Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
I'm in that dwindling demographic that still buys CDs. For anything that I plan to listen to on the home stereo, I can't see having a lo-res rip as my only copy. Even the new "iTunes Plus" files don't approach the bitrate of real audio CDs... which don't approach the "bandwidth" of vinyl, but obviously have a lot of advantages over analog reproduction.

The proprietary formats go both ways, too. iPods and many other players don't support .wma files. And, after years of jamming SD cards with a little bit of music on them, into my handheld computer, I found that if I wanted a dedicated music player with some real capacity, I had to get an iPod. None of the other players supports MacOS.
Amen! I still buy them, and I'm still quite heavily involved in the consumer side of the audio biz. I wrote a column on Blu-ray/HD DVD and mentioned the dwindling CD biz and got completely attacked. So, we're not alone -- there are still millions and millions of players.

I also agree that complaining that another player won't play AAC files is like complaining that your Look cleats won't work with your Speedplay pedals. (Like how I turned us back to cycling?) It's not what it's supposed to do. iTunes has no problem with MP3, so it's actually all the other manufacturers who aren't allowing you more flexibility.