While there were early efforts to make MP3 illegal, they were not successful, and the genie is now out of the bottle. There are too many artists publishing in this format and too many programs that allow people to transfer CD tracks to MP3 files to stop it now. In addition, the public release of portable MP3 players that use memory cards and have no moving parts is ushering in a whole new way to listen to music. With the emergence of the first in-dash MP3 players for vehicles, the audio compact disc is finally facing some stiff competition. As time goes on, MP3 will almost certainly play an ever-increasing role in the way everyone buys, records, and listens to music.
The most serious threat to MP3 in the future will not be the legal issue, but rather other forms of competition, such as streaming audio formats like RealAudio. These streaming formats can be played live online, without having to dowload the file first. The main problem with streaming formats is that they require more bandwidth than is available with phone modems. As more and more people start using cable modems and other faster internet connections, streaming audio will become more popular. The future in any computer technology is never clear and things change every day, but MP3 is very strong at the moment and appears to have a good future.