mp3 is dead

[SampleScience]

I saw this in my Facebook feed:

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2 ... s-creators

But now, 22 years later, the MP3 truly is dead, according to the people who invented it. The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, a division of the state-funded German research institution that bankrolled the MP3's development in the late '80s, recently announced that its "licensing program for certain MP3 related patents and software of Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated."

I'm not sure what it means for us as musicians and sound creators. Other sites claim that AAC (iTunes format) has replaced it, but iTunes itself is getting less and less sales every year, sales that they lose for streaming services like Spotify.

Bernhard Grill, director of that Fraunhofer division and one of the principals in the development of the MP3, told NPR over email that another audio format, AAC — or "Advanced Audio Coding," which his organization also helped create — is now the "de facto standard for music download and videos on mobile phones." He said AAC is "more efficient than MP3 and offers a lot more functionality."

To me, AAC is already becoming irrelevant to the industry as streaming is replacing downloads in music consumption.

Thoughts?

[chk071]

LAME MP3.

[Chapelle]

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[chk071]

The licensing program probably was terminated because all patents related to MP3 have expired (the last one on 16 April 2017). Fraunhofer wants everyone to move to formats where they still can cash in. That's probably all there is to the story.

Yep. Sounds the same to me. MP3 IS the standard, not necessarily because it's the best codec, but, because it's so widespread, and everyone knows it. Or did anyone ever come across a "AAC-Player"?

[aMUSEd]

The licensing program probably was terminated because all patents related to MP3 have expired (the last one on 16 April 2017). Fraunhofer wants everyone to move to formats where they still can cash in. That's probably all there is to the story.

Yep. Sounds the same to me. MP3 IS the standard, not necessarily because it's the best codec, but, because it's so widespread, and everyone knows it. Or did anyone ever come across a "AAC-Player"?

Just some obscure app called iTunes

[Numanoid]

the state-funded German research institution that bankrolled the MP3's development in the late '80s

I don't think I came across an mp3 file before the very late 90's or early 00's

At that time Real Audio was bigger.

If they began the work in the 80's why didn't it become mainstream available earlier.

I mean if CD players in the 90's could have got updated with mp3 playing compatibility, record companies could have fitted 10 records on a regular CD.

[SampleScience]

The licensing program probably was terminated because all patents related to MP3 have expired (the last one on 16 April 2017). Fraunhofer wants everyone to move to formats where they still can cash in. That's probably all there is to the story.

Makes sense.

MP3 IS the standard, not necessarily because it's the best codec, but, because it's so widespread, and everyone knows it.

Mp3 is the VHS of our time.

[chk071]

The licensing program probably was terminated because all patents related to MP3 have expired (the last one on 16 April 2017). Fraunhofer wants everyone to move to formats where they still can cash in. That's probably all there is to the story.

Yep. Sounds the same to me. MP3 IS the standard, not necessarily because it's the best codec, but, because it's so widespread, and everyone knows it. Or did anyone ever come across a "AAC-Player"?

Just some obscure app called iTunes

iTunes is a general "audio player". What i meant was that i never came across, like, a hardware player, which called itself "AAC Player".

[dakkra]

Streaming is being replaced by things like Opus and vp9. Mp3 is not dead, however. It's likely that people are just looking at the new containers with new encoders and are thinking that the world will move one here soon. The problem, as is with anything digital, is that backwards compatibility will still need to be considered. And if we keep building backward compatible audio players, people won't really be encouraged to move on to "better" codecs.

This issue is present with the Java programming language. Backwards compatibility allowed developers to get lazy about how they implemented certain thing. As a result, the libraries are scattered across different versions and are un-maintained becuase developers know that the JVM will at least try to support their legacy bytecode.

Alas, I don't think mp3 will truly die in an overnight way. It will slowly be moved out by the next codec. But this move will most likely take decades, rather than months.

Dakkra

[enroe]

It will slowly be moved out by the next codec. But this move will most likely take decades, rather than months.

Dakkra

Yes, but what is the "next codec"? I don't see any at the horizon.

[GaryG]

Maybe I should have gone with Ogg Vorbis when deciding which format to rip hundreds of CDs to...

[enroe]

Thoughts?

Is mp3 dead?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

No!

There are two reasons:

1. The message you cite only states that the Fraunhofer Institute
stops further development of their special algorithm.

2. The mp3-format is the most used format at all. And that will
be so for a long time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) Since nearly 10 years the Fraunhofer-Encoder doesn't play
a severe role, because nearly everyone uses the free lame-
encoder. This encoder has a superb sound quality!

(2) The mp3-format is the most common and widespread
format in the internet. Years before the OGG-Format was
a candidate because it was a free format.

At the horizon there is no alternative to mp3. So it will
be the ruling format for at least the next ten years!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a change today, yes. But this change means that there
is less download of mp3s. Instead there is more streaming!
Streaming of what? Right: Of mp3s!

So let's have good time with mp3s for the next ten years!

[Robmobius]

Thousands of mine just keeled over and died... All those poor files have gone to candy mountain.

[mcbpete]

My personal belief is over the next 10 years as bandwidths continue to increase and storage spaces expanding all the time mp3 (and any lossy audio codecs) will become less and less prevalent as a file format. We'll happily be listening to and streaming flac, alac (and the like) with not a care in how big the file is ...

[enroe]

My personal belief is over the next 10 years as bandwidths continue to increase and storage spaces expanding all the time mp3 (and any lossy audio codecs) will become less and less prevalent as a file format. We'll happily be listening to and streaming flac, alac (and the like) with not a care in how big the file is ...

Yes, maybe.

But I think it's more likely that the bigger storage spaces and the increased
bandwidths will be used to have MORE mp3s rather than to switch to WAV or
FLAC.

Why? Because the listeners with their I-Pods, smartphones and mp3-players
don't hear a difference between mp3 and WAV. So there'll be no need
to switch.