mp3 licensing ends for Music services

[JCHelios]

When I read the NPR article, my first thought was, "Wait a minute, patents last for ~20 years.  And it's been 20 years!  So it's not that MP3 is dead, but that it's freeeeeee!"  Glad to see folks here also picked up on that.  

To me, the real story here is, "MP3 format enters the public domain, so erstwhile patentholder tries to upsell the public on its new audio formats."  

(Not that I have anything against the newer audio formats.  But it's certainly an act of motivated reasoning on Fraunhofer's part to conflate "invention enters the public domain" with "invention is dead!" )  

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, JCHelios said:

When I read the NPR article, my first thought was, "Wait a minute, patents last for ~20 years.  And it's been 20 years!  So it's not that MP3 is dead, but that it's freeeeeee!"  Glad to see folks here also picked up on that.  

To me, the real story here is, "MP3 format enters the public domain, so erstwhile patentholder tries to upsell the public on its new audio formats."  

(Not that I have anything against the newer audio formats.  But it's certainly an act of motivated reasoning on Fraunhofer's part to conflate "invention enters the public domain" with "invention is dead!" )  

I'll agree with that. MP3 is FAR from dead. It's not as ubiquitous because the different formats being used by streaming services are done seamlessly, and the end user (unless they seek out the information) has no idea what format/codec/container is being used, nor what it would mean even if they did know which one.

 

But by and large, MP3 is still the dominant consumer format. AAC definitely getting a boost from Apple users, but even iTunes can rip to MP3 if you prefer.