Please Avid We All Really Want You to Be Successful

[marianna]

Originally Posted by WKG

Can anybody explain what will happen to those who invested in CPTK and were later herded into an HD license in order to maintain feature/functionality in PT 11? This information seems conspicuously absent here.

Please tell me these folks aren't being dead ended....

WKG.....

PT + CPTK has been transitioned to PT HD. $599 gets anyone with Pro Tools 9 or 10 with the Complete Production Toolkit up to PT HD 11/12 with 12 months of additional upgrades included.

So technically CPTK owners are in the same boat as the PT HD owners regarding subscription. We have not announced the annual upgrade plan details for PT HD yet, and we will also have a subscription offering to share in the near future.

Marianna

[marianna]

Originally Posted by flautista

Marianna and Bruce
Will be problems of PT 11 Fixed within PT 11 updates, with no charges,
independent of PT12 ??

flautista,

We will continue to provide PT 11.x maintenance updates for no charge to those that own PT 11.

Marianna

[ArKay99]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Existing 11 and 11HD HD owners do have at least ten months to decide if they want to buy or renew a support plan after everybody knows exactly what new features have accumulated in PT 12 over that period. There's no reason to expect any movement from Avid until that time. These complaints are all speculation and Avid would be stupid to change course based entirely on this sort of negative speculation.

Understood Bob, but as a user of an HD system and therefore directly affected by whatever decision is made at some future date, it would be MOST helpful to know some time in advance what course of action I'll need to take some time ahead of the drop dead date. By then it might be too late to make an informed decision to either pay the fee or sell the gear and software, which may be worth pennies on the dollar due to the popularity of this 'plan'.

i.e. the longer I am forced to wait for Moses to come off the mountain, the window of opportunity closes more and more. For some, that's not acceptable. Why should the users who paid the most for the top system be expected to wait for a decision that could potentially eliminate most of the investment? That's not negative speculation on my part. It's a desire to understand what my choice will be moving forward.

[marianna]

Originally Posted by paul007

Marianna,

Please release us all, and finally explain what EXACTLY this means.

-If you (un)consciously lapse: there will be no means at all to get back on board?
-You have to reinvest from scratch?
-That means including a new HW purchase to get a HD license again?
-Will the "lapsed" hardware also forever be coupled to the last SW version in case of selling?
-Any other things to consider/pay attention to/warn us for?
-How about toolkit collectors now on HD?

Thanks so much!!!
Paul

Paul007..... ( nice handle btw)

-If you (un)consciously lapse: there will be no means at all to get back on board?

If you unconsciously lapse then I am sure Avid will work with you... but we will be emailing you at the 60, 45, 30 day marks alerting you to the need to renew. If you buy from a reseller, they should do the same and we will at the 30 day mark in this instance.

-You have to reinvest from scratch? You can either buy a subscription month to month or a perpetual license. Your original PT will work fine at the last version you had before the lapse. Now if that lapse is consciously done then you need to buy a subscription month to month or a perpetual license. If it is unconsciously done like your Credit card expiration date changed so auto renewal didnt work and the license expires... we will work with you... there are a bunch of these kinds of scenarios that have flushed out in MC land that I work on so we will be fair should something like that happen.

-That means including a new HW purchase to get a HD license again?

If you have PT 11 HD and chose not to buy into the suport/upgrade plan or the subscription model when we share that, you can buy a PT software license and use that with your Hardware later on.

- Will the "lapsed" hardware also forever be coupled to the last SW version in case of selling?

Not to my knowledge - I am sure there will be some kind of process when the audio folks internally finalize and share the info.

-Any other things to consider/pay attention to/warn us for?

The biggest issues I have seen since I was a part of the MC implementation and such were:

1. Editors waited until the last minute to buy and in many cases they had order issues or master account issues etc.... and freaked out they couldn't meet the deadline. all of them were taken care of as we extended the deadline date as our web site and store was partially to blame.

2. CC issues - either the CC expiration changed, a new card was issued, etc... and their subscription got hosed. We work with the customers to fix this for them so they aren't exposed.

3. CC that you can add month too.... customers forget the date they will need to refill the card and they get hosed. We work with the customers to fix this for them so they aren't exposed.

-How about toolkit collectors now on HD?

PT + CPTK has been transitioned to PT HD

Marianna

[marianna]

Originally Posted by Kasper

I have never had any problem upgrading PT, nor do I know anyone else who has.
Let's be honest, this is simply corporate spin.
You are trying to spin it as something "good" for us .... that is not gonna fly.

This new rental plan is not good for anyone but AVID.
Now, you have a job to do, I get that. You don't make the policy.
But please stop insulting us by trying to spin this as something good for the customer.

kasper

Kasper

I am not insulting you... in fact I think just the opposite "you are insulting me". You don't know me, don't know how long I have been in this business ( 25 years FYI) and most likely don't know that I spend countless hours each day including the weekends helping customers and providing feedback into Avid.

So before you insult or call someone stupid, you might want re-read it before you hit send.

I have been thru this policy change on the editor side for the last 9 months and while some of the MC, Symphony and NCutter customers didnt like it at first - they have seen what we delivered in our upgrades and are happy.

You have 1o months to decide.... let us deliver some additional PT 11.x maintenance releases and then see what you want to do.

Marianna

[marianna]

Originally Posted by Kasper

Will there be an HD subscription without HD hardware ownership proof?

What if you have multiple HD software licenses not tied to hardware?

kasper

As I said before, there will be a HD software subscription offering for HD hardware owners.... and avid will share that information and all the nuances of that soon.

Marianna

[Barry Johns]

The writing on the wall is crystal clear at this point. The only possibility of us seeing the type of options that many of us want will "only" happen in either. 2016/17 or most likely never.

Lack of revenue will be the only motivator for Avid, and I respect that to a degree. If they find that they get enough users onboard to justify the new direction, that will be the only indicator of success for them.

More users does not always mean more profit.

It's more profitable for a hotel to book 50% of their rooms at 200 a night than to book 100% of their rooms at 125 a night even though 100% is more revenue, it's less labor and expenses at 50%, taking more to the bottom line at 50% then 100% occupancy with the rate variance outlined above.

[Park Seward]

Originally Posted by marianna

flautista,

We will continue to provide PT 11.x maintenance updates for no charge to those that own PT 11.

Marianna

Thanks for your contribution, Marianna.

Could you please make this clear? From the FAQ:

Q. Will I still get bug fix updates if I don't get an upgrade and support plan?
A. We will continue to release Pro Tools 11 bug fix only updates at no cost through December 31, 2015.

So do bug fixes STOP for PT 11 at the end of the year?

[noiseboyuk]

Whoa, just when I thought I understood everything exactly, then....

Originally Posted by marianna

If you have PT 11 HD and chose not to buy into the suport/upgrade plan or the subscription model when we share that, you can buy a PT software license and use that with your Hardware later on.

Do you mean buy regular PT software license or an as-yet unknown PT HD software license (that is presumably available to all?)

[ArKay99]

Hello marianna, and thanks for taking the time to address these concerns. There are a few gray areas that concern me, so I've garnered them from your response to Paul007...

Originally Posted by marianna

-That means including a new HW purchase to get a HD license again?

If you have PT 11 HD and chose not to buy into the suport/upgrade plan or the subscription model when we share that, you can buy a PT software license and use that with your Hardware later on.

What will the price be? Having to wait until 60, 45, or 30 days before the deadline may not be acceptable to some, it isn't for me.

Originally Posted by marianna

- Will the "lapsed" hardware also forever be coupled to the last SW version in case of selling?

Not to my knowledge - I am sure there will be some kind of process when the audio folks internally finalize and share the info.

This again is not acceptable. If the above pricing is too much for me, which I need to know now, I need to know what my liability is concerning selling my assets (which are now liabilities) in good time, and in good faith for the buyer, and to determine the proper price point for the sale AND transfer of licenses. In my case I not only have HDX hardware and interfaces, but also AAX plugins I would need to divest from. I also have Eucon and Artist series surfaces and need clear understanding of my exposure regarding that end of my investment.

Originally Posted by marianna

-Any other things to consider/pay attention to/warn us for?

The biggest issues I have seen since I was a part of the MC implementation and such were:

1. Editors waited until the last minute to buy and in many cases they had order issues or master account issues etc.... and freaked out they couldn't meet the deadline. all of them were taken care of as we extended the deadline date as our web site and store was partially to blame.
Marianna

Isn't this EXACTLY what AVID is expecting us (me personally) to live with regarding the pricing and policies, "yet to be announced"? Which is why I'm (and others I m sure) are 'freaking out".

BTW, this may or may not be part of the problem regarding customers and AVID's perception...
I'm not an Editor. I'm a producer and professional musician. I use Pro Tools to make 4-5 albums a year. Which is what I call middle tier, it may very well be bottom-tier, but neverless represents a huge investment for me. I'm a small one man operation and don't have the deep pockets that may be expected by the out of touch 'bean counters'... which brings me back to the top for another cycle...