The Real Story of Audion

mijkal writes "Panic's Audion music software has been retired and made freely available. The developer has a nice write up on his experiences with Audion in relation to early-MP3 days, failed AOL deals, and the could-have-been iTunes app. It's an inspiring read on the history of a shareware developer and his adventures thus far."

Comments

Re:Shareware?

[DLWormwood]

I know what a Spyware developer is, and I know of open source and closed source; but is there really such a thing as a shareware developer anymore?

Your confusion is understandable; in the Windows/x86 world, shareware truly is dead. But the distribution format continues to exist (though barely) in the Mac market. Besides, Panic, there's Ambrosia Software, Freeverse, Littlewing, Spiderweb and others.

Mac users, partly due to reduced malware exposure and partly due to cultural conviction, tend to be more appreciative of shareware developers, and as such are more likely to download strange unknown software and pay their fees. I used to have a link to a developer's anecdote where he got about 3% or so pay-in from Mac downloads, but only got much less than 1% when he ported his product to Windows. The result is that Mac shareware tends to get more income than on Windows, despite (or because of?) the low market share of the platform.

That said, even the old shareware houses are starting to migrate to brick-and-mortar. Freeverse sells some of their games in Apple Stores, and even Ambrosia has made CD pressings of Escape Velocity: Nova (as well as a board game!). It's a shame, shareware was as close as the "little person" could get to a true free market of software sales, sacrificed during the current war between Corporate software and Open Source.

Re:Breath of fresh air

[NardofDoom]

I was fortunate enough to have two job interviews with the makers of Reunion.

It's a tiny operation, comprising four people. They were extremely dedicated to doing one thing and doing it well, and to the Macintosh platform. It made me proud to be a Mac user, since I was in such good company.

Then I read slashdot.

Re:Inspiring?

[SlamMan]

If you'd read it, you'd see nowhere in there do they think they got fucked over by different companies. Apple bought their main competitor after Panic was already had a deal in progress with AOL, and then released what they see as a different (and in some ways superior) program. Apple even tried to hire them on.

Not a "fucked over" situation.