Audion is an audio player

Audio player

Audio player refers to a device or application that is capable of playback of audio data. In the strict sense of the term any device capable of audio playback falls under this category, although usually only digital equipment or software is meant....

 by Panic

Panic (company)

Panic is an Oregon-based American software company that specializes in shareware applications for Mac OS X. It was founded by Steven Frank and Cabel Sasser....

. It was originally a commercial (shareware

Shareware

The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

) program, but with the dominance of Apple's

Apple Computer

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

 iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

, development was halted and it was released as freeware

Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

.

Design

One of the features of Audion that set it apart from its rivals, particularly SoundJam, was its user interface, which featured transparency through a process that mimicked the functionality of alpha channels on Mac OS 9's QuickDraw

QuickDraw

QuickDraw is the 2D graphics library and associated Application Programming Interface which is a core part of the classic Apple Macintosh operating system. It was initially written by Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld. QuickDraw still exists as part of the libraries of Mac OS X, but has been...

, a graphics system that did not support them.

History

Cabel Sasser has written that he and Steven Frank had one goal with Audion: "we wanted to listen to our music CDs on our computers while we worked, and we wanted it to be stylish." During Audion's development, MP3 files became a popular means of listening to music on a computer, and Panic licensed an MP3 decoder for incorporation into Audion.

Audion was originally conceived as one piece in a set of small applications to be called PanicPack, but time constraints led to the release of Audion 1.0 as standalone application on August 16, 1999.

Audion became known for its MP3 decoder, which is reputed to produce sound with superior fidelity. Sasser said this was an accident, and that he and Frank have no idea how they achieved this.

Audion was retired on November 11, 2004.