In the very early days Fraunhofer was still trying to figure out what to do with this MPEG Audio Layer 3 thing they had come up with. Back in 1994-1997 they were expecting its usage to become limited to the broadcasting industry. They already had that l3enc gig going on, but probably felt the technology did not yet reach its full potential.

A GRAPHICAL INTERFACE!   - Now that sounded like a good way to improve the technology's usability (and, consequently, its popularity).

So they set about creating their Windows GUI encoder. In an extremely fateful decision, they uncoupled the user-accessible interface - which they would call FhG MPEG Layer-3 Producer - from the encoding routines. These would be distributed with the GUI encoder, but as an ACM codec that the GUI accessed directly. Not only that, but all Windows applications that wrote WAV files could, in theory, also access the MP3 encoding routines. The graphical interface in Layer-3 Producer is nothing more than yet another ACM codec frontend.

MPEG Layer-3 Producer itself offered a crappy experience - mainly because it did not feature batch encoding. The end user had to encode each file separately. Besides, it was crazy expensive. The "Advanced" version - 8 to 56kbps - retailed for 198DM ≈ 125USD in 1997, and the "Professional" version - 8 to 128kbps - retailed for a whopping 779DM ≈ 500USD (remember that back then FhG thought only broadcasters would be interested in the technology, so they had to recoup the development costs somehow).

But none of that was a problem! Software pirates quickly realized that they could take the ACM codec, repack it with their applications and distribute it with no pesky nuisances like cracks or registration keys - just register it within the ACM framework at the target machine and you're good to start encoding! That created a whole cottage industry of ACM frontends (which I talk more about at the FhG codecs page), which by its turn certainly helped propel the MP3 popularity explosion in the late nineties - at the cost of some lost revenue for FhG related to MPEG Layer-3 Producer sales, but certainly more than compensated with all the royalties they were collecting licensing the MP3 encoder patents.

Lessons learned, one year later they came up with version 2, now named .mp3 Producer. The interface is identical and still sucks (still no batch encoding) but the program is now much cheaper (49USD for the "Advanced Plus" version - 8 to 64kbps + 128kbps - and 199USD for the Professional version, with bitrates from 8 to 256kbps) because Fraunhofer realized MP3 was a runaway success and they would not depend on the broadcasting industry for MP3 licensing. At least registered users of Producer v1 were entitled to free upgrades to v2.

Crucially, .mp3 Producer no longer separated interface from encoder - the encoding routines were built into the main program. That becomes clear when you check the "About MPEG Layer-3 Audio Codec" dialog in both apps: MPEG Layer-3 Producer is using the MP3 codec installed in the system (in my case, a codec much more recent than the one that comes with Producer) while .mp3 Producer only uses its own codec. Also, the installation now requires a serial number (included in the zip file below) to thwart pirates, but by the time .mp3 Producer was released the cat was already way out of the bag.

The period from early 1997 to late 1998 saw the release of countless MP3 encoders - a plethora of encoders derived from the dist10 sources, piracy projects redistributing the FhG ACM codec, and even some seemingly developed from scratch. In the same time frame we saw the introduction of an absurd amount of MP3 software players for nearly every computer platform and architecture (but the vast majority, for Windows). In early 1998 the first portable MP3 players started appearing on the market (MPMan F10 and F20). Napster was released a little later, in mid-1999. Specialized sites like MP3.com sprung up and had a hard time keeping up with all the news, announcements, and releases (and lawsuits, of course). MP3 was unstoppable, to the chagrin of the RIAA.

I suppose Fraunhofer never expected, even in their wildest dreams, that MP3 would become so popular - indeed, synonymous with compressed audio. Soon after the release of .mp3 Producer they stopped developing end-user applications and focused instead on licensing their patents as well as their encoders and decoders in library form to software developers.

You can still visit Internet Archive mirrors of the MPEG Layer-3 Producer and .mp3 Producer webpages (notice how the ACM paragraph disappeared from the latter page).


Date: 1998-04-07
Version: 2.1
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Win32
Download: PRODPS.zip - 1.096kB

Date: 1997-04-08
Version: 1.1b1
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Win32
Download: L3PROD_P.EXE - 1.061kB