Back in 1999, while much of the world was just getting to know Britney Spears and some of us were slowly wrapping our minds around the future funk of “Windowlicker,” a crack team of software developers (including Robert Henke, a.k.a. Monolake) joined together in Berlin to pool their collective resources in aims to hatch a new “instrument” that would forever change not only music production but live performance as well. The computer program they envisioned would come to be known as Ableton Live, and this month marks its tenth birthday. In celebration of this milestone, the Ableton crew is offering their legions a load of exclusive offers and free downloads—items which include 20% off Live 8 and Suite 8, a new “for beginners” version of Ableton called Intro, a free upgrade to Intro for LE users, and free Live Packs from Ableton artists the likes of Múm, Apparat, and Swayzak, among other great deals. Ableton has also taken the opportunity to announce that the much-anticipated release of Max for Live, a toolkit which harnesses the power of Max/MSP within Live and whose abilities XLR8Rexplored back in August, goes down November 23. A full rundown of all the celebratory goods can be found here.

pictured Monolake