This is where research and invention take place:

Audio and Media Technologies - www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm.html
Fraunhofer IIS, Am Wolfsmantel 33, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

MP3
The development of mp3 started in the late 80s at Fraunhofer IIS, based on previous development results at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Although there are more efficient audio codecs with advanced features available today, mp3 is still very popular amongst consumers.

However, most state-of-the-art media services such as streaming or TV and radio broadcasting use modern ISO-MPEG codecs such as the AAC family or in the future MPEG-H. Those technologies, that have been developed with major contributions from Fraunhofer IIS, can deliver more features and a higher audio quality at much lower bitrates compared to mp3.
www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/consumer-electronics/mp3.html

xHE-AAC
The audio codec of choice for adaptive audio and video streaming and digital radio
www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/broadcast-streaming/xheaac.html

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2022

Found an interesting thread, VST2 had ARA capabilities, Steinberg didn't realise how important it would be probably.

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166915