[Action Needed] Upcoming Changes to Asset Privacy for Audio

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#762

Hello! This seems like an overall good change reading into it (albeit it’s a bit jarring on paper). I’m assuming that the use of the term “privacy settings” means we will be able to make existing audio public after it’s defaulted to private, right? It’d be very counter intuitive to just nuke songs like this ESPECIALLY when there’s no reliable source for audio assets.

Will royalty free game SFX be a thing, ever? The free audio library while unorganized works well enough for songs, but what about people who want to make an immersive game but aren’t skilled composers?

Speaking of, what will this mean for audio composers that’re aiming to sell their work on the platform? Wouldn’t it be a better change to add a marketplace for audio?

I’d like some more clarification on just what this will do to most if not all of the games on Roblox that use songs and SFX from games, shows, etc. Most of that audio tends to be uploaded by another user.

Overall, glad that we don’t have to pay for audio anymore. But you’re sort of leaving us in the dark here.

2 Likes
#763

4SJ2uZypS0
thank you so much smh

10 Likes
#764

True, but sound effects should be within the range of 1-6 seconds so no issue should occur there for a simple clicking sound if you understand what I mean. Secondly like I’ve mentioned before, this update affects me too. I’m not too happy about it but removing having to pay for audio greatly impacts me and my continuation of development on my game. One of my biggest road blockers was not being able to upload something due to it’s long length costing me 350 robux. It has it’s pros and cons, if we just all give this update some time and bring it out of the shade, I believe this could greatly benefit some games, especially for starting out developers, like me.

#765

This update is moderately OK. Being able to upload audios for free by a limited amount per month is alright. However, what happens once you hit the limit? You can’t upload more? Locking users from uploading after the limit is very restrictive. Why not do the old way with audios past the limit? And I do appreciate Roblox attempting to respect the privacy of creators, however, bulk-privating ALL audios that are longer than 6 seconds is a poor attempt. This would be great for off-sale audios but privating all audios, even on-sale, is very bizarre. I feel like only new audios past the deadline should be auto-privated and giving users the option to private their pre-existing audios. A lot of games, especially old games that are still maintained for the nostalgia, will be greatly impacted. I myself prepared for something like this, making sure to upload my game’s audios straight to the group. I only had to fix 20 or so audios for this update. I’m not impacted from this but I feel like I should voice my opinion on the behalf of those who will be affected.

2 Likes
#766

So looking forward to the 100 audio upload limit! However, is there a chance you’ll overhaul the system that copyright strikes user made audios? Such as maybe put in place an appeal system that works or a way for composers to show they made the music?

4 Likes
#767

Wow, this topic is quite heated. To say the least though, I’m not too surprised.
Given that this update appears to be negatively impacting various parts of the Roblox community more than it is helping, I can see why the majority of people here are not very happy with the update. That said, I do like the free audio uploading, which is a big plus; on top of the additional privacy for audio asset usage.
The major downside? As everyone here is fuming about, the 2 week deadline to re-upload any audios that will not work for your game after the deadline; which for many people is simply impossible to achieve. This is either because they’re limited by the time they can spend re-uploading the audios, or their audio upload limits are much too low to upload the audios required. Also, I don’t see why all the audios that were already public on the Creator Marketplace, needed to be automatically privated if they are over six seconds in length. For example, why was a choice not given to allow the creators of the publicly uploaded audios to opt-in to automatic privatization of their audio assets? It just seems strange to me to do something so drastic then give a very short notice for it. Something isn’t adding up here. Some things were not well clarified in this update as pointed out by some others who posted, but as far as I can tell; this is going to end up either creating a hassle for small developers at large, or otherwise heavily impacting those who depended on audio assets uploaded by others being a readily available resource.
That said, I ask Roblox to reconsider automatically setting such an enormous collection of audios to private; and instead reconsider how to roll-out this feature update. I love the good parts about this update, but the downsides are so apparent, harsh, and immediate that they outweigh the upsides. Please give any alternative to having to re-upload audio assets not owned by you or the associated group, or extend the deadline by several months (which would probably defeat the purpose of the privacy part of this update, but given how the execution here is being done; that wasn’t well planned out in my opinion). I don’t really know where to go from here, as I work on group projects where me and my co-workers will probably have to re-upload a total of probably at least 50 or so audios. Granted, that isn’t as bad as some others have it (I’m hearing cases of hundreds of audios across the ownership of several different accounts, which is chilling to think about). Again Roblox, all that I ask is that you carefully reconsider the potential consequences of what your update is about to do if it is implemented in its current state. I’d hate to see the equivalent of near-permanent damage being done to the audio catalog (even if it is to reduce load on the already undersized moderation team for the scale of the platform, this will only serve as a stop-gap solution at best as far as I can see), on top of many games falling silent in some form or another and losing part of what may make them an immersive experience. That said, it isn’t like I don’t see potential in the large upcoming addition of music and sound effects to the stock library; just that with the way this is being implemented… there’s going to most likely be serious negative consequences for the components of the Roblox community that aren’t large. Maybe I’m completely misunderstanding this, so if someone could clear this up for me that would help a lot.

7 Likes
#768

Welp, I have now come to my decision. I am officially QUITTING Roblox Game Devlelopment.
My Dreams Have Been Crushed. ):

I wish everyone best of luck through this.

I might come back, I probably will when this is over with. But for now I have wasted Money on My Future Game Project series and had saved up so much money for nothing.

7 Likes
#769

In terms of this update, no one asked for the (almost) entire community-created, publicly available audio catalog to be made unavailable. Especially considering how going forward you’ll only be able to use the audios you’ve personally uploaded rather than using assets that are already openly available (for example being animation assets). This not only complicates the usage of audio (alongside the inconsistent upload limits) but it also entirely destroys a crucial part of Roblox history that would be boomboxes.

Another thing is that it’ll single-handedly break further ancient games that are no longer being maintained. Plenty of people have sentiments and/or attachments to those games and this update does not respect them.

5 Likes
#770

I also feel it necessary to point out how abjectly manipulative it is for Roblox to sandwich this update with making audio free to upload. You are falling hook, line, and sinker for their attempt at PR control by saying “Well, this sucks, but at least we get free audio!”

1 Like
#771

No, because after a year or 2 you will hear the same silence (or just hear on repeat the same songs)

#772

tbh i might just switch to s&box this is so stupid

3 Likes
#773

Good move and about time, Sound Designers will now play a big part in development.

#774

The only people that are angry about this update are the ones who are benefiting from other artists’ work (as far as I can tell.)

#775

I’d like to recommend a different course of action, one way more helpful and less harmful to the community. Enable the feature to make your own audio(s) private, and therefore unable to be used in other player’s experiences. And, privatize all audios listed as not free to take.

Nobody is asking Roblox to jeopardize everyone else just for the sake of their own content privacy. Small developers, games that utilize audio as a big part of their game such as clubs or social hangouts, and creators that upload audios frequently, all are going to be negatively effected by this update.

The current audio catalog is the way it is because those audio creators set their audio as free to take. Due to the lack of the ability to privatize their audios up until recent, it’s safe to assume they enabled that option as a sign that they were allowing the audio to be used freely in anyone’s experience. And a lot of these audios were uploaded years back. Who’s to say that the creator of those audios is still active on this platform and willing to make them public again? If this update is fully implemented, we are sure to lose thousands of audios for good. Audios which were uploaded and intended to be used freely by their creators.

And to add insult to injury, the audios are now free to upload. Bypassing audios was already rampant before this update, and as many of people have already raised concerns over, these audios are going to be getting uploaded even more now that they lack the penalty that was the robux fee for uploading audios.

I hope that our feedback is being heard, as the vast majority here seems to be against this update. I’m sure we’re all for giving people the option to privatize their audios, but we’re not for privatizing every audio on the catalog; as they’re in the catalog by their creators choice to have them there.

7 Likes
#776

Welp, I’ve got school tomorrow so I should probably stop replying for now and go to bed. We should probably get this thread to the top replies in the “Announcements” category.

Before I go to bed though, I’ll play more Sonic 2 to forget the pain. :happy3:

1 Like
#777

@BitFist I hope you realize your team just had me waste about 200 Dollars of my savings trying to get into Roblox Game Development and that my and many others’ future has been crushed. Please fix this, PLEASE!

3 Likes
#778

PLEASE MAKE IT SO YOU CAN BYPASS YOUR AUDIO LIMIT WITH ROBUX!
ONCE YOU MAX YOUR LIMIT EVERY AUDIO CAN USE THE OLD SYSTEM, PAID FOR WITH ROBUX PLS?
Seriously. Please.

2 Likes
#779

Very, very based. I would pick Mania personally, but a very valid choice.

#781

Pretty nice update, i was sad i could not afford to upload audios for my upcoming horror game, looking foward to be able to upload almost 100 audios per month, as my thoughts on old audios being broken, i guess it could happen due to content deletion,

Id like to recommend a alternative than just forcing private audios on everyone. I dont have one but i hope they do.

1 Like
#782

Please, for the love of God, don’t follow thru with this.

The audio uploads for free part is OK, but maybe once the quota is reached, start reverting to the older “pay to upload” system?

The main issue is the auto-privating.

I have a collection of audios that I utilize with ID boomboxes, most of the owners of those audios probably haven’t logged on in 5 years.

Players and developers alike will be very, VERY angry at these changes, not being able to play their music. The audio library from the likes of APM may be a good source of royalty-free music, but is SEVERELY lacking in the sound effects department. In addition, there’s no tags system, so even if we wanted to search for sound effects, we would have to just scrub through hundreds of useless musics called “Light Rain” when we want a light rain sound effect.

Developers who may have gone inactive, or maybe even passed away may no longer update their games, essentially muting all music.

Besides, how would a public audio, which the uploader SAW A NOTICE THAT THIS WILL BE FREE TO USE, somehow be angry that people are using their audio?

Plus, before you say that “well, they can just make it public again,” please note that a lot of these audio uploaders may be inactive, deceased, etc, and won’t be around to re-publicify the audios which they agreed to make public.

It’s as if millions of games cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced…

11 Likes