Please change the LAME header back to the old more compatible format. Many SW & HW players can now read the LAME tag and play files gaplessly, but apparently the changed header does not work with every player.
For example, here is how JRiver Media Center sees the 3.98.4 and 3.99.1 headers:
LAME 3.98.4
MPEG-1 Layer 3
236 Kbit VBR
44.1 Khz Joint stereo
Copyrighted: No
Original: Yes
Protected by CRC: No
Encoder: LAME
Gapless: Yes (576 start, 828 end)
LAME 3.99.1
MPEG-1 Layer 3
273 Kbit VBR
44.1 Khz Joint stereo
Copyrighted: No
Original: Yes
Protected by CRC: No
Encoder: L3.9
Gapless: No
I'd request to label the current version as 3.99r and then do the 5.0 release. (4.0 must be skipped because of known reasons.)
Then the LAME developes can create up to 5 x 99 versions before the encountering the next problem - 10.0.
i.e. 5.00, 5.01, 5.02 ... 5.99, 6.00, 6.01 ... and so on.
IMHO, this a very important thing and even if the 5.00 release does not contain any other significant changes, fixing this header problem justifies the new version number.