MP3 Is Not Dead, It's Finally Free (marco.org)

The commentary around IIS Fraunhofer and Technicolor terminating their MP3 licensing program for certain MP3 related patents and software has been amusing. While some are interpreting this development as the demise of the MP3 format, others are cheering about MP3s finally being free. Developer and commentator Marco Arment tries to prevail sense: MP3 is no less alive now than it was last month or will be next year -- the last known MP3 patents have simply expired. So while there's a debate to be had -- in a moment -- about whether MP3 should still be used today, Fraunhofer's announcement has nothing to do with that, and is simply the ending of its patent-licensing program (because the patents have all expired) and a suggestion that we move to a newer, still-patented format. MP3 is supported by everything, everywhere, and is now patent-free. There has never been another audio format as widely supported as MP3, it's good enough for almost anything, and now, over twenty years since it took the world by storm, it's finally free.

Comments

Great Opportunity for an Ignore List

[EndlessNameless]

So apparently some people are incapable of understanding basic legalities or doing basic research before publishing.

While some are interpreting this development as the demise of the MP3 format

We can safely blacklist anyone who ran a story where this was presented as a fact or even a likelihood. Until something better takes the world by storm, the patent expiration will only help the format become more widely available.

Nice chance to see where there is more noise than signal though.

Streaming will kill MP3 and its ilk.

[rodrigoandrade]

I used to have over 60,000 tracks stored on my iPod classic. Mostly classical music. Once it went belly up, I replaced it.

Then Spotify and other streaming services implemented offline listening.

Once my second iPod died, I reluctantly gave Spotify a try while deciding to buy a used one, as Apple no longer made the classic.

Been a premium Spotify user ever since and never looked back. I found all the old stuff I cared about, found tons of new music, by different orchestras, conductors, soloists, etc.

My MP3 collection is now filling up a backup HD in a closet.

Non-Free Repositories

[waveclaw]

The lack of patent encumbered algorithms in MP3 means two things:

1. 1. The MP3 gstreamer codecs can move from the non-free repositories to free for Linux distributions. So no more complaints from software like Amarok about missing MP3 support libraries on your Linux desktops. That's one less step to setup Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora or openSuse. Even though there are plenty of reasons (CAD software, WMA support, etc) to seek out the non-official or non-free package sources I expect less use.
2. 2. Corporate users will be able to download, integrate and use the MP3 format in their projects with only a cursory approval from legal. I used to see quite a few video game projects use .ogg files and fmod for their sound. I expect to see more of them ship with MP3s instead.

Audio snobs won't stop arguing about the format of the week or FLAC verses DSD or the best bit rates on PCM encoded WAV files.

Mere consumers shall continue on with our plebeian fidelity sound as always.

Online buyers will continue to download low bit rate MP3s to squeeze a few more hundred tunes onto their Zune. Everyone you know will still play studio damaged music through tiny earbuds.