Fair the well MP3, you will be missed.

The beloved MP3 was introduced in the late 90’s, and swiftly flooded the music market, effectively making CD’s, cassette tapes, vinyl and any other physical form of music redundant. However, roughly 20-years on from becoming the go-to way of listening to music, it has been announced as deceased.

A major player in the invention of the MP3, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, recently announced that the MP3’s “licensing program for certain MP3 related patents and software of Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated.”

The unofficial home of all MP3’s, iTunes, now prefers AAC files (Advanced Audio Coding), with Fraunhofer’s  Bernhard Grill admitting that AAC is “more efficient than MP3 and offers a lot more functionality.”

On top of this, streaming services are skyrocketing in global popularity, much the same as the nostalgic drive in sales for vinyl and now cassettes. I guess everything goes full circle.

R.I.P MP3.

(Via: FACT Mag)