Much like the Dvorak keyboard, new digital music formats pose a challenge even as they offer solutions.
The Dvorak is an alternative to the standard QWERTY keyboard that rearranges the keys so that typing on it is much quicker and more efficient. Yet few outside of hardcore computer programmers use it because replacing the existing QWERTY standard would be too costly and difficult. For much the same reasons, alternative digital music formats face an uphill battle replacing the tried-and-true MP3.
The Motion Pictures Experts Group, otherwise known as MPEG, will meet this month in Germany to consider making a new digital audio format called MT9 an international standard.
Developed by the South Korean company Audizen, the MT9 format - commercially known as Music 2.0 - splits an audio file into six channels, such as vocals, guitar, bass and so on. Users playing the track can then raise or lower the volume on the different channels like a producer on a mixing board, to the point of isolating a single item.
According to the Korea Times, its inventors say the new format will replace MP3 as the standard for all digital music. But certain music industry realities stand in the way of their goal.
From a technical perspective, replacing MP3 with a new digital music standard would be rather easy. Digital retailers in a matter of months could refresh their entire database with music containing the new format - just as Napster and Wal-Mart quickly switched from digital rights management to non-DRM formats.
But to do so, these retailers would need their label partners to provide them with music encoded in the new format, meaning that all the major labels and the host of independents would need to one day agree to start using a new technology to sell their music.
Then they would need audio manufacturers - in particular, Apple - to start making products that support the format and its capabilities.
The average life span of today's MP3 player is about eight to 12 months, so it would take time to re-seed the market with new devices.
Implementing a new digital music format would require an unprecedented level of cooperation among the labels, digital retailers and manufacturers.
It's possible to attempt a staged roll-out, where only a computer could access the full features of the new format while portable devices slowly caught up, but that setup would be far less interesting to the music fan.