Terms & EULA

The German AGB & Lizenzbedingungen are the legally binding version. This is a translation.

1. Scope and parties

These terms of use and license terms (end-user license agreement, “EULA”) govern the use of the TONO software for macOS, including the virtual audio driver “TONO Mikro”, all updates and the related documentation (together the “Software”). The licensor is:

Julian Ivanov (Julian Digital)
Am Birkenhain 51A, 49811 Lingen (Ems), Germany
Email: kontakt@julian-digital.de

Referred to below as “we”. These terms apply to TONO Free, the trial and TONO Pro.

Purchase through Lemon Squeezy: paid TONO Pro licenses are sold by Lemon Squeezy (Link, LLC, formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC, 222 South Main Street, Suite 500, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA) as reseller (merchant of record). You conclude the purchase contract with Lemon Squeezy; ordering, payment, invoicing, subscription management, refunds and your right of withdrawal are governed by Lemon Squeezy’s buyer terms and the statutory provisions (more under right of withdrawal). These terms govern what you may do with the Software and the relationship between you and us as its maker.

Users’ own terms and conditions do not apply, even if we do not expressly object to them.

2. The Software and what it needs

The features of TONO Free and TONO Pro are those described on this website when you download or buy it. The Software runs on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 15 Sequoia or later. Some features depend on your hardware, for example the brightness of external displays (only if the display supports DDC/CI) or head tracking (only with suitable headphones); the feature pages describe this.

3. TONO Free

TONO Free is free of charge and has no time limit, for private and professional use, on as many of your Macs as you like. There is no entitlement to our continuing to offer TONO Free in any particular scope.

4. Trial

After the first launch you can try every TONO Pro feature free for one day (24 hours), once per Mac. The trial needs no account and no payment details and ends by itself; the Software then carries on as TONO Free. Nothing is charged and nothing needs to be canceled.

5. TONO Pro

• Subscription (monthly or yearly): the subscription runs for the billing period you chose and renews automatically for the same period unless you cancel it before the current period ends. You can cancel any time, effective at the end of the current period, with Lemon Squeezy, for example in the customer portal or through the links in your order emails. Pro stays unlocked until the end of the period you paid for; the Software then carries on as TONO Free.
• Lifetime license: with a one-time payment you may use TONO Pro without a time limit, including all updates we publish for TONO.

Prices are shown on this website and in Lemon Squeezy’s checkout; they include statutory VAT.

6. License

We grant you a simple (non-exclusive), non-sublicensable right to use the Software under these terms, for private and professional purposes.

• Pro is a personal license: one TONO Pro license is for one person. You may use Pro on one Mac that you own or use yourself: each license key allows one activation, as stated in the product description at purchase and in your Lemon Squeezy account. To move the license to another Mac, sign the current Mac out in TONO (“Sign Out This Mac”) at any time; its seat is then free for the other one. If several people use TONO Pro, for example in a team or a company, each person needs their own license.
• License keys are personal. You may not publish them or share them with others.
• Transfer: a subscription is not transferable. You may pass a lifetime license on to another person as a whole if you then stop using TONO Pro yourself, sign out your activation and tell us about the transfer so we can move the key. These terms then apply to the new person.
• Not allowed: renting out the Software, circumventing or tampering with the license check, removing copyright or trademark notices, or modifying, reverse-engineering or decompiling the Software, except where §§ 69d, 69e of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) mandatorily permit it.
• Open-source components: the Software contains third-party components under their own licenses (for example the Sparkle update framework under the MIT License). For those components, their license terms take precedence.

All other rights in the Software, in TONO and in its design remain with us.

7. Activation and online checks

Activating TONO Pro needs an internet connection. Afterwards the Software checks the license with Lemon Squeezy about once a week. Without a connection, Pro keeps working for 30 days after the last successful check, 60 days with a lifetime license; after that, one successful check unlocks Pro again. When a subscription ends, or a license is refunded or disabled by Lemon Squeezy, the Software carries on as TONO Free. The privacy policy says which data is sent.

8. System changes: what TONO installs and changes

TONO works deep inside the system. So that you know what you are agreeing to:

• Sound: TONO taps your apps’ audio through the macOS audio interface (Core Audio) and mutes the original while TONO runs. If TONO quits or crashes, macOS restores the original sound instantly. No kernel extension is involved.
• The TONO Mikro audio driver: only when you set up Mic Studio, and after you confirm with your administrator password, TONO installs a virtual audio driver in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL. macOS’s audio service restarts briefly, so the sound drops out for a moment. You can remove the driver at any time under Mic Studio → More → Technical; remove it before you delete TONO.
• Permissions: some features ask for macOS permissions (Screen & System Audio Recording, microphone, head movement, Accessibility, location). With the Accessibility permission, TONO moves and resizes other apps’ windows.
• Displays: TONO can change your displays’ brightness, including below the macOS minimum, and adjust their color temperature; on external displays through DDC/CI.
• Updates: the Software looks for updates by itself and, once you agree, replaces itself with the new version. You can switch automatic checks off under Tools → Updates.

9. Updates and changes

For TONO Pro we provide the updates, including security updates, needed to keep the Software in conformity with the contract, and we inform you about them (§ 327f BGB): for a subscription throughout its term, for a lifetime license for as long as you can reasonably expect given the nature and purpose of the Software. If you do not install such an update within a reasonable time, we are not liable for defects resulting solely from that, provided we informed you about the update and the consequences of not installing it.

We keep developing TONO and may change the Software beyond what is necessary if there is a valid reason, such as changes to macOS, security or new features. This costs you nothing extra, and we inform you clearly and comprehensibly. If such a change impairs your access to TONO Pro or its usability more than insignificantly, you have the rights under § 327r BGB; in particular, you can terminate the contract free of charge within 30 days.

10. Defects

For TONO Pro, the statutory rights for defects apply, for consumers the rules on digital products (§§ 327 et seq. BGB). Claims under the purchase contract are directed at Lemon Squeezy as the seller; independently of that, we help you with problems with the Software and fix bugs. Just write to us.

We provide TONO Free and the trial free of charge. We are liable for defects in them only if we fraudulently concealed a defect; liability under section 11 remains unaffected.

11. Liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for damage arising from injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act, for fraudulently concealed defects and to the extent of any guarantee we have given.

For TONO Pro, we are liable for slight negligence only if we breach an essential contractual obligation, that is, an obligation whose fulfillment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfillment you may regularly rely. In that case, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this kind of contract. For TONO Free and the trial, liability for slight negligence is excluded.

Otherwise, liability is excluded. These rules also apply to the personal liability of the people who help us. Mandatory statutory consumer rights remain unaffected.

12. Responsible use

• The hearing test and hearing guard are not medical measurements and do not replace a medical examination. If you notice hearing problems, ringing, pressure in the ear, dizziness or pain, please see a doctor.
• Volume: TONO can play louder than macOS. Protect your hearing and your speakers, and start quietly.
• Recordings: you are responsible for getting everyone’s consent before recording a conversation (in Germany, secretly recording words spoken in private is a criminal offense under § 201 StGB) and for respecting the rights to recorded content, such as the copyright in music and films.
• No unlawful use: you may not use the Software to secretly eavesdrop on others, to deceive them or to infringe their rights.

13. End of the license

You can stop using the Software at any time by deleting TONO; you cancel a subscription with Lemon Squeezy (section 5). If you seriously breach these terms, for example by distributing license keys or circumventing the license check, we may terminate the license for good cause and disable the key, as a rule after a prior warning. Your statutory rights remain unaffected.

14. Final provisions

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer, this choice of law applies only insofar as it does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the country where you have your habitual residence. If you are a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction is Lingen (Ems), Germany.

If we change these terms, the new version applies to future contracts, and to existing contracts only if you agree. If a provision is invalid, the others remain valid. These terms exist in German and English; the German version is authoritative.

Last updated: September 30, 2026