Finding the music format of the future http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2055743,00.html

This is an article by Jack Schofield and it was in The Guardian published on Thursday April 12th 2007.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2055743,00.html

It states firstly that the majority of music files on filesharing systems are encoded in MP3 format. But apparently, this is all about to change!
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) encoded files are becoming more popular as people begin to share more and more music downloaded from Apples iTunes Store. Also, support for MP3 encodings could falter if "the newly-merged Alcatel-Lucent telecoms giant can assert its claims to have pricey patent rights over the format."

As part of the EMI-Apple deal mentioned previously, Apple had agreed to offer non-protected 256kbps AAC files alongside its current protected 128kbps AAC files. This will give AAC a boost in its battle with MP3.
Music stores are free to choose which type of encoding they prefer to a certain level.

EMI's experimentation with selling unprotected tracks were done with the use of MP3 encoded tracks. Considering iTunes has most of the legal online music market, most files that are bought online could still use AAC.
The support is growing in other areas as well. It was first brought into the public eye with Apple when it introduced it with the iPod. AAC files play on a growing number of devices such as:

• Microsoft's Zune
• PSP
• Playstation 3
• Walkman MP3 players
• Nokia/Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

It is important in digital radio, and is based in upcoming web stations.

If record labels had not insisted on copy protection, it is likely that MP3's would have still been used. As MP3 did not involve DRM, suppliers switched to AAC, WMA, and other formats that they were able to protect to some extent.