Now, the MP3 is officially dead. Well, more “dead,” anyway.
Based on previous research, the developments of the MP3 started in the late 1980s at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuit. According to a post in their site today, the German research lab announced it would terminates the MP3 licensing programs.
“On April 23, 2017, Technicolor’s mp3 licensing program for certain mp3 related patents and software of Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated.
“We thank all of our licensees for their great support in making mp3 the defacto audio codec in the world, during the past two decades.”
The site admits that while there are more “efficient audio codecs,” the MP3 format remains popular amongst consumer. And this isn’t the first time MP3s have been declared RIP.
In 1995, at a conference room in Erlangen, Germany’s, the MP3 was declared dead for the first time in history. NPR explains that the format only had one licensing deal that year’s. They couldn’t get the format standardized and widely adopted format. Fraunhofer tried and failed in various pitches in the standard. So, Fraunhofer gave away the software to turn compact discs into MP3s. This move helped popularize the standards.
So, why the official terminations now? Part of the blame goes to superior, easier-to-use formats. One of examples are streaming. Fraunhofer IIS explains:
“Most state-of-the-art media services such as streaming or TV and radio broadcasting stations use modern ISO-MPEG codecs such as the AAC family or in the future, MPEG-H. Those can deliver more feature rich content and a higher audio quality at much lower bitrates compared to mp3.”
So, what happens now? The “official terminations” termination won’t affect usage. In fact, to use an MP3, people never truly needed a license to use. Rather, this symbolic move will allow the further adoptions and developement of better and more effective audio formats.
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