A few years from now, your car’s sound system probably won’t have a CD player.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Music in cars is increasingly being played  as digital files, like MP3 and Windows Media Audio. Blame the maturation of the Napster generation: Computer-savvy high school and college kids who sought easy and cheap access to their (often pirated) music earlier in the decade are now buying cars. And as they do, car-stereo makers are putting out new products designed to handle the way their consumers want to listen to music. “This is the future of media in the car,” says Bill Jackson, vice president of mobile products for Rockford Corp., which makes car stereo products under the Rockford Fosgate brand. “You will no longer have CD players, everything will be in digital format, and it will encompass all types of media.”

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