Can we please have a complete rollout of the PT12 (vanilla and HD) licensing

[Stereo Missile]

I love protools, but Avid has this all wrong. You have to give customers a strong incentive to want to upgrade and stay loyal. Instead they are giving customers a punishment for not upgrading. That's no way to treat your customers, and it erodes trust in their brand. Marketing 101.

[mesaone]

Marketing 101 would also involve "bad news Friday"... So keep your ears open in a couple days!

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by Wall2Wall

Marianna is from Avid and she posted this 2hrs ago:

1. You don't have to re-buy hardware

2. You have a 30 day grace period to buy without any penalties.

3. After the 30 days you have to pay pro-rated fees ($50 for each month you missed after 30 days) PLUS next year ($599) in advance, PLUS 25% ($150) re-establishment fee.

Is this for support or upgrades or both? Seems like a silly support plan as they gain from our need to need their support. I'm assuming then this is for software updates.

Would someone let me know.

Thanks

Carl

[Ghost In The Attic]

What they are doing is insuring that everyone who lapses NEVER comes back.

Brilliant.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by Carl Lie

Is this for support or upgrades or both?

Both; support plan provides both support and access to major updates. Bug fix updates remain free even without a plan.

[seanbil]

"If a customers lapses on support, they will have a 30 day grace period to get back on with no additional fees. If they fall off support for longer than the 30 day window, our policy is that they pay for the time lapsed (prorated), plus for the new upcoming year plus a 25% reinstatement fee for the new year. HTH to clear things up."

Just for the sake of argument, if I were Duncan MacLeod and I accidentally let my PT12 Support Plan slip for a thousand years (because, you know, I had some really pressing issues going on around me), then my assumed Pro Tools HD reinstatement cost would be (assuming prices remain constant):

$599 annualized pro-rated penalty x 1000 years + ($599 x .25 Re-Establishment Fee Rate) + $599 new Support Plan subscription fee = $599,748.75?

Am I missing a key detail somewhere? Is there really no pre-established cap to the prorated penalty?

This past winter an Avid official made the argument here that people got value for PT11 because they had access to it for this entire time. However, going on that premise now means that the punishment of a 1:1 prorated fine doesn't fit the crime either because we would be retroactively paying for 100% of the prior cost of Pro Tools while it was not in our possession. In other words, we can't go back in time and get value for the money Avid thinks we owe them. The 1:1 prorated fine is essentially paying for the latest versions of Pro Tools while only having access to the obsolete ones.

Also, the prorated penalty will likely be based on whatever cost increases happen to the Support Plan. So if one were to lapse for several years, I'm sure Avid won't be using the then-current Support Plan rates that were applicable for those years in their penalty calculations. How's anyone not wearing one of Avid's blinders supposed to see any of this as tolerable? I understand that this is the point Avid is trying to drive home about staying current, but it's also rather harsh to have to pay them back 100% for all the time we didn't have access to the "latest and greatest" features of Pro Tools.

I may show up for the Support Plan later this year, but there's no way in Hell I'll be coming back for a second helping of it based on what we know today. Avid sure has a lot of chutzpah if they think this plan is a winner.

[Wall2Wall]

It sucks that one would spend $20k on an HDX2 rig and still have to pay $50/mnth ($599/yr) to run it.

I can't see a myself, or any professional colleague on HD, having more than 30 days downtime in a year. So lapsing should not be an issue.

Fair or not, the price of admission for using HD/HDX is now a tax deductible $50/mnth ($599/yr). Is that $50/mnth freight charge enough of a weight to break down your entire HDX rig, learn a new DAW, maybe lose session compatibility, and possibly lose a few clients. Some will say hell yes!

Avid needs to make an HD software purchase option. $1500-$2000. Include all Avid branded plugins and maybe still charge $20/mnth (same as vanilla sub) for support. Throw us a bone for years of loyalty.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by seanbil

Am I missing a key detail somewhere? Is there really no pre-established cap to the prorated penalty?

Prorated reinstatement fees are not the way to go IMO, even for one year. Waves wanted to do that, they changed their minds.

But it speaks volumes that you believe in PT so much that you would use version 12 in the year 3015. They probably won't support it, though.

[deanrichard]

+1

Originally Posted by Stereo Missile

I love protools, but Avid has this all wrong. You have to give customers a strong incentive to want to upgrade and stay loyal. Instead they are giving customers a punishment for not upgrading. That's no way to treat your customers, and it erodes trust in their brand. Marketing 101.

[Whitepoem]

Originally Posted by Chingy

Got two words for Avid: Studio One

As in, laters.

+1