About Audacity

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

About Free Software

Audacity is free software, developed by a group of volunteers and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Free software is not just free of cost (like "free beer"). It is free as in freedom (like "free speech"). Free software gives you the freedom to use a program, study how it works, improve it and share it with others. For more information, visit the Free Software Foundation.

Programs like Audacity are also called open source software, because their source code is available for anyone to study or use. There are thousands of other free and open source programs, including the Firefox web browser, the OpenOffice.org office suite and entire Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu.

We welcome donations to support Audacity development.

Ohloh has statistics on the value of Audacity development. The Ohloh "badge" at the bottom of each page on this site shows updated summary values. We set up the Ohloh pages about Audacity so the statistics show only the values of Audacity-specific development, excluding the third-party code libraries Audacity uses.

Bundling, Reselling or Distributing Audacity

Vendors are free to bundle Audacity with their products, or to sell or distribute copies of Audacity (see Vendors and Distributors of Audacity) under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

If you are interested in bundling, selling or distributing Audacity, please review our entire License, and Advice for Vendors and Distributors page.