30 years MP3: Music was no longer a disk after that

On this day, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen made the decision to baptize their invention to audiobobuten on the “.mp3” file extension.

30 years later, music streaming is omnipresent. But only the compression invented in Erlangen made it possible to listen to music from the internet. The origin of the MP3 project goes back to 1982. At that time it was about making music files so small that they can be sent in a considerable quality via a digital telephone line (ISDN). The student Karlheinz Brandenburg made the seemingly insoluble task on the subject of his doctorate thesis at the chairman of Technical Electronics in Erlangen.

Used by billions
Brandenburg was initially not entirely sure of the scope of his research. A statement from him from 1988 has been documented: “Whether my dissertation is dusted in the library or the technology will be a standard that will be used by millions of people.” The standard “MPEG Layer-3” (MP3), which he has developed considerably, has even influenced the music consumption of billions.

The development work of Brandenburg and researchers such as Heinz Gerhäuser, Harald Popp, Stefan Krägeloh, Harmut Schott, Berhard Grill, Ernst Eberlein and Thomas Sporer should not only renew the radio technology, but also have to extend the start of the end of the compact disk (CD) in the music industry. Success continues to this day: whether it is streaming, digital radio, on digital television or on video calls such as Apple’s FaceTime-A form of the MP3 successor AAC is used everywhere.

How does MP3 work?
But how was it even possible to reduce music files without being much worse for the human ear? The researchers in Erlangen explained that the human ear does not perceive many details in music or other complex sounds. Some tones are too quiet or are covered with louder tones. The alarm clock continues to check even if it passes. You no longer hear the ticking.

When converting to an MP3 file, exactly the parts of the music are removed or simplified, which people probably can’t hear. Only what is important for human hearing remains. A music file can shrink to about a tenth of its original size without the sound noticeably worse for most people. Music purists such as Canadian singer Neil Young deny this.

Hardly distinguishable from analog noise
MP3-Miterfinder Brandenburg can still understand the criticism of the original MP3. The new MP3 codes such as AAC are now so good for higher data speeds that they cannot be distinguished from the human ear from analogue sound transmissions, for example from vinyl sheets. This would also have proven blind tests with experienced listeners.

But until the 1990s, the sound of an MP3 file could only keep track of the sound of a CD or Vinyl sound plate, the researchers had to experiment countless hours. A record shop in Erlangen benefited from this research project. Brandenburg came by to buy sound carriers for around 1,000 German marking. “Simple pieces, complex pieces, music from all genres, cross beds,” Brandenburg remembered in a newspaper interview in 2020. “We didn’t know what would work and, more importantly, what was not.”

When Brandenburg almost completed his promotional thesis, he read in an Audiomagazine that the song “Tom’s Dinner” by Suzanne Vega is often used for the sound test. A colleague quickly obtained the CD. The experiments with an Acapella version of the song from 1982 initially failed: the first attempt with “Tom’s Dinner” sounded like “as if someone scratched the left and right ear,” said Brandenburg when the singer from New York came to the Institute in Erlangen in 2007.

The inventor was not impressed by the setback. He listened thousands of times to the song to constantly improve the MP3 algorithm. A solution was to send the deeper frequencies very precisely – much more accurate than with the higher pitches, where you could save storage space.

Cyber ​​criminal helps with a breakthrough
After the official allocation of the name, the format was initially slowly lifted. The Fraunhofer Institute in Erlangen was actually planning to permit the software for conversion in MP3 in interested entertainment companies. A young cyber criminal crossed this intention: in 1997 an Australian student acquired the encoded software with a stolen credit card number and available the program on the net. That spoke quickly. The “ribs” from CDS-I-ie convert to MP3 files-a popular sport.

From 1999 the online exchange platform Napster was mainly damaged by the music industry and the artists. The software made it possible to share millions of users to share their MP3 files uncomplicated and for free. The principle was simple: Napster searched the hard drives of the users to MP3 files and then transferred the direct exchange between the computers via the internet. Entire record collections can suddenly be exchanged with just a few clicks. Napster made the MP3 format at night as a standard for digital music and ensured that the size prevailed worldwide. After that the music world was no longer a disk.

Napster not only changed the way people consumed music, but also forced the music industry to deal with digital sales channels. The platform showed how simple and attractive the music exchange in MP3 format the road could be paved for later legal music services and the digitization of the entire industry. With the success of the iPod (2001) and iTunes Music Stores from 2003 and legal streaming services such as Spotify from 2008, the music industry slowly recovered.

Who benefited financially from MP3?
With the Legal MP3 -use scenarios, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) also came to Revenue: Brandenburg estimates that his employer then collected 50 to 100 million euros from the MP3 players, music platforms and other manufacturers of the VS.K. In general, all technologies around MP3 would have brought at least one billion euros in income. Fraunhofer IIS says that the marketing has generated “income in the high three figure range” during the entire patent period.

The really large company did not do Fraunhofer, but the commercial users of MP3 technology, including the manufacturers of MP3 players such as Apple, Sony, Sanish, Creative, Iriver and Archos. Apple made the sale with the 2001 iPod until the product line establishes in 2022 and made the sale of at least $ 15 billion profit. To this day there is also a comment in the iPhone that the Audio Coding Technology MPEG Layer-3 had a permit by Fraunhofer IIS.