Avid moving Pro Tools 12 to Subscription Model?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Well they can dig in but if they loose sales and someone else comes along with a comparable product they'll cave or close.

[Shooshie]

I liked Adobe when Apple owned it. Not so much, since. The products have always been first rate. Photoshop and Illustrator feel like "king of the world" stuff. But any time I had to deal directly with the company, I felt burned. Now, they're putting their attitude on the line. And there ARE other products, now. They didn't used to be as good as PS and AI. Maybe Illustrator is still in a class of its own, but not PS. I couldn't live without Illustrator, though. Gotta have it. Too many projects that I may come back to. Same deal with Microsoft Excel, and I think they're also mulling over this subscription thing.

This is not pleasing.

Shoot, they already have the ability to deliver the product without packaging, shipping, and retail outlets. That saves a bundle. Why do they feel like they should extort the last dollar out of each customer? If you choose their stuff, you have to sign in blood. It's just not right.

Shoosh

[MIDI Life Crisis]

As Henry Ford said (I think is it was he) there's only one boss in any company - the customer. Alienate your customers and you run the risk of loosing everything. People are not dumb. They see through this kind of greed and won't tolerate it.

[billf]

I liked Adobe when Apple owned it. Not so much, since. The products have always been first rate. Photoshop and Illustrator feel like "king of the world" stuff. But any time I had to deal directly with the company, I felt burned. Now, they're putting their attitude on the line. And there ARE other products, now. They didn't used to be as good as PS and AI. Maybe Illustrator is still in a class of its own, but not PS. I couldn't live without Illustrator, though. Gotta have it. Too many projects that I may come back to. Same deal with Microsoft Excel, and I think they're also mulling over this subscription thing.

This is not pleasing.

Shoot, they already have the ability to deliver the product without packaging, shipping, and retail outlets. That saves a bundle. Why do they feel like they should extort the last dollar out of each customer? If you choose their stuff, you have to sign in blood. It's just not right.

Shoosh

There are some alternatives already popping up.

For Illustrator there is Affinity Designer:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/affinit ... 1161?mt=12

For Photoshop is an under-the-radar mature app called Photoline:

http://www.pl32.com/

[billf]

I do think this will end up being a passing phase for both Adobe and Avid. At least I hope so.

Or they will end up being a shadow of their former selves.

[musicman691]

If that's true than its not much different than upgrading, unless they ding you for skipping versions.

Like I said, they do.

If you let your subscription lapse, you must re-purchase the software at retail price to start again. You can not 're-activate' a license.

Actually if you let the subscription version lapse you do NOT have to rebuy a whole new piece of software. Avid has two separate ways into PT12 - one is the subscription version at $29.95 a month and that gets you a temporary license asset. The second way in is $199 per year and that gets you a permanent license. Big difference is if you let that lapse you still can use PT (as long as you have your iLok2 intact) but if you want to upgrade to a new PT version in the future you have to rebuy PT all over again. If you let the subscription version lapse you lose being able to use PT.

Note that this is for the non-HD version of PT. There are two different PT versions: the so-called 'vanilla' version and the one that runs on their HD Native and HDX (dsp) cards. Actually the software itself is the same it's just that you have access to different features in the HDX/HD Native version that 'vanilla' users don't. And Avid hasn't fully released the pricing structure or details for what happens if you let the HDX/HD Native version lapse. It's just $599 for the first year.

Right now there are some many issues with PT12 (old bugs carried over, new bugs, missing features) that a lot of people are jumping ship to either what are new daws for them or to what was their secondary daw. Some going to Logic, Cubase, a very small handful to DP (me and maybe a couple of others).

[Shooshie]

Note that this is for the non-HD version of PT. There are two different PT versions: the so-called 'vanilla' version and the one that runs on their HD Native and HDX (dsp) cards. Actually the software itself is the same it's just that you have access to different features in the HDX/HD Native version that 'vanilla' users don't. And Avid hasn't fully released the pricing structure or details for what happens if you let the HDX/HD Native version lapse. It's just $599 for the first year.

Bare Naked Ladies and I think that Vanilla is the finest of the flavors!

[musicman691]

Note that this is for the non-HD version of PT. There are two different PT versions: the so-called 'vanilla' version and the one that runs on their HD Native and HDX (dsp) cards. Actually the software itself is the same it's just that you have access to different features in the HDX/HD Native version that 'vanilla' users don't. And Avid hasn't fully released the pricing structure or details for what happens if you let the HDX/HD Native version lapse. It's just $599 for the first year.

Bare Naked Ladies and I think that Vanilla is the finest of the flavors!

I don't get the BNL reference. Help please?
Vanilla isn't a term I can lay claim to; someone far smarter than me came up with that for better or worse. Am I ever glad DP only has one flavor (Cherry Garcia for me).

[Shooshie]

Just saying that at the difference in price, the Vanilla sounds pretty good to me.

Bare Naked Ladies had a hit, One Week, about 20 years ago that included the line that vanilla was "the finest of the flavors."

Nothing any more complicated than that. It was said with tongue in cheek, but half-serious because of the price difference.

Shoosh