Dear MOD Community,
I’m excited to share some important updates with you.
Here’s the short version:
We’ve sold some of our software assets to industry peers and our staff is now working part-time on these collaborations. This brought new revenue and reduced pressure, although it comes at the cost of having a smaller, part-time team.
Additionally, these collaborations bring valuable resources and opportunities that were previously unavailable, strengthening our position and ability to move forward.
As a result, the following actions are being taken:
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All remaining crowdfunded Dwarf units will be shipped at no extra cost.
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We’re committing to open-source, releasing the source code for our hardware devices (Dwarf, Duo X, Duo), including controller firmware, PCB, and mechanical designs. Some online services, like the Pedalboard Feed, will also be open-sourced.
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We’re investing in infrastructure improvements and development workflows to foster greater community engagement and ownership.
And now for the full update:
New Partnerships and Funding:
Since mid-2023, we’ve been in discussions with other companies in the musical instrument industry, exploring collaborations that leverage our technology. After over a decade of developing embedded Linux machines for pedal-like enclosures, we’ve built a strong toolkit that allows us to advance in this field quickly.
As the industry shifts towards digitally enabled devices, we’ve capitalized on new business opportunities. These collaborations have provided us with fresh revenue streams, allowing us to continue our work with renewed confidence and at a more sustainable pace.
However, this progress comes with a trade-off. A portion of our staff’s time is now dedicated to these external projects, but it allows us to relieve our old internal pressures for immediate results.
Crowdfunding Units:
Our main priority right now is delivering the remaining MOD Dwarf units from our Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns.
The funds raised during our reboot in October 2022 were insufficient to cover free deliveries and, at the time, the best we could do was to implemented the 150€ voucher option while seeking for a better solution. We deeply appreciate the 403 backers who supported us with this option – your patience has been vital to our survival.
Thanks to the new funds, we are now able to deliver the remaining units free of additional charges for backers. Pre-production is already underway, and we aim to ship all units before the year’s end. We’ll soon contact backers to update their shipping details, and we sincerely apologize for the delay. We hope our efforts reflect our commitment to fulfilling our promises.
Higher Open Source Commitment:
One of MOD’s longstanding challenges has been defining our position on open-source licensing. Over the years, we’ve held back from fully open-sourcing some of our products, leaving us in a difficult position: not open enough for the open-source community, but seen as “too open” by some business-minded stakeholders.
In 2022 (MOD Audio reboot), we began revisiting this issue. I’m thrilled to announce that MOD will now fully embrace open-source. We will release the source code for all our devices – Duo, Duo X, and Dwarf – including firmware, hardware designs, and PCB layouts. While we cannot fully open our internal development tools for OS image generation, we will make the necessary changes to allow users to modify and repack custom images.
Our mod-ui, the remote web interface, is already open-source, and we’ll also be releasing the source-code for the Online Pedalboard Feed, giving the community access to the entire platform.
Making the MOD Platform More User- and Software-Centric
To enhance community engagement and ensure the financial stability of the company, we’re shifting our focus to make the platform more user-centric. This means transitioning from device-based identification to user-based identification and increasing our allocation of resources into the Desktop application.
These changes aim to attract new users, streamline software collaboration, and expand the audience for our plugin marketplace. Additionally, to foster greater community involvement, we plan to source developers from within our own community for paid development work.
Please note that this shift does not mean we are discontinuing the devices. Quite the contrary, the devices are a strong pillar of MOD and our new partnership will ensure this for the future. But we need to further develop a stronger software-only branch in order to become more sustainable.
Next Steps
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MOD OS 1.13.X will be released with a special update allowing users to repackage the OS.
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MOD OS 1.14 will follow, featuring our latest changes and improvements. Full details will be provided soon in a “nightly” builds fashion. This will be the final version using our current internal architecture, allowing us to pursue new technologies for mod-ui and mod-desktop.
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MOD Desktop 0.13 will be launched with significant updates, including the ability to function as an audio plugin for DAWs.
After these releases, we will pause the development of new features to implement necessary structural changes. During this hiatus, users will still have the ability to (re)package and distribute ongoing developments, so we anticipate a rise in community-generated OS images circulating.
All of the actions described above will not happen at the same time nor all at once, of course. Apart from the crowdfunding deliveries that are one-sided actions from us, the proposed changes involve dialog, engagement and development.
It took us quite a hiatus to reorganise the company but I am glad to say that we will be able to keep a steady flow from now on.
Many news coming in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I invite all of you to let you know your thoughts and wishes for the future, so that we can shape it accordingly 
My dearest wishes to all of you
Gianfranco, aka The MOD Father
