Page 3 - May_Newsletter_2017_2
P. 3
deliver more features and a higher audio quality at much lower bi-
trates compared to mp3.”
However, what’s important is what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean
that your collection of MP3 files is now redundant.
It doesn’t mean your car stereo will stop playing MP3 music, or that
you’ll have to convert them to another format.
Ultimately, MP3 files will be around for a long time yet and will still
be playable by a huge variety of devices.
Do I need to do anything?
Not immediately. If your entire music collection is in MP3 format,
you’ll still be able to listen for years as long as you have a device that
supports the format.
It’s a little like audio cassettes. If you own a Walkman or a hi-fi with
a tape deck, then you can still use them. But there are better-quality
formats you’ll probably prefer to use.
And similarly, just as there’s no point in converting a tape recording
to a digital format for preservation, it doesn’t really make sense to
convert MP3 files to, say AAC.
It’s better to find the original source of the MP3s – say an audio CD –
and re-rip it to AIFF, WAV or another lossless format.
If you don’t have the storage space for uncompressed files, then go
for AAC which is fast becoming the lossy standard to replace MP3.

