heard people foretell our death, mainly at the hands of music streaming services such as Spotify. We quake at the thought of what a mightier giant such as Google might do, and yesterday at Google I/O they had the chance to strike. Thankfully, I don't think they did. But I did see something that was interesting from my MP3 perspective.

Google announced a new video format. I won't bore you with the details but compared to the current high quality format (H264) it generates better images, in smaller files, that load / transfer faster. Why not the same for music? Indeed, given the launch of Google's All Access music streaming service. Don't forget they're paying for the raw computing power and the internet bandwidth that will get those millions of tracks onto iPods, iPhones, computers and Sonos boxes. An uprated digital music file format would have dramatically improved their hardware bill but no, they're sticking with MP3.

So are we.

Your Music, Your Phone, Your Photos

Today the iPhone seems to have usurped the iPod as the ubiquitous portable music player. Just as people try to personalise their music collections they are keen to make their phone look unique by investing in a snazzy phone case.

How about a case personalised with your own photos? Photobox do them but if you Google "personalised iphone case" you'll find a variety of suppliers. What if you want a photo and you only have a print? Well, follow the link to a photo scanning service we can recommend.