Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

Here I am, another year and my PT Ultimate and PT Academic licenses ($399 and $99 respectively) are up for renewal. I either pay the money or potentially face extremely high costs to return at some later date.

Avid - please give me a reason to renew. As a paid subscriber, I get absolutely zero communication about the future of Pro Tools and what I can/should look forward to in future releases. Feeling kind of ill that the best things you have to tout are bug fixes who, many would argue, PT still has stability issues.

Will there be ARA2? Integration with Melodyne? Will I be able to import a FLAC file or iTunes AAC file someday into Pro Tools (can do this now with Studio One)? Will there be new instrument or audio plugins?

You've jettisoned Louis Hernandez for workplace misconduct and now Jeff Rosica is in charge, I'm sure that was millions of dollars wasted just like with the CEO that preceded Hernandez.

What is the strategic product plan for Pro Tools in 2018-19? Why should I care?

Regarding communication from Avid. I suggest a town hall meeting style live video event with Jeff Rosica and the community. And not just the elite Pro Tools users but some up and coming engineers too.

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

It sounds like a rhetorical question which obviously means you have the answer


It’s the same answer I had a year and half ago.

PT12.5.1 still boots up everyday

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

Type Ahead is the most significant change in my PT workflow in YEARS.

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

I haven't renewed my Ultimate plan.

I see no point given my ICON is officially redundant at the end of the month.

If Avid were smart, they'd continue supporting these surfaces and therefore getting my money.

So far, there has been 1 update since my plan lapsed. so far, it's hardly worth the money to keep the plan active.

Weird times.

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

For Ultimate, if you don't plan to update for at least three years, you come out ahead not renewing.

If you do update within 3 years, you've ended up paying more than staying on the renewal schedule.

So it comes down to if you expect to need/want to update within 3 years of your plan expiring.

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

This has been my philosophy. I'm still on PT11HD, so if/when I decide to upgrade I'll be financially ahead of where I would have been had I chosen to buy into Avids offerings of F%$k all.

Frankly, if they continue down the current path, it'll be a long time till I upgrade (if ever) so to date I'm waaaay ahead financially. I could have been on PT9 and still got the same amount of work done during the time PT12 was released.

Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

I concur it does look very usable. Nice that they can move the cart in the right direction. (No sarcasm implied)

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

I might be under selling it. Maybe I should have wrote "in decades".

Once you get used to it, it's literally impossible to not have it.

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

I've been very critical of Avid over the past few years, but a few things have happened that have made me more sanguine about the license fees of late. Specifically:

1. Some genuinely useful new features.

2. The plugin bundle - X Form and Space both useful to me

3. If you buy at the right time, you can get 20% off the upgrade price through resellers just as Sweetwater (this needs to be activated right away, but the 12 months adds to the end of the current subscription so can be bought at any time)

Don't get me wrong, I'm still critical of much - the reinstatement fees are still pretty much the ugliest consumer policy in all of DAWdom - but the above 3 points have made quite a difference to me.

Re: Avid: Why should I renew my perpetual license?
 

I think it generally depends on how you use Pro Tools and what you use Pro Tools for.
I know lots of professional users who don't really care what version they use as long as it's reasonably recent, and compatible with all the other users they work with.
For this group regular new features are not very important.
My colleagues who haven't renewed are usually happy with the stability of their systems.
It is fairly common for users to 'park' at a version they find stable for years, and the fact they have a perpetual license suits them fine because it just keeps working with no additional cost outlay. They can opt in again when it suits them.
I like to be up to date, and for the price of less than a take away coffee a day, and the fact that it is a tax deductible work expense, I'm fine with paying $399.00 a year for Ultimate.
2018.7 is the most stable version I have used in years, so I'm happy I renewed my license this year.
If you don't want to renew your perpetual license then just stay where you are.
If you can't find a reason to justify renewing then it is probably fair to say you weren't particularly impressed with the features and bug fixes released since you last renewed.
Given that, there is a big chance that you won't be impressed over the next few years either.
So you should stay where you are and either, pay a premium to re instate, if something comes along you can't live without, or wait at least 3 years before re instating and save yourself some money.
If you don't have a stable system, and you hope a future release will solve your problems, then it might be easier to just move to a different DAW because gambling on a hypothetical future version is a losing game.
If you just like playing with new features and using the newest version of Pro Tools then you just have to accept the cost of continuing to pay.
The cost of staying current is pretty small really if you use Pro Tools to make a living.
I know I can recoup the renewal fee in less than a day, and so can most people who use Pro Tools daily for their work.
If you don't make any money from Pro Tools, and use it as a hobby, then it probably makes sense to just keep at the version you have now and reconsider your options in a few years.