I'm not really exicted about MP3pro. It would probably sound really good at high bitrates, but it's virgin technology, untested theory. As it develops it will be competetive, but it will take time to grow to the Classic MP3's popularity. By that time internet music will not be available in MP3pro format without a subsciption because the encoder will not be released publicly.
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Originally posted by Catbert13
Well I expect MP3s to become what MIDI files are today.
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Originally posted by Mazer
For all its glits and glamour MP3 is not all it's cracked up to be. It really doesn't matter what format is used to transmit music around the world; any time something better arrives it will replace MP3. Non-lossy compressors and broadband technology will become cheaper and more numerous, making MP3 cliché if not obsolete.
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MP3 is just another fad when it comes down to it. It's trendy and people throw the word around like they're showing off their hairdo and their clothes. It's functional and it performs well, but just like the Apple II, it'll eventually lose its appeal.
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From the Ogg Vorbis FAQ
Why Vorbis? MP3 is open.
No, it isn't. Fraunhofer (and other MPEG consortium members) claim that it is impossible to create an mp3 encoder without infringing on their patents. To create/use an encoder, the law says one must pay royalties to Fraunhofer and other MPEG Consortium members. In other words, you can play what you like, but you're not allowed to contribute without paying the ante. MPEG-4, destined to be the next generation of internet audio, is even more tightly controlled.
More worrisome is the prospect of behind the scenes alliances between MPEG (which dominates the audio technology) with the RIAA/music industry which seeks to control all distribution.
Do you really want a corporate alliance controlling what music you can listen to and when? Remember that the RIAA is working hard to make players that play anything other than officially sanctioned streams illegal.
Why Vorbis? We already have MP3 and don't want to change.
I'll be blunt.
If you didn't pay for that copy of mp3enc, you're [technically] a thief. Strictly speaking, LAME users are supposed to pay royalties to FhG too. Of course, MPEG members tend not to go after individuals; that would be nearly impossible.
Going after businesses is an entirely different thing. If you're running a business, you either pay the arbitrary royalties (FhG decides this on a case-by-case basis, and generally protects 'exclusives' it has arranged with other companies) or you don't stream. There are no low cost, unrestricted, legal streaming solutions for small business. The alternatives to MP3 aren't cheap either.
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That all true. If you go to the
FHg site you'll see that a lot of effort is going into security, watermarking, and copyright protection in the development of MP3 technology. The technology, the law, and the companies with their dreams of monopoly will ensure that only certain companies will be allowed to distribute MP3's. Ogg Vorbis is a good alternative; in time people will have as many ogg's as MP3's in their libraries. But the crossover from lossy to non-lossy formats will send them both to the scrap heap.
This decade will mark the begining of a bandwidth explosion. And you need to understand this to put internet music into context. With analog modems music takes five or six times more time to download than to listen to it. But now the slowest cable and dsl lines can download in real time. Eventually every PC in the world will be able to upload and download multiple music streams simultaneously. Hard drives are getting bigger exponentially. Everyone is going to get their terabite drives within the next ten years. In decades to come people won't even compress their music. Will MP3 even matter at that point?
Well for now it's just a dream, but it's going to happen in time.