THE SECRET HISTORY OF MP3

PETER HAYES EXPLORES THE UNTOLD STORY BEHIND THE NEW MUSIC FORMAT MP3.

The entertainment industry has seen many standards and inventions, but the emergence of the software music standard MP3 has turned the music world on its head. Here is a format that allows high quality music to be transferred over the Internet and straight in to people's home computers. In the case of many small bands and labels, allowing them to reach out to their audience directly.

The word MP3 (Standing for Moving Picture (Expert Group Level) 3 (Compression)) has become second only to "sex" on the world's most popular search engines and has become a business that has created millions (mostly through stock market floats) for companies such as MP3.com.

However behind the huge business headlines and ringing cash registers remains a story that has remained mostly untold; the story of a man whose combined knowledge of maths, sound and electronics brought the whole thing about - but for no personal profit!

It is also a tale of how a small scale German government project to explore how music could be fed down a phone line later helped create an Internet music standard which has all the hallmarks of becoming a standard to stand alongside audio CD's and PAL televisions.

The Frauenhofer Institute (www.igd.fhg.de) is one of Germanys most prestigious research facility that spreads its work over several sites and employs around 250 people - most them post graduates. There name and reputation guarantees some of the best minds in Germany, although the pay is reputed to be below the levels found in industry. There story from its foundation (in 1949) to the present day is told - in English - on a section of its web site.

It's involvement with technology has been long and fruitful, often seeing itself as the European equivalent of the famous MIT Media Lab in Boston; which also develops technology as a partnership between government and industry (although not all projects carry this model). FI won the DigiGlobe for 1999 with its so-called VR-Shop project: A kind of shopping mall where the customer can browse, shop and bank from an Internet or network terminal.

Today Karlheinz Brandenburg (45) has a title of Section Leader ("Abteilungsleiter") and draws his sole salary from the State, however it was his research and development project that created MP3 and later marketed it as shareware. Basically meaning that anyone that wanted could register with the FI and create there own MP3 files or else software that could present/translate work in to the compressed music format.

(In truth there wasn't much choice in this move as the project had no direct software partners and had no budget to create a marketing and distribution chain.)

Within Germany his invention got few headlines, but he got a big reception when he took the format to Silicon Valley in 1997. He demonstrated he could reduce a WAV file to a fraction of its length without the listener knowing the difference. Several parties showed interest in buying the project or else having local rights to it but, to date, the FI has retained all rights; although it has little budget to patrol them.

Brandenburg claims that he is satisfied with his work and has not personally profited from the fortune that has since been spun around the standard. He claims that he owns not one share in any Internet company or any other firm involved in the MP3 standard. In fact he shows little interest in money at all: "I don't care what the numbers are in my bank account," he told the German news magazine Der Spiegel, "but I am satisfied with my work, the people I work with, and what it has brought about."

However he doesn't think that the system is about to bring the downfall of the music industry as so many are predicting: "I think that will not happen, but we have changed the industry... The industry needs to know how to harness the new digital mediums and opportunities. They need to explore the positives rather than the negatives."

Nevertheless the MP3 licence money has been reinvested in new technology and research projects which look to creating new standards making use of their expert knowledge in digital compression. Looking at ways of creating compact transmission and storage facilities for phones, faxes and even video recorders. However Brandenburg states that the MP3 money "is not making anyone rich (at the FI)", which might suggest that they have sold themselves short somewhere along the line.

Bradenburg first came to wrestle with the problems of compressing music as early as 1977. A professor Dieter Seitzer had the idea of creating a method of transferring music over a standard phone line. His ideas were ahead of its time and he was initially refused any research money to develop them, but nevertheless established a group of technicians and scientists that had an interest in the subject. Brandenburg's interest in mathematics, electronics and off-the-wall ideas made him a natural ally.

Basic compression techniques and theories were formed long before the pre-computer era, but not a lot was known about applying them to set mediums such as sound. Today Bradenburg has expressed surprise that so few projects had explored the area previously; especially when it had a huge commercial potential.

With little previous research to build on the team had to create their own methods, theories and research. They used quiet tracks such as Susan Vega's "Tom's Diner" as their test bed. Here the compromises and faults would be easier to pick up. Therefore Vega can claim to be the first artist of MP3!

Much of their work was not about how much they could reduce the file in length (sound is distinguishable on only a short section of the audio range - the telephone only works on a quarter), but to what level the sound could be reduced before the deterioration became noticeable. Their research contract with the FI was not to produce a compressed music stand per se, but to create a "high standard" compressed format.

(The main part of the work was creating software that scanned and removed sound that was below or above the human ear, but other theories and mathematics have been employed.)

With such a major success under his belt Brandenburg has many tempting offers before him, including many professorships in the USA. However he remains down to earth and modest and seems happy with his small world just outside of Berlin - although the FI works over a collection of sites.

He told the German press that everyday he logs on to the Internet and looks for new MP3 sites and people making use of the standard he helped bring about: "this gives me the best feeling of all" says Brandenburg today. However he doesn't have too much time to ponder his success as new digital projects now take up most of his time; including applying his knowledge to the so-far illusive digital video recorder.

However even if they crack that one neither Brandenburg or his team will personally profit from it. All rights and moneys will belong to the Institute and the Institute alone - just like with MP3.