Anniversaries in technology are complicated because there are usually several dates that are disputed as birthdays.
This also applies to MP3:
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On July 14, 1995, participants in a project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) decided to choose “.mp3” as the file extension for audio files compressed with their method.
Until then, files were called “.bit” internally.
However, the sophisticated system, which some even criticized as being too complex, had already been defined at the MPEG meeting in London from November 2 to 6, 1992. The development history dates back to the 1970s. So the “gestation” lasted more than a decade.
MP3 is an abbreviation for MPEG 1/Layer III – The abbreviation MPEG (pronounced Empeg) stands for “Moving Picture Experts Group”.
MPEG dealt with data reduction processes in images and then had to find something for audio.
The goal was to reduce the comparatively high data rate of digitized PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) audio signals to amounts that would allow digital radio broadcasting or for better storage of data/files that were larger than a CD.
Today, audio streaming from similar audio files is everywhere. But 30 years ago, compression technology invented in Erlangen was what made listening to music on the Internet possible.
The origins of the MP3 project date back to 1982. At that time, the goal was to make music files small enough to be transmitted with decent quality over a digital telephone line (ISDN).
Karlheinz Brandenburg had set this seemingly unsolvable problem as the topic of his doctoral dissertation when he was an electronics student at Erlangen.
Brandenburg was initially unsure of the significance of his research, as he stated in a 1988 statement: “My thesis will either gather dust in the library, or the technology will become a standard used by millions of people.”
In fact, the MPEG Layer-3 (MP3) standard, in the development of which he played a key role, has influenced the listening experience of billions of music lovers.
Its success continues to this day: In streaming, digital radio, digital television or in video calls like Apple's FaceTime – a form of the MP3 successor, AAC, is used everywhere.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
