It’s a free software DAW and thus a valuable program that has the potential to attract a lot of semi-professional and professional audio users to GNU/Linux (given the pricing, missing portability and inferior support for customization of the commercial alternatives).

Until now its main developer Paul Davis was living off a corporate sponsorship. This has changed:

With the end of SAE sponsorship, subscriptions & donations are the only thing that make it possible for full-time development of Ardour to continue. In January this added up to US$1968. That’s less than 1 copy of Nuendo, 4 copies of Logic or 40 personal copies of Reaper. If you agree that it takes more than this to support to keep Ardour moving forward, please subscribe or donate. Your support is critical and much appreciated.

Paul has not only been the industrious main developer of a great piece of free software but also a valuable member of the GNU/Linux audio user and developer community.

Although I’m not an Ardour user right now I have subscribed for a monthly donation nevertheless.

I strongly suggest you support him, too.

Here’s how it works:

First you choose how much you commit to pay while listening to excerpts from Marcus’ album.

If the target price total is reached by the end of 26 December 2008, the album is released under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND and you will be charged the fee you committed to pay before.

If the price is not reached then either Marcus will release the album nevertheless or he will decide to try something else. In the latter case you won’t be charged any money.

This album is definitely worth the money not only because of the music itself but also because it’s one of the new ways to get paid for digital content.

Remember? This is one of the new ways of selling music that the music industry refuses to take serious.

Let’s show them.

And while you’re at it, grab some free music at Jamendo, too. :)