So what format do you think will Succeed the mp3?

[twisterX]

Sometime in the future mp3 will not be needed becuase of the larger space avaliable and greater internet speeds. Also it is very old compared to some newer formats such as ACC, OGG Vorbis ect.

What do you think will take over?

[GepperRankins]

mp3

[Barbarossa]

.mp3 has become synonymous with digital music. Hence mp3-players. I don't think they'll evolve into oggplayers, or maybe they will

It's a very good question though, I mean, if bandwidth and space isn't an issue then why aren't we all swapping .wavs now?

[4play]

nothing will, it's just too widely used and decent quality for the size to be replaced by anything.

[bashnu]

unless they find a way to compress it even more with higher quality and then call it something else

[Barbarossa]

The record companies would love to invent such a format, and then riddle it with DRM.

[Damnatory]

I would actually think that with the type of bandwidth that is being used now, and the amount of storage space that most people own, that there won't actually be any need to use a compression format. WAV files may get their chance again.

[twisterX]

Or FLAC. I read something that said that the mp3 format is missing features that are in more recent formats and they cant just be added in.

mp3 can't go on forever.

[4play]

Its true mp3 cant go on forever but flac, shn and ape are so unknown by most people it will be a long time before any of them take off. They are really only used widely by enthusiasts that record live shows so they can retain all of the sub standard quality most of these shows are recorded at.

Your average consumer really couldnt tell the difference between an mp3 at 192kbps and a cd. Until peoples hearing suddenly improves or 5.1 becomes standard for new music we are stuck with mp3.

[Wolfmight]

mpeg-4 audio is what iTunes uses. Maybe that will someday. Mp4?