ɪt wʌz dˈʌn fɔːɹ vˈɛɹiəs ɹˈiːzənz: tə kɹiːˈeɪt ɐ sˈɪmpəl kˌeɪdˌiːˈiː slˈæʃ kjˌuːtˈiː stˈaɪl mˌʌltɪmˈiːdiːə ˌeɪpˌiːˈaɪ, tə bˈɛɾɚ səpˈoːɹt nˈeɪɾɪv mˌʌltɪmˈiːdiːə fɹˈeɪmwɜːks ˌɔn wˈɪndoʊz ænd mˈæk ˌoʊˈɛs, ænd tə fˈɪks pɹˈɑːbləmz ʌv fɹˈeɪmwɜːks bᵻkˈʌmɪŋ ʌnmeɪntˈeɪnd ɔːɹ hˌævɪŋ ˌeɪpˌiːˈaɪ ɔːɹ ˌeɪbˌiːˈaɪ ɪnstəbˈɪlᵻɾi.
It was done for various reasons: to create a simple KDE/Qt style multimedia API, to better support native multimedia frameworks on Windows and macOS, and to fix problems of frameworks becoming unmaintained or having API or ABI instability.