Auphonic broke the news yesterday that their service is no longer entirely free. While they’ve had a downloadable version of their software available for €69 since February, but for the first time since their launch two years ago, their online service now comes at a price.

Auphonic is an invaluable tool for podcasters. It allows audio files to be automatically leveled, topped and tailed and many other features. So what will happen now it is no longer free?

Well, that depends how much you use it. If your podcast is a weekly release of under 30 minutes, then you probably don’t have to worry about it since the first two hours a month are free for all users.

If you want to use it any more than that, then you’ve got two options (not included the one-time cost to download their software) Either buy recurring credits starting at €9 for nine hours per month, or buy one-time credits that last until you use them up, they start at €9 for five hours.

So what else do we need to know? Well, Auphonic is an incredible service for those that use it, sometimes it’s like a magic button that just tidies up your podcast in no time, and now they need some support, well €1 per hour seems like a pretty reasonable rate and something that most podcasters would easily be able to afford. If you don’t think so then let them know. It’s always tough to gauge how a new product might be accepted into the market so help out the services that help us by dropping them a line.

-Jackson Rogers, OzPodcasts