I am really mixed about this.
On one hand, having free audio’s is a great change
on the other hand, This also results in alot of games breaking.
15 Likes
While I get the reason for most of these changes, multiple developers on our team would upload meshes and models on their own account for ease of development and similar reasons.
If this privacy change is supposed to come to other asset types… our entire game will fall apart. We’ll have to reupload everything. The labor generated by this is atrocious. I hope there’s some sort of automated tool available before the other asset types get privacy, and I even wish it was available now for audios as this is already a huge hurdle for us.
Once again–I get it. I get why this change is being made… but was there really not a better way to help us adjust to this change?
20 Likes
Obviously there is a little bit of action required to replace audios. A bit inevitable this change was going to happen given the rise in Roblox’s popularity and copyright laws, but I have questions regarding the new audios and the toolbox;
Exploring the toolbox for audio files and finding sound effects that fit my needs is very difficult already, so having a new bundle of sound effects is great. But, I have questions in regards to the nature of the usability of said audios.
- Are these sound effects going to affect monetisation of potential influencers/content creators that might play on our experiences?
- Will there/are there any plans to improve the discoverability of these sound effects, among the already extensive library of audios roblox provide?
Specifically on that last question, I’ve had multiple instances where I’ve searched up SFX explicitly, only to find a large proportion of the audio shown on the Toolbox being music and tracks that are irrelevant to what I’m searching for (usually a short/ambient audio). Right now I’m using the audio length as a way to filter out the larger audios, but this doesn’t work on longer sound effects like ambient audio. Considering the large privatisation of existing audios, I’m concerned that alot of the audio that’ll come up will be tunes that I can’t use in my games/don’t fit my needs, or SFX that would fit but discourage content creators from playing my games due to the licensing of that audio only covering use by roblox creators.
It would be very useful to know the explicit licensing of the audio I’m using. Will they all be under the same license or will it be subject to the audio/SFX/music that I use?
4 Likes
At least with the “It’s Free™” audio uploads we can now reupload literally everything that was force privated, and more. I can’t wait to completely cram the queue on the day.
12 Likes
i’m glad roblox gave us this message way in advance so i can use my 10 audio uploads a month to reupload basically every sound effect in my game before two weeks pass, unless i want to give them my social security number, mother’s maiden name, and the three numbers on the back of my credit card so i can upload 100. overall a great change that players will appreciate, even if devs once again get the short end of the stick.
32 Likes
I shouldn’t have to make alt accounts just to keep using basic engine features.
33 Likes
Do you have premium? If so, that could be it…
The description of how these new privacy settings work feels very ambiguous.
- Will audio creators still be allowed to set their audios to be fully public if they wish? Or are any audios longer than 6 seconds long forced to remain private?
- How do we grant permission for an audio asset to be used in a particular game? Is this functionality not released yet? It feels very strange to be forcing these privacy changes if the full functionality is not available yet.
- Audio uploaded under the personal account of a group owner should be usable in any groups they own. Right now this does not seem to be the case. I have uploaded many audios under my personal account which will seemly stop working in my group game.
More clarity is required for such a massive, breaking change like this.
58 Likes
This exactly, I think that personally permissions should be an addition to audios to allow groups/individuals to use them. (Individually each audio, or the entire library/etc.)
12 Likes
Honestly, this update is a double edged sword. Free audio uploads and more SFX are great, but any gamepass using Music Ids will break.
17 Likes
Exactly. Something should be done about this.
3 Likes
Only did a brief search of the topic so I’m not sure if someone already mentioned this, but I think audios that are over 6 seconds but are currently free to use/take on the library right now should also be kept public.
I have some audios I’ve uploaded that are free to use right now because I want other people to use them. Personally, having to go through and un-private them all again isn’t too much of a hassle since I only have a handful, but I would imagine that people who uploaded a lot more stuff than I have would be less than pleased that they’re going to have to manually check some box again for dozens of assets.
4 Likes
I agree with you.
This change is frustrating, if AUDIOS were supposed to be PRIVATED in a FUTURE, they would have announce it long time ago and they would have NOT created an audio category. Roblox is not being transparent at all.
11 Likes
I thought there was a certain lack of compassion needed to try what was being tried with the materials update, yet here I am, baffled at the corporate decision making at Roblox. Never in my time here have I seen an update this utterly poorly conceived and awful. I am blown away at how this corporation will take every chance to throw its small developers under the bus in favor of becoming more approachable to professional developers.
Nobody wants to use Roblox’s own royalty-free music in their boomboxes. Why would they? It’s generic music. Not just developers, but your own players will be livid about this change.
Nobody wants to upload their personal information to upload more audio monthly. We paid before, now we have to pay with real money, or worse, our personal information instead.
Ever consider that incorrect moderation/copyright flags will eat into those monthly uploads? Even as a small developer, only 120 audio uploads a year is ridiculous.
What about alternate accounts? Do you really expect us as developers to go through every single bloody project we’ve made for 10+ years to change audio because of a stupidly conceived change?
I have several hundred sound effects that are in my inventory that I have allowed my friends to use for years. We all use them in each-other’s games with dynamic items that can be inserted into each-other’s games, as long as we share the group. Do you really expect us to reupload everything and change it just to continue to do that?
Have you considered the astronomical amount of games which no longer receive updates, with owners who don’t use Roblox anymore that will now be broken?
Do you really think we want to comb through our thousands of uploads to fix what wasn’t broken?
In fact, what is it with Roblox and their absolute obsession with trying to fix things that aren’t broken? Trying to ruin old just to make way for something that’s new, but also worse?
A game-breaking change across hundreds of thousands of games, and you give us two weeks to prepare?
Even though it would’ve given developers a much better amount of time to adapt, and preserved significantly more old games, You couldn’t even make them public by default and just let users who actually care about a sound or two being used manually set it to private themselves?
I genuinely thought it wouldn’t get much worse than the materials update, or the animation updates attempted rollout. I genuinely thought that there was a light at the end of the tunnel here. Yet here I am, a year later, after all of these “impending doom” updates, only to be greeted with the bloody Walpurgisnacht of all updates. If I had known this change was coming, I never even would have attempted to use this platform.
I had hope today, after hearing that the animation update was being re-thought, that maybe things would get a bit better from here, that Roblox was actively open to considering compromising with developers for their updates. Unfortunately, this is the most corporate, soulless, poorly-thought out, heartless, undermining, and downright fiendish update I’ve ever seen put forth. Just THINKING about an update like this being so much as suggested makes me sick and hurt all over.
I’ve been thinking about it for a while with all of these poorly-thought out updates, and to be honest, I think this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. If this gets pushed without change, I quit. Not just developing, but playing other games on the platform. Few games stand out to me anymore, but this would ruin the few that I still cherish. Honest to god, I’ve had enough. I’m absolutely fuming, and rightfully so. Nothing about this backlash is unjustified, not in the slightest.
P.S: Let go of whoever suggested this. They clearly do not care for the player-base, and that’s a bad look for your company.
152 Likes
Nope, you’ll have the option to toggle them to be unprivated! 
4 Likes
But won’t copyright music increase in population?
2 Likes
Also, another thing.
I really disagree with privacy settings, and stuff being public/private. I like all of my stuff being public. But now, it’s all private? This is an awful change.
17 Likes
True but most of it will be private anyway.
3 Likes
Yeah, no. This is effectively one step forward, and about 20 back. The free audio every 30 days is a welcome change, but making all unavailable audios (which the game I work for HEAVILY relies on) unable to be played on top of making currently public audio over 6 seconds unavailable as well is a horrible decision.
31 Likes
Yes, I too like giving a corporation I’ve never interacted with my personal information, so they can learn all about me and what I do, so that I can fix some sound effects that were never broken until now! That, or pay a hefty fine to get 200x more uploads per month by paying for a membership I’ll hardly use! I love Roblox!
23 Likes