MP3 Royalty & Payments in App / application creation?

Hey guys, how are you doing? I know that if I create a game and used .mp3 files in my App I have to pay Royalties to the mp3 community (not sure if Royalty is the correct word but I know there is some sort of payment involve) now my question is this: if within my App users are able to upload their mp3 files am I still required to make payments or will I be exempted? :open_mouth:

Convert to ogg and you don’t have to pay royalties

Actuality I’m using OGG for my game but the question was if the user is able to load their own MP3 files in the game, do I need to pay royalty?

To my knowledge you are required to pay license fee in case you are utilizing an mp3 decoder or encoder in any ways.
Most commercial software that allow you to edit, play and export mp3 format normally including the required licenses for using the mp3 format so you are covered as long you have properly licensed the software (not pirated).

But it is not the case with GDevelop as most free and open-source software out there Like GDevelop and Audacity that including mp3 support didn’t pay the license but that’s not because they don’t have to. In fact Audacity using the LAME MP3 encoder which is shared for educational purposes only to show how to make an mp3 encoder, so in theory MP3’s exported from Audacity can be used for educational purposes only and not for public use and I believe not even for personal use, so you are not even allowed to play mp3 at home that coming from Audacity :stuck_out_tongue:

The funny thing with free and open software, almost always the end-user got to pay the licenses even for personal home use as it is not included with the software :laughing:

So in case you are using free and open software, be careful not only with mp3 but basically with all proprietary format that requires a license :slight_smile:

There was an official post about the expiration of some of the MP3 patents because Fraunhofer declined to renew them… It seems that not a lot of people noticed it :confused: . It doesn’t mean that you can use mp3’s freely, but it’s a step forward to avoid headaches :stuck_out_tongue: