On May 11th 2017, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits announced that it was ending its licensing program for the MP3 audio codec. In the wake of their decision, more modern codecs such as AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and MPEG-H will become the de facto standards for music downloads and mobile video streaming. Fraunhofer also figured prominently in the development of the ACC file type which is used today by iTunes, YouTube, Nokia, and others.
Fraunhofer began developing the MP3 technology in the late 1980's, but by 1995 licensing of the codec was minimal. At that point the company began giving away the software that consumers needed to turn CDs into MP3s. After that, the MP3 format became widely popular. In 2001 Apple released the iPod which lead to even more success of the MP3, as it allowed consumers to buy music downloads and not only store them but also play them right from the device.
It's already being said that the MP3 is not dead, as many believe that just as the CD ROM didn't cause the floppy disc to completely disappear, the MP3 will no doubt take it's time fading from the spotlight. In the meantime newer more advance codecs such as FLAC and OGG Vorbis, as well as high resolution 24bit 192kHz files will undoubtedly have no trouble filling in the void left by the MP3's departure.
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