Grab a shovel and start digging because it’s time to bury the humble MP3, whose time of death is being called at 2017.
The audio file format is credited with turning music culture on its head, with its arrival marking the shift from analogue to digital.
But now, its been confirmed dead by the same people who invented it.
As the ABC reports, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute has officially terminated its licensing program for various MP3-related patents – a move that’s widely been interpreted as MP3’s “official death warrant”.
Now before you freak out, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to listen to MP3s anymore. They’ll still be around. But the company’s removal of support for the once popular format does mark a shift in the industry, specifically toward streaming platforms and better quality file formats.
“Although there are more efficient audio codecs with advanced features available today, MP3 is still very popular amongst consumers,” the Fraunhofer Institute said in a statement (via ABC).
“However, most state-of-the-art media services such as streaming or TV and radio broadcasting use modern ISO-MPEG codecs, such as the AAC [Advanced Audio Coding] family or in the future MPEG-H. Those can deliver more features and a higher audio quality at much lower bitrates compared to MP3.”
Stop you guys, before our hearts break like a computer mainframe.
RIP MP3. Thanks for all the good times.
