Audion: the life story of a single program for Mac
A fascinating, albeit long, story of a single program for Mac - Audion.
The first version of Audion was released in 1999. At that time, there were almost no Mac programs that could play MP3s. The program quickly gained popularity and sold well, especially in Japan and the USA. Around this time, Audion had a strong competitor - SoundJam. Audion was a little better than SoundJam in all respects, but the lead was not so strong as to rest on its laurels.
At that time, Panic employed two people, Cable Susser and Stephen Frank. As an office, they used a two-room apartment.
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In 2000, they were approached by two large companies: AOL and Apple. AOL just bought WinAmp, which dominated the Windows market. With a program like Audion and practically unlimited resources available, they could chase the whole Mac market for themselves. Unfortunately or fortunately, the deal with AOL did not take place. Cable gives two reasons:
1. Panic wanted to preserve individuality and continue to develop Audion under its own name, being part of AOL. Chances are they were not very great.
2. The man who promoted the idea of ​​buying Panic (Rob Lord, the leader of the WinAmp project at that time) left AOL. Negotiations began to drag out and Cable and Stephen decided to abandon the idea of ​​a sale.
Cable says they don’t worry about the millions that left them. He only wishes Audion had become the number one MP3 player for the Mac.
And what about Apple? Negotiations with Apple also failed due to the complexity of the relationship with AOL.
Cable and Stephen returned to work and released the second version of Audion in late 2000. Cable wrote a letter to Steve Jobs, offering him a look at the program and, a few days later, to his utter surprise, he received an answer.
Cable and Stephen were delighted. The meeting was scheduled for MacWolrd Expo 2001.
There was an event at the exhibition for which the authors of Audion were not ready - Apple introduced iTunes. iTunes 1.0 was rather weak, but the potential in it was visible to the naked eye. Combined with Apple’s marketing power, crowding out other players from the market was inevitable.
Cable and Steve exchanged a few phrases at the exhibition, and serious negotiations with Apple began a little later. For 15 minutes, Steve Jobs joined the meeting and said that he highly appreciates the professionalism of Cable and Stephen and wants them to join Apple. The developers were pleasantly surprised and to some extent shocked, and even forgot to ask what kind of project they would have.
At the same meeting, the founders of Panic found out why Apple had contacted them before - they wanted Cable and Stephen to write iTunes. Since those negotiations did not take place, Apple turned to their competitors, SoundJam. SoundJam has become iTunes.
Despite the attractiveness of the offer, Caleb and Stephen refused. Cable says it was Steve's high rating that gave them confidence, and they continued to develop Audion and other products.
Some time later, an iPod appeared on the market. Panic was able to add iPod support in the third version of Audion. This was a wonderful version in all respects, but it was destined to be the last. Further competition with iTunes became useless, especially with the advent of the Apple Music store. Panic decided to stop developing and selling the product and remove it from the market.
Cable says they could have made the product free, but they didn’t want to see him give up anyway under the onslaught of iTunes.
Moral: when a small company gets in the way of a large company, it will not be good for anyone.
Another interesting point. Many journalists have noted in reviews that Audion sounds better than SoundJam, playing the same MP3 files. Apple representatives even asked Cable what they were doing to achieve this effect. The trick is that there was nothing like that in Audion and the music sounded the same. It's just that users liked the program so much that they thought it “sounds better”.
The first version of Audion was released in 1999. At that time, there were almost no Mac programs that could play MP3s. The program quickly gained popularity and sold well, especially in Japan and the USA. Around this time, Audion had a strong competitor - SoundJam. Audion was a little better than SoundJam in all respects, but the lead was not so strong as to rest on its laurels.
At that time, Panic employed two people, Cable Susser and Stephen Frank. As an office, they used a two-room apartment.
')
In 2000, they were approached by two large companies: AOL and Apple. AOL just bought WinAmp, which dominated the Windows market. With a program like Audion and practically unlimited resources available, they could chase the whole Mac market for themselves. Unfortunately or fortunately, the deal with AOL did not take place. Cable gives two reasons:
1. Panic wanted to preserve individuality and continue to develop Audion under its own name, being part of AOL. Chances are they were not very great.
2. The man who promoted the idea of ​​buying Panic (Rob Lord, the leader of the WinAmp project at that time) left AOL. Negotiations began to drag out and Cable and Stephen decided to abandon the idea of ​​a sale.
Cable says they don’t worry about the millions that left them. He only wishes Audion had become the number one MP3 player for the Mac.
And what about Apple? Negotiations with Apple also failed due to the complexity of the relationship with AOL.
Cable and Stephen returned to work and released the second version of Audion in late 2000. Cable wrote a letter to Steve Jobs, offering him a look at the program and, a few days later, to his utter surprise, he received an answer.
Cable
I heard that the deal with AOL did not take place. Still interested to talk with us?
Steve
Cable and Stephen were delighted. The meeting was scheduled for MacWolrd Expo 2001.
There was an event at the exhibition for which the authors of Audion were not ready - Apple introduced iTunes. iTunes 1.0 was rather weak, but the potential in it was visible to the naked eye. Combined with Apple’s marketing power, crowding out other players from the market was inevitable.
Cable and Steve exchanged a few phrases at the exhibition, and serious negotiations with Apple began a little later. For 15 minutes, Steve Jobs joined the meeting and said that he highly appreciates the professionalism of Cable and Stephen and wants them to join Apple. The developers were pleasantly surprised and to some extent shocked, and even forgot to ask what kind of project they would have.
At the same meeting, the founders of Panic found out why Apple had contacted them before - they wanted Cable and Stephen to write iTunes. Since those negotiations did not take place, Apple turned to their competitors, SoundJam. SoundJam has become iTunes.
Despite the attractiveness of the offer, Caleb and Stephen refused. Cable says it was Steve's high rating that gave them confidence, and they continued to develop Audion and other products.
Some time later, an iPod appeared on the market. Panic was able to add iPod support in the third version of Audion. This was a wonderful version in all respects, but it was destined to be the last. Further competition with iTunes became useless, especially with the advent of the Apple Music store. Panic decided to stop developing and selling the product and remove it from the market.
Cable says they could have made the product free, but they didn’t want to see him give up anyway under the onslaught of iTunes.
Moral: when a small company gets in the way of a large company, it will not be good for anyone.
Another interesting point. Many journalists have noted in reviews that Audion sounds better than SoundJam, playing the same MP3 files. Apple representatives even asked Cable what they were doing to achieve this effect. The trick is that there was nothing like that in Audion and the music sounded the same. It's just that users liked the program so much that they thought it “sounds better”.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/70695/
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