yep, they sent me this email months ago...

Dear Audion Owner,

Remember Audion? One of the first, and certainly the most stylish, Macintosh MP3 player/encoders, Audion was released in 1999 and really helped Panic become the little Macintosh company it is today. At some point you bought a copy of Audion, to which we're quite thankful.

Lately, though, you may have noticed that there haven't much activity with Audion. To be honest, there's been activity, but it's been going on behind-the-scenes -- and a great deal of that has been decision-making.

The result? We've made the decision to "retire" Audion after nearly 5 years of wonderful service.

The good news:

As part of the retirement, Audion will remain available for download, and we're even making it totally free of charge for all users around the globe!

The not-so-good news:

Audion will no longer be actively developed, and support will be minimal, although we'll work hard to support paid users such as yourself.

First, understand that this is the first time we've taken an application out of active development, and we're certainly nervous about it -- but we're trying our best to handle it in the best way we can, and we want to make sure everyone stays as happy as possible.

DETAILS
=======

Q. Why did you make this decision?
A. The answer starts with an "i", but there's a lot more to it.

The short answer, obviously, is that it's become increasingly difficult for Audion to compete with iTunes -- a free program, that comes with every copy of Mac OS X, and works quite well for 95% of Mac digital audio users -- and our sales clearly reflect this. While we could pour time and money into making Audion something "more", we're certain the returns would not match the effort.

But, that's the oversimplified answer. There's much more to the story. In order to explain it fully -- and if you want to understand the true thought behind this decision -- I've taken the time to write the (ridiculously lengthy) "True Story Of Audion".

http://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/

The last few paragraphs explain fully the rationale behind this decision. But the full story contains all sorts of interesting things, such as how Audion almost became iTunes (!), how we almost became an AOL / Time Warner company, and our how Apple boardroom meeting with Steve Jobs went.

If you're an Audion fan, or a Panic historian, I promise it's worth your time to read the whole thing.

Q. But I bought Audion! What now?
A. Take 20% off any of our other software.

First, the Audion you purchased will continue to work now and in the foreseeable future, and do everything it did when you bought it! But, realistically we know there's more to it than that -- nobody wants to buy software with a limited future life. Sadly, there's not much we can do about that.

But, when talking about it, we really wanted to do _something_ to make up for the retirement -- even if just a little bit. So, as a small, optional token of our gratitude -- your purchase of Audion really helped make Panic become Panic! -- we'd like to offer you 20% OFF ANY of our other (actively developed!) software, on us.

https://www.panic.com/special/audion-offer.html
Promo Code: AUDIONUSER
20% off anything we make.

This special will last until 11/15/04. We hope you enjoy our other software as much as you enjoyed Audion.

Q. But I, like, *JUST* bought Audion a little while ago!
A. No problem. We'll gladly refund your purchase.

If you bought Audion sometime after September 15th, 2004 -- we will fully refund your purchase price.

Simply send an email to: audion@panic.com , with the subject "Recent Refund". Include your serial number or order number. We'll do the rest.

Q. Well, that's that. What's next for Panic, then?
A: Lots!

Panic is not going out of business -- we're just retiring a program due to circumstances largely beyond our control. We hope we don't ever have to do it again! We plan to continue to keep making the best Macintosh software we possibly can -- if there's a program we want, we'll build it. Transmit, Unison, CandyBar, Stattoo, Desktastic and Pixadex are all great products we're very proud of and working hard on. Please keep an eye on us in the future!

Thanks for reading, and your understanding.

Feel free to send us an e-mail with your thoughts, comments, and Audion memories!

Sincerely,
Cabel
Co-Founder
Panic