As some of you might have noticed, the website has been relaunched a few days ago. It was about time, and I’m going to keep the new one more interesting for the visitor with some up-to-date information. This blog is part of the plan – I will post some interesting articles once in a while, with useful information about mAirList, how to use it efficiently, and what is happening and will happen with it.

Browsing the new website, you will notice that there are now three "editions" of mAirList: Community Edition, Personal Edition, and Professional Edition. You will also notice that, unlike before, mAirList is not completely free for personal and non-profit use anymore. I will explain the reason for that.

Development of mAirList started in 2001, only for eldoradio* at that time. I released the first version to the public about one year later. Over time, mAirList became more and more popular, with hundreds and thousands of people using it. There was huge input from these people, many new ideas for great features, and so I kept on working, but still only in  my spare time. Every now and then, a commercial customer bought a license, which was a little reward for my efforts.

Today, I find myself in a difficult situation. On the one hand, it’s great to see how far we have come with this software. It has become a serious competitor in the semi-professional radio automation market, with increased attention in the radio community. On the other hand, I see that I can only meet the expectations when I put alot more time and energy into this. mAirList cannot be a spare-time project anymore.

So the good news is that I now have plenty of time to finally to implement things like the database, voice tracking, and so on. These are the missing pieces which will help to make mAirList even more successful in the commercial sector (and which will allow me to pay my rent, I hope).

The bad news is that, as a personal user, you will have to pay a small license fee (50 Euros, plus VAT if you happen to live in the EU) in order to enjoy these features. You will receive a copy of mAirList Personal Edition , which is targeted at the ambitions home studio users, with all the features you know from the previous versions of mAirList.

There is still a free version of mAirList for personal use, mAirList Community Edition . This is what you get when you download mAirList 3.0 and do not own any particular license. It has some limitations, e.g. no multichannel soundcard support, no databases, no scripting, etc.

For commercial customers and organizations, mAirList Professional Edition brings the full set of features, including network support for the upcoming database mAirListDB so you can edit your database and playlists throughout your station network. Prices for commercial use remain unchanged (600 Euros for a playout license and 100 Euros for a database management license without playout).

Non-profit organizations will also have to use the Professional Edition, but they will receive a discount. As it turned out, "non-profit" is a vague term. I prefer to make each organization an individual offer which will best fit their needs. After all, mAirList still claims to be the best (and excellent value) automation solution for that sector.

Here’s some more information about the licenses and how to obtain them:

  • I’m now selling licenses for mAirList 3.x which is still beta, but if you buy one, you will receive a free copy of mAirList 2.2 as well.
  • mAirList 3.0 Community Edition does not need a license file. It is embedded into the mAirList.exe file. If you upgrade from any earlier version, backup and delete your license.ini file first.
  • mAirList 3.0 Personal Edition is sold through the new online shop. You will receive a voucher code which can be turned into a license file in the Customer Area of the mAirList website. (Unfortunately, at the moment, you need to register separately at the website and at the online shop which is provided by partner share-it!.)
  • mAirList 3.0 Professional Edition can only be purchased offline at this time. Please contact me for details.
  • mAirList 2.2 still uses the old license scheme where you need a license file in any case, even for the free version. Personal users can request a Community Edition license online. Click the link on the download page .

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to get in touch – either in the forum or below this blog post.