[Avid]

Looks like it is time for our semi-annual explanation of why MP3 Option is a paid option, which I have saved a copy of for just such an occassion.

The MP3 Export and MP3 Option software costs $19.95 (USD) to cover the codec licensing fee that Digidesign pays to the Fraunhofer Institute for each and every MP3 Option sold. I can see where that might appear to be Digidesign trying to "nickle and dime" the customer if you were not aware of the per-use licensing fee, but that is not the case. The Fraunhofer codec is generally recognized as the number one MP3 encoding codec available.

In order to use that codec in every copy of Pro Tools, Digidesign would need to raise the price of every copy of Pro Tools software sold with a new system or sold as an upgrade. So every upgrade for a Pro Tools customer for instance would be @ $15-20 more. I don't know how other companies do it, but I would imagine they figure their cost into what the customer is charged. I believe Apple also uses the Fraunhofer codec for iTunes, since it is based on SoundJam, which also used those codecs. They probably have such a high volume that they have some sort of flat fee or estimate worked out with Fraunhofer. In any case, they are paying as well and passing that along to the end user without mentioning it. We don't have the same volume to be able to afford the type of licensing fees we would have to pay to include every single Pro Tools user.

Since a number of users either don't need the MP3 capability in Pro Tools, or already use one of the many other MP3 encoders available, the majority of customers may not necessarily need or want this option. You do have the option of bouncing to disk in Pro Tools to a mono or stereo file, then using another MP3 Encoder. Some are free, like iTunes.

We feel that the only fair way is to charge only those customers that want this option rather than all users. It is not something that we make money on, we either break even or in some years actually lose money on MP3 Option because there is also a large minimum annual fee paid to Fraunhofer in addition to the payment of a license fee for every single copy sold of MP3 Option.