someone at Sonnox (who sell fraunhofer encoder) linked to this on their twitter feed:
 
https://marco.org/2017/05...snt-dead?utm_source=tw

i still prefer FLAC over mp3
 
mp3 is just so prevalent because of the length of time it's been around

I agree with this.  As someone who composes music or produces albums I am sending things off to clients all the time for checking.  I would only send an MP3 file simply because every single time I have they have had no issues ever being able to play it.  No good sending a FLAC file to someone because there is a good chance they won't be able to play it.  Then I would have to redo as MP3 and send it anyway.  And you have wasted time and probably annoyed them in the process too.  MP3 at the highest rate 320KB/sec is fine for listening and checking etc..

I saw all these articles too and was perplexed that a patent expiring would lead to the death of the most widely used format.  Perhaps these journalists are Apple shills or something?

If it became so wildly popular while being proprietary, why on earth would releasing it into the public domain make it less popular? That just makes no sense at all.
 
There is only one argument for abandoning MP3, which is that the main reasons for its popularity no longer apply: limited network bandwidth and expensive storage. Did bacon fall from favor when with the advent of refrigeration removed the need for nitrites as a preservative?
 
I do not buy the alternative argument that MP3 will go away because other formats offer higher fidelity. I  don't buy it because less than 1% of music listeners do so through playback systems of high-enough quality to actually discern a difference. If your average music consumer repeats the "MP3s suck" mantra it's because they're parroting what they heard from YouTube commentators, not because they came to that conclusion themselves by listening to their iPhone earbuds.

bitflipper
If it became so wildly popular while being proprietary, why on earth would releasing it into the public domain make it less popular? That just makes no sense at all.
 
There is only one argument for abandoning MP3, which is that the main reasons for its popularity no longer apply: limited network bandwidth and expensive storage. Did bacon fall from favor when with the advent of refrigeration removed the need for nitrites as a preservative?
 
I do not buy the alternative argument that MP3 will go away because other formats offer higher fidelity. I  don't buy it because less than 1% of music listeners do so through playback systems of high-enough quality to actually discern a difference. If your average music consumer repeats the "MP3s suck" mantra it's because they're parroting what they heard from YouTube commentators, not because they came to that conclusion themselves by listening to their iPhone earbuds.

 
A (to the) men. 

To pile on, the fact that mp3 doesn't have digital rights management built in makes it much easier for consumers.

I bought movies for my daughter she was never able to watch on her portable device because of drm. I'm sure she isn't the only one improperly constrained by drm. Mp3 doesn't have this problem and that means it will win over formats that do. There is a tiny minority of people who want drm enforced. There is a wide feeling that 'the industry' has been ripping off consumers for a hundred years. Some people steal audio because they feel it is their moral responsibility... not even because they want to listen to it.

http://walt.lishost.org/2...t-have-mp3-or-does-it/

It seems too me that the enormously long copyright lengths... consider the happy birthday song or Mickey mouse... means that there is open disrespect for the protection of these rights.

My 2017 Honda Accord doesn't support Wave our Flac for USB playback.

i like mp3 format, it's incredibly flexible and compatible, and under normal listening circumstances i can't here the difference between mp3/320 and cd/4416

I am somewhat less convinced of the "320 kb/s is indistinguishable from a CD" assumption today than I once was.
 
If I am intimately familiar with a piece of music, such as one of my own mixes, I actually can hear the difference between MP3 and FLAC, and prefer the latter. In a blind A/B/X test I got a 100% hit rate - but only with my own mixes. I cannot, however, distinguish between 320 kb/s MP3 and 256 kb/s AAC under any circumstance.
 
When I listen to the radio in my car I am listening to AAC-encoded files, as that is how content is distributed to radio stations. Do I notice? No. After technically-necessary bandwidth reduction and compression applied by broadcasters, the wildly varying frequency response and resonances of my car's sound system - all competing with road noise - any limitations of lossy encoding are microscopically trivial. If the broadcaster had instead used an MP3 or a CD, I'd be none the wiser.
 
The other time I listen to file-compressed audio is during my nightly routine: in the dark, in a quiet room, with high-quality headphones. Sometimes with herbal assistance. It's a mixture of ripped CDs (WMA) and purchased MP3/AAC files that are typically 256 kb/s or less. This should be very close to an ideal listening situation, but do I care which format I'm listening to? Nope. 

i appreciate the extra songs space it gives me on my phone, that i enjoy via shuffle on the tram/a.m.