The MP3 has ‘officially’ died, as inventor ends licensing

NOT ACTUALLY ‘DEAD’ DEAD; CAN STILL BE USED FREELY.

In a mostly-symbolic move, the founders of the compressed audio format at the Fraunhofer Institute have ended its licensing for specific MP3 patents. You can still listen to and create MP3s freely, but the dropping of support for the format heralds a shift toward more advanced codecs in the field. For instance, the newer and widely-used AAC format offers more functionality than the MP3 and, most importantly, more efficient compression for better quality audio at smaller file sizes. HD