MP3 licensing

[gpetersz]

Hi,

I bought a tool (BlitzPlus) that allows me to play MP3-s. First I thought
that fine, I'll use this format for my projects. But as I browsed the net I
realized that MP3 license (www.mp3licensing.com) is not for free.
Meaning: it is just fine that my program will be able to play MP3-s but I
cannot store my digital musics in this format, and cannot put them into the download package in this format.

Am I right?

Thanks,
Peter

[luggage]

Am I right?
"You're not wrong!"

No idea actually. We stick to using Audiere and playing Oggs to be safe :)

[cliffski]

use Ogg. you wont regret it. buy KSound, its mega cheap for what it does, and ogg compression is astounding.

[joe]

As far as I know BlitzPlus also supports OGG format which is free. You can use the free tool oggdrop (http://www.vorbis.com/download_win.psp) to convert your music and sounds from wav- to ogg-format.

[gpetersz]

I thank you all!
Yes somehow I didn't realized that BlitzPlus supports OGG!

Thanks!

[Sirrus]

What about WMA?
I believe that is free as well...

[gpetersz]

Are there any significant differences?
I mean, I need compressed digital music (bg music and so).
MP3, OGG, WMA all might help. As I've heard MP3 and OGG are the best
but OGG maybe even better (until MP3 pro or something is coming out).

WMA gives better performance (smaller compr. ratio) and bigger size or
the other way around?

[copperhand]

OGG is significantly better than MP3 in compression ratio and subtlety of compression artifacts. OGG is also a free, open format.

My advice would be to use OGG over MP3 any chance you get.

[beenThereDoneThat]

I agree with everyone else that OGG is superior for independent developers, but just want to point out the following passages in the MP3 licensing material referenced above that describe situations where a license is not necessary:


Do I need a license to stream mp3/mp3PRO encoded content over the Internet?

Yes. A license is needed for commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3/mp3PRO in broadcast systems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other distribution channels), streaming applications (via Internet, intranets and/or other networks), other content distribution systems (pay-audio or audio-on-demand applications and the like) or for use of mp3/mp3PRO on physical media (compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the like).

However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00.

Links:

* Royalty Rates - Electronic Music Distribution
(http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/emd.html)
__________________________________________________ ___________

Do I need a license to distribute mp3/mp3PRO encoded content?

Yes. A license is needed for commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3/mp3PRO in broadcast systems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other distribution channels), streaming applications (via Internet, intranets and/or other networks), other content distribution systems (pay-audio or audio-on-demand applications and the like) or for use of mp3/mp3PRO on physical media (compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the like).

However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00.

Links:

* Royalty Rates - Electronic Music Distribution (http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/emd.html)

__________________________________________________ _________

Do I need a license to use mp3/mp3PRO in games?

Yes. Games using mp3/mp3PRO encoded content are licensed on a per-title basis.

However, no license fees are due if less than 5 000 copies of a particular game title are distributed.

Links:

* Royalty Rates - Games (http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/games.html)

[Sybixsus]

Just note that it says "distributed" and does not say "sold". How long is it going to take you to get 5,000 demo downloads? A week, maybe, if you're just starting out?

[gpetersz]

I absolutely rely on your opinion guys, since I am not a native english-speaking person, so I might miss such small differences like between "distributed" and "sold". (I know the meanings but in my head they are very close though regarding as a lawyer (an english-speaking one) they might be totally different).

On the other hand how on earth can somebody foretell how the game would sell?

Thanks on the infos anyway!!!!

(I think I'll prefer ogg, to avoid any problems)

[LucGoguen]

What if I want to give people that play my game a Music player inside the game. Then if they want to play Mp3s , WMA CD or anything they want. Do I need to liscence MP3?

[Abscissa]

Summary of audio compression formats: WMA, AAC, and OGG Vorbis are all approximately equal to each other in terms of compression rate and quality. All three are vastly superior to MP3 (which was designed specifically for voice, not music). OGG Vorbis is the only one of the four that has no license restrictions, the rest of them do. But, as I understand (I am not a lawyer), the ones that do have license restrictions only require royalty fees for compressing, not decompressing.

[copperhand]

See, this is exactly what's good about OGG. You don't have to worry about whether specific conditions do or will apply to you.

As a small business, the fewer external factors you need to keep tabs on, the better. If you use a format with license restrictions, it adds "administrative weight" to your operation. You have to make sure you've obeyed the license, and you have to keep tabs on the license terms to make sure they haven't changed since your last project. (They can).

OGG is a "fire-and-forget" solution. The fact that it sounds great is a bonus.

[Sybixsus]

What if I want to give people that play my game a Music player inside the game. Then if they want to play Mp3s , WMA CD or anything they want. Do I need to liscence MP3?


This page seems to refer to music players and jukeboxes.

http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html

Clearly you'll need to contact them with precise details to figure out whether a game with a jukebox qualifies for the game license, the jukebox license, neither or both.