No, MP3 is not dead

[FlyingPenguin]

Thank God someone got this right with a followup. I read that 'MP3 is dead' article yesterday and laughed my ass off.

We'll all be using MP3s for a LONG time to come. I've always encoded at 256 bit (no variable bit rate!), even 20 years ago when storage was a premium. It sounds fine, and I'm a former sound engineer. Sure AAC is better, but 99% of the people out there can't possibly hear the difference.

And the fact that it's now license free only benefits everyone. Why move to a new standard that requires licensing?

https://marco.org/2017/05/15/mp3-isnt-dead

[Err]

I saw the MP3 is dead article reposted from an audiophile store. I've made no secret that I don't care for MP3s but I'm in the minority. Audiobooks and podcasts are great as MP3. Most music is fine as well because modern mastering sucks. I never liked MP3 mainly because it can't do true gapless. Listening to a live show or an album like The Wall in MP3 drives me nuts because of the tiny skips in between tracks. I like flac because of the higher bitrates and true gapless support. However, streaming now makes up the majority of listening in those under 30 years old. I allow music in the lab at work and it's always streamed and played through the in-phone speaker. It sounds like crap to me but again, I'm in the minority. I guess my point is that people simple don't care about the quality as long at it's convenient. AAC is popular because of iTunes. I'm sure the industry will push towards it because they can encrypt the files and tie them to single accounts.

As an aside, you have to watch what you buy from the so-called Hi-Res audio sites. Sometimes that 24 bit 96K "audiophile" album is an upsampled CD.

[FlyingPenguin]

I like to think of it this way: for years people listened to music on AM radios, and they were fine with that. For years people listened to 8 tracks and they were fine with that.

It's whatever works for you. I used to pay for those expensive audiophile cassette albums for the car before DVDs.

MP3 sounds WAY better to me compared to Satellite Radio, which is so badly compressed it's just aweful.

I do agree anout gapless. I rip those kind of albums, like War of the Worlds, as one huge MP3 for each album side is the way I deal with it.

[Err]

My dad had quite a few 8-tracks. They were the most economical portable format until he was able to afford a car cassette deck in the mid 80's. It was the format where I first heard The Dark Side of the Moon:

Time, Money, and Us and Them were split between tracks. You'd get a fade out followed by a mechanical click and then a fade in.

[Losbot]

That 8 Track Dark Side of the Moon was my first album when my parents gave me their stereo. I was like 8yo and I used to sleep to that album. LOL