I wonder how many people knows (I didn't knew either) that the mp3 format is almost exactly 10 years old. The intrenational compatibility of this format was assured even earlier in 1992 through standardization, so that millions of users could play correctly these files and this thing is practicly unchanged since than. The only problem encountered by programmers from Fraunhofer in 1992 was that mp3 were a technology much too complex and the market cannot support it, and the integration in an aplication and its distribution to the public would be premature.

And so the mp3 evolved since 1992, and in january this year allowed with a nou multichannel sound codec to play sorround sound. The innovator format will make audio files to occupy a space of half of the size than actual 5.1 audio files created with other comprimation technologies.