This week we got a taste of what music files could look like on iTunes in the future.

Researchers at the University of Rochester announced that they have digitally replicated a music file 1,000 times smaller than an ordinary MP3.

Mark Bocko, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Rochester, developed the technology along with his doctoral students Xiaoxiao Dong and Mark Sterling. They were able to condense a 20-second clarinet solo from an MP3 to a file smaller than a kilobyte.

Imagine how much more music could fit on an iPod? Would this dilute music sales for record companies, fitting more content in files for a lower price? Or would this be a boon for consumers?

You can listen to the two versions of a 20-minute clarinet solo on the University of Rochester site: one in MP3 size and one using Bocko's compression method.