Release a MediaPlayer instance and resources

Release a MediaPlayer instance and resources when you no longer need the MediaResource.

Releasing a MediaPlayer object deallocates the underlying hardware resources associated with this MediaPlayer object. Release a MediaPlayer when it is no longer useful. For several reasons, it is good practice to do this:

Holding unnecessary resources can affect performance.
Leaving an unneeded MediaPlayer object can lead to continuous battery consumption for mobile devices.
Playback failure might occur for other applications if multiple instances of the same video-codec are not supported on a device.

Call the release method:

void release() throws IllegalStateException;

After the MediaPlayer instance is released, you can no longer use it. Calling any method of the MediaPlayer interface after it is released results in an IllegalStateException being thrown.