MP3 is Dead. Long Live MP3?
The patent just expired on the MP3 file format (did you know that MP3 wasn’t an open format??). The people that built it, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits is letting it go.
This article says “the German research body that owns the rights to MP3, has decided to no longer renew its patents on the technology–effectively killing the format for good.” I don’t think the format is “dead” but the long tail has certainly already begun. How often do you listen to MP3’s vs streamed audio content these days?