Audio formats to look out for now that MP3 is dead

Considering that it is a technology born in 1993, MP3 sure did have a long run. This is not the first time soothsayers have written off this technology(read this report from 1999 here), so it is yet to be seen if the reports are true. 
However, if  the reports are to be believed, here is a list of formats that may become popular if MP3 dies out. 


First off, you should know that audio formats can be classified into 2 types, lossy and lossless. As the name suggests, lossy means that some parts of the original sound is lost out on compression, for the sake of size. However, in most cases you wont be able to tell the difference, depending on the quality. 
On the other hand, lossless formats contain the original waveform, without any loss. 

Lossy Formats

1. AAC: Built in 1997 to be the successor of MP3, it never really caught up with the popularity of its ancestor. But it was built to be better, with a more advanced compression algorithm. And this is what made it the standard compression algorithm for Android, iOS and Youtube. 

2. WAV: The waveform audio file format is a standard that was developed way back in 1991 by Microsoft and IBM. Though its older that MP3, the format still has the native support of the Windows Platform.

3. OGG:   As hard as it is to believe, OGG is not a full form. Released in 2000 it was a significant improvements above other formats, and even better, it adhered to the principles of open source software. Needless to say, it is used in open source development.

Lossless formats:

1.  FLAC: The Fully Lossless Audio Codec is the most popular lossless format out there, for reason of being open source. It can compress the Audio by upto 60 percent.

2. WMA: The Windows Media Audio format is proprietary Microsoft Software. Needless to say, it has limited hardware support, and is available on windows devices only.