

Why you really shouldn't use MP3 in your HTML5 and Flash games - TomGullen
http://www.scirra.com/blog/64/why-you-shouldnt-use-mp3-in-your-html5-games

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aiurtourist
_The MP3 licensing website states at time of writing that an MP3 license will
cost US $2,500 per game title. In their own words, a game is described as:_

 _“Interactive software products intended to interact with a user for
entertainment (action, role play, strategy, adventure, simulations, racing,
sport, arcade, card and board games) and/or education, that may be published
for multiple machines, platforms or media”_

 _There is a small saving grace:_

 _“No license fees are due if less than 5,000 copies of a particular game
title are distributed”_

 _Distribution of a particular game is not exclusive of web distribution! Take
one of our most popular arcade games for example, “8 Bit Runner”. To date it’s
far surpassed 5,000 plays. In their eyes this could easily qualify as 5,000
distributions. Had the author used MP3, they’d then be due to pay the MP3
licensers $2,500 for a small online game._

I had absolutely no idea that MP3 has such a license.

~~~
TomGullen
I think it's a big problem as we didn't know either until we started writing
our game engine and doing some research

