The Future of MP3 and Surround

An anonymous reader writes "Wired is running an article discussing the future of the MP3 format with the amount of competition out there, especially from the surround sound scene. Thompson, the entity that licenses the MP3 format, released the MP3 Surround format to try to combat this but will it be enough? From the article: 'It may seem as if the venerable MP3 standard is here to stay, but it faces attack from a number of angles. First, it doesn't sound as good, byte-for-byte, as files purchased from iTunes Music Store (in the AAC format) or any of the Microsoft-compliant stores. Second, the CD rippers/encoders that most people use -- iTunes and Windows Media Player -- have encouraged users to rip to AAC and WMA over the years. Third, only one major online music store, eMusic, proffers songs in the MP3 format, and it lacks most major releases. Fourth, geeks who love MP3 for its wide compatibility can now choose from preferable open-source alternatives such as Ogg Vorbis.'"

Comments

I dunno

[TallMatthew]

Whoever wrote this should be taken seriously. Witness:

Finally, today's faster connections and more capacious hard drives have audiophiles turning to lossless codecs such as FLAC and those offered by Apple Computer and Microsoft.

Anyone who has mastery of the word "capacious" knows a little somethin about somethin.

Re:I dunno

[viking_kiwi]

Well Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder certainly does, when discussing wealthy relatives:

"...they have one great redeeming feature -- their wallets.
More capacious than an elephant's scrotum, and just as difficult
to get your hands on"

Re:MP3 is not dead. Not by far.

[HaydnH]

I listen to ogg, nice to meet you

Re:allofmp3

[timster]

He's talking about allofmp3, where you buy music from the Russian mafia for, well, Russian mafia prices. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to fund a crime syndicate than, say, a record label.