New Licensing

[Chingy]

One important lesson from Waves for Avid - Waves was among the most hated music companies for a while, especially due to their original WUP stance. However, these days, after they acquiesced and decided to treat their customers fairly, anecdotally, it seems their reputation has increased tenfold amongst the music community. Probably benefited their bottom line too.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Jay_uk

screenshot ….where it says "70 comment" bottom right, before the podcast 137 header.
I,ll delete this once you are sorted.

And here's a screenshot of what I have; notice there is no number by the comments; adblocker deactivated, page reloaded, all scripts allowed, disqus not blocked:

[noiseboyuk]

OK then comrades, I think this needs a new thread to start an official boycott, and folks can comment or just +1. Anyone want to volunteer to do the OP? Short, clear and to the point. Is the PT11 discussion thread the best home for it, btw? And anyone in direct communication with Russ at PTE?

And to be clear about what we're asking. If they left folks opt back in any time, I personally would be ok with everything else, but there are probably other palatable solutions. I don't think we should get too specific on demands, everyone would have a different take.

Avid need to come up with their own plan B ultimately, and do it fast. I think the headline demand should just be "something's got to give". PT11 and CPTK owners past and present are the most severely affected it seems to me, but clearly there are many people not in either of these camps that feel the same way.

[Ghost In The Attic]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

OK then comrades, I think this needs a new thread to start an official boycott, and folks can comment or just +1. Anyone want to volunteer to do the OP?

Don't do it.
I know I'm already on the cusp of being banned.

This is the only thread with a possibility to survive https://www.gearslutz.com/board/moan...id-strike.html
A new thread here on the DUC will not survive and will probably get you banned. The Admin here has been more than generous with me so far, but I know when to quit and this will be my last post on the subject here.
Time to hit the blogs too.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Poor Pro Tools.

No I won't ever be paying this subscription tax for Pro Tools and getting suckered into this "must pay support or lose the chance to upgrade" extortion.

The hard truth is consumer/prosumer market price for a fantastic DAW is $200-$400. With upgrades priced pretty reasonably, or in the case of Logic full list but that is only $199 last round. And that is going to be where everything gravitates to. Lots of mid and large-size post shops won't care about Avid's pricing games, a few $k here and there each year for DAW rentals/support won't be noticed but by volume that is a small number of users and you just cannot make packaged software targeting a small number of high-end users and stay in business. Those high-end users should be worried about the potential to lose a significant part of Pro Tool's consumer/prosumer base and what that will mean to its ongoing viability.

Other DAW choices don't have the same level of stupid licensing tricks and "HD" restrictions or rentals or in-app purchases or any of this other crap. Logic Pro, Reaper, Studio One, etc. lots of great choices out there. You've got surround sound, great composition/MIDI editing/sequencing support, *track freeze*, great bundled plugins, wide third party plugin availability, supported/ongoing HUI, MCU and EUCON compatibility, large number of IOs, fantastic scalable modern interfaces with more coming via Thunderbolt, AVB etc.

Avid has little hope of surviving as an independent company and I don't see any acquirer who would want to take on a struggling company with a messy combination of hardware and software products that would be difficult to integrate with existing vendors products. This licensing mess seems a last minute attempt to address serious decline in revenue (yes I get the claim that booking are increasing, but Jesus, look at the demise in Avid over the last ~decade, their revenue decline, multiple tried and failed products, concerning cash flow, etc. there is just no good news here). Its so bad its likely unsalvageable and the company is unsellable. Sad really.

You're the last one I would have expected to see this from but I must agree. Digital Performer 8 crossgrade is $395 US (full price for new owners or non crossgrade is $495) and you can use just about anything for said crossgrade - PT, Sonar, Adobe Audition, Soundforge, you name it. There's no stupid track limits or licensing deals. And it's great for sound to picture composing. Danny Elfman uses DP as his main daw IIRC. DEVO even has done albums solely in DP.

Oh yeah - DP8 also runs on OSX 10.6.8 as well as more current oSX versions. Also don't forget that DP8 is now cross platform for both Windows and Mac.

My income stream isn't steady as I do a lot of work for small theatre groups in the area and they don't pay much. Certainly not enough to pay the Avid yearly tax for features that may or may not come to public release.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by ghostwriter

Don't do it.
I know I'm already on the cusp of being banned.

A new thread here on the DUC will not survive and will probably get you banned. They've been more than generous with me so far, but I know when to quit.

Edit: Gearslutz has already killed the other thread. Nice to know which side they are on.
Oh, how Gearslutz has changed, I used to love that place.

Ah, fair enough. And a shocker about Gearslutz.

Anyone any other suggestions?

[holler]

With risk of repeating myself, the only real problem I see with this is the fact that your "perpetual license" becomes frozen/locked/no-longer-upgradeable FOREVER(even though you can still use it on that version) if you don't renew your subscription. It's the knife-against-the-throat tactic that is messed up.

I would be cool with this, if I'd for example bought the "Support/Cloud/Upgrade/Collab Subscription" Jan 1. had it till next Jan 1. and decided I won't need these things for a couple of months and then maybe upgrade in June the next time, because I need the collaboration or maybe some new feature.
There could be hundreds of reasons why you'd not need a subscription for the time being.

If Avid doesn't believe in their product, letting us pay up-front, "come on, we promise, you won't regret it, just give us the money, you will benefit!!", then why should we?

They key to having people to pay on a subscription basis is to give them something that would justify having to pay on a regular basis, otherwise I'd benefit from upgrading when I'd like to i e.g. people who've waited to upgrade to PT 11.

br

[nst7]

To elaborate on my previous point, a regular PT user who lets his plan lapse and has to re-buy a perpetual license, knows he will pay $899.

A Media Composer person knows he will pay $1299.

What will an HD user pay? We don't know, because there is no standalone perpetual HD license! How will they handle this? It's hard to make an informed decision if they don't give us this information.

[mesaone]

Since when is a Pro Tools vanilla license $899?

[nigelpry]

ghostwriter, link posted earlier didn't work for me, but I found your post anyway, here ...

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/moan...l#post10485518

Notice the 8 at the end instead of 7 ..... wtf

Is there some surreptitious editing of people's posts going on here on the DUC?