[solved, has been re-included] - Reasoning behind AAX only being included in Pro-license?

Hi Daniel,

I understand why that would be frustrating for some users. We’ve voluntarily simplified the model with JUCE 5 because it’s easier to understand, and easier to maintain. We are not offering a way to pick and choose, but we are certainly looking after the indie developers, with the Personal license that is free until you make $50k.

This is what I thought, but I didn’t wish to jump to any conclusions before asking the question.

I really feel that is is the wrong approach, and, that it bypasses the overall structure of the pricing which is based on how much is generated! I would gladly pay 35$ (or 49$ as I had budgeted), even though I might not even reach the 50k$ annually within a foreseeable future, or if ever and so the option goes from paying nothing and not supporting AAX to paying full-price which I feel is unfortunate since I really feel that I match all the other criteria for the indie-developer license!

Hope this makes sense

Thanks,
Tom

1 Like

Existing JUCE 4 customers on a subscription have the possibility to continue on the current terms, so in your case, you may continue to pay $49.95 and have the same rights to deploy.

New customers will need to choose among the new tiers.

1 Like

Here’s what I feel is the problem :confused:

Tom

How long will JUCE 5 last, will be updated? When will JUCE 6 come out? I think this is a very important information to decide between a perpetual license or monthly subscription.

Applications built with the Personal license will display a splash screen “Made with JUCE” for a few seconds at launch.

I’m don’t think this is a wise decision, imagine a lot of low quality, crashy, plugins will come to the market using juce, this will be automatically associated with JUCE.

1 Like

We’re planning to launch new versions of JUCE every 14 to 18 months.

so, basically, we’ll have to pay 1k/year in order to maintain our license?

1 Like

Wow! So releasing a free Juce application doesn’t mean I have to pay for a license anymore if I want it to be closed source? If that’s the case this is really great news!

1 Like

Yes, so basically subscription or perpetual will be around 1k/year (for the “privilege” to develop AAX or if you earn $200k). I’m fine with that, but just say it.

@jb1, you still haven’t replied to my comments about AAX/Avid in both threads. To recap: Avid doesn’t charge you to develop AAX plugins (but you will). So you are either misinformed or you are using a lie to push the Pro license to small devs.

Yes, that’s correct. The GPL option still exist if you want to open your source code, but with JUCE 5 you will be able to launch a product without paying for a JUCE license until you make $50k in a calendar year. Note that this $50k limit includes any funding you or your company may receive.

that depends, the subscription offers a more affordable yearly cost.

Unintentional splash screens are dumb.

I found out EWQL’s SPACES plugin was made in JUCE because they didn’t strip symbols and it crashed on me once. the OS X crash log showed some JUCE methods. That’s how I want to find out that someone’s plugin/app was written in JUCE. I don’t want to see “Made With JUCE” pop up before their main splash screen appears. and I sure as shit don’t want “Made With JUCE” popping up before my splash screen appears when my app loads. That is forced advertising, and not something we should be forced to pay for.

1 Like

Excluding AAX for Personal and Indie developers is not a good move for the reasons already explained by others above.

In addition, this makes a precedent that gives a very bad impression to the developers that so passionately use JUCE for everyday work: you are literally taking features away from us.

For JUCE 4, a DSP module was promised but never delivered. That alone was a bad news, but at least that didn’t remove something that was already used by someone. It was “only” a major disappointment for those who purchased the license also for that.

This AAX move in JUCE 5 is even worse in my opinion: you are deliberately taking a feature away from under the feet of several small developers which may be rightfully using it since JUCE 2.

And playing the card that “but they can stay with JUCE 4” would not be a good idea here, because development of JUCE has always been done on the latest tip, forgetting older versions, which become unsupported the exact moment a new version comes out.

With these bad examples in mind, one can only wonder what will happen when JUCE 6 is close to being announced.

JUCE is an outstanding piece of software in terms of code excellence, it is a pity to see it being treated like that on commercial/licensing ground

3 Likes

Hey,

Developing for AAX used to require passing a certification test (which costs $, or used to), plus subscribing to a mandatory PACE license. Selling on the AVID marketplace also has a cost. Things may have changed and if I’m misinformed, I apologise.

If you’ve managed to sell AAX plug-ins without paying anything, perhaps you could share information here? I’m sure fellow JUCE developers would be interested to know.

The PACE signing license fee is waived by Avid. So effectively you don’t need to pay anything to sell AAX plugins. Obviously if you sell through their market, a commission is involved.

3 Likes

I don’t know how much I can share without breaking contract terms with either AVID or PACE, but without giving much detail, I can also confirm that in the past a payment was required in order to use PACE tools, but now that cost is not charged upon plug-in developers any more.

More precisely, you don’t have to pay for the PACE tools if you only digitally sign (wrap) your AAX plug-in, which is the minimum required step for them to load in Pro Tools.

On the other hand, if you wish to use the PACE tools also as the copy protection mechanism for your plug-in (i.e. protect them with an iLok), then only in that case you will have to pay for it, but that is entirely left to the discretion of the developer and not required at all for usage in Pro Tools

2 Likes

…which is needed to sell through the Avid Marketplace afaik (unfortunately)

But besides that, I really don’t see the relation between Avids T&Cs and the fact, that there is no chance to support AAX in the midrange JUCE license…

thanks yfede and swar. I edited my post above accordingly.

It looks like there are more AAX indie developers that we imagined there would be. Please contact us to discuss your specific case to upgrade if you’re an existing customer.

1 Like

The fee from PACE/Avid has been waived last I heard, which is what opened up the ability to target AAX for me in the first place. It just feels odd that developers who also wish to release for AAX are being penalized, regardless of size. It feels off since the licensing is very fair otherwise!

Please have another look at this decision!

2 Likes