LibriVox Forum

Audacity purchased

https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/04/audacity_muse_group/

I suspect this is bad news, but I'm not panicking.

I think you are right, and the writing is on the wall. When and if price becomes a reality, and if they charge anywhere near $50 - then there are much better audio editing programs out there at that price, so people will switch.

I don't think it's anything to get too concerned about.

It's free software licensed under GNU GPL. If the new owners did anything to prejudice that status then it's likely the current open source developers (or someone else) would simply fork the software and start a new development branch. I'm not quite sure what Muse Group stand to gain, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not even clear what they're buying, but it's certainly not exclusive rights to the code.

Audacity's origins are slightly different from most open source projects. It didn't just start in the usual manner by a group of generous idealists working for free. People at Carnegie Mellon University were the driving force in the early years. I think that accounts for a lot of its initial success.

GrayHouse wrote: ↑May 5th, 2021, 4:40 am It didn't just start in the usual manner by a group of generous idealists working for free.

Wait... You mean like us?

I use Musescore, and there's both a paid and a free version available. Maybe Audacity will eventually become something like this? In Musescore there's plenty of features available to use for free, so hopefully the new ownership shouldn't change much if anything for us and our use of Audacity.

My concern is not with a price, if it's reasonable, but I think of newcomers who might be turned off by having to pay for a program like Audacity without having some real reassurance that they could handle it and that it would serve their needs. I don't think I would have started recording without having stumbled upon Audacity. And I had choices among a number of programs, but Audacity seemed---is---the real deal for what we do at LV. At that time, I would not have wanted to pay for a program about which I knew very little, if anything at all, or the pretty simplistic free programs that were then available. (It's been so long, I no longer remember their names.)

I imagine I'm worried over nothing, but I'm still trying to figure out why someone would buy (control) a product that is offered to the public at no charge.

KevinS wrote: ↑May 5th, 2021, 3:39 pm My concern is not with a price, if it's reasonable, but I think of newcomers who might be turned off by having to pay for a program like Audacity....

No I totally agree. I think it would be very off-putting, especially considering that Audacity is tricky to manage at first.
But I'm pretty sure I myself wouldn't want to pay for Audacity either way. I'm just hoping they don't charge for it.

On the other hand, if Audacity begins to have a price tag, one can continue to use their existing free version.

I've been using Audacity version 2.0.3 since 2013, and haven't upgraded simply because the tool still continues to do everything (very well) that I need it to do, to create LV audios.

FWIW,

DACSoft wrote: ↑May 5th, 2021, 5:53 pm On the other hand, if Audacity begins to have a price tag, one can continue to use their existing free version.

I've been using Audacity version 2.0.3 since 2013, and haven't upgraded simply because the tool still continues to do everything (very well) that I need it to do, to create LV audios.

FWIW,

There is much wisdom in "If it works..."

DACSoft wrote: ↑May 5th, 2021, 5:53 pm On the other hand, if Audacity begins to have a price tag, one can continue to use their existing free version.

I've been using Audacity version 2.0.3 since 2013, and haven't upgraded simply because the tool still continues to do everything (very well) that I need it to do, to create LV audios.

FWIW,

Yes, that (using the current version) is something I had thought about too. I use Reaper which can be downloaded in the complete latest version and used free for an unspecified time. I used it for several months and then purchased for about $50. That gave about ten years or more of free updates and it's only since version 6 came out that a new licence was required. But as I have the latest version of 5.99 or whatever (a 64 bit version), I have continued using that as it does everything I want.

I heard about this through the Late Night Linux podcast. The gang there wasn't too concerned. The Muse Group folks might invest some money in bug fixes and general maintenance. If they get greedy and want to charge for their latest version the current software will always be free and available.

lurcherlover wrote: ↑May 5th, 2021, 11:21 pm

DACSoft wrote: ↑May 5th, 2021, 5:53 pm On the other hand, if Audacity begins to have a price tag, one can continue to use their existing free version.

I've been using Audacity version 2.0.3 since 2013, and haven't upgraded simply because the tool still continues to do everything (very well) that I need it to do, to create LV audios.

FWIW,

Yes, that (using the current version) is something I had thought about too. I use Reaper which can be downloaded in the complete latest version and used free for an unspecified time. I used it for several months and then purchased for about $50. That gave about ten years or more of free updates and it's only since version 6 came out that a new licence was required. But as I have the latest version of 5.99 or whatever (a 64 bit version), I have continued using that as it does everything I want.

I was also using Reaper and like you, I'm frozen at the version just below 6 because it does everything I need. I recently stumbled across Bandlab's Cakewalk. https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk There isn't a license cost, at least not yet and I decided to give it a try. I like the interface better than Reaper especially the way it handles VST's. You might want to check it out.

ItsThatRick wrote: ↑May 27th, 2021, 7:29 am I was also using Reaper and like you, I'm frozen at the version just below 6 because it does everything I need. I recently stumbled across Bandlab's Cakewalk. https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk There isn't a license cost, at least not yet and I decided to give it a try. I like the interface better than Reaper especially the way it handles VST's. You might want to check it out.

That takes me back! Cakewalk was the first audio software I used back in the eighties! On my IBM computer, running on DOS with a brand new 10 MB hard drive. I'll have to check that out!

Darvinia wrote: ↑May 28th, 2021, 1:00 pm

ItsThatRick wrote: ↑May 27th, 2021, 7:29 am I was also using Reaper and like you, I'm frozen at the version just below 6 because it does everything I need. I recently stumbled across Bandlab's Cakewalk. https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk There isn't a license cost, at least not yet and I decided to give it a try. I like the interface better than Reaper especially the way it handles VST's. You might want to check it out.

That takes me back! Cakewalk was the first audio software I used back in the eighties! On my IBM computer, running on DOS with a brand new 10 MB hard drive. I'll have to check that out!

Wow ... that's cool! I think it's come a long way since the early days. If you do give it a try, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!