Avid Pro Audio Community

Avid Pro Audio Community

How to Join & Post  •  Community Terms of Use  •  Help Us Help You

Knowledge Base Search  •  Community Search  •  Learn & Support


Avid Home Page

Go Back   Avid Pro Audio Community > Pro Tools Software > Licensing & Accounts

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 09-11-2015, 02:04 AM
nigelpry's Avatar
nigelpry nigelpry is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Home
Posts: 2,166
Default Pro Tools Student/EDU licensing

Quote:
Originally Posted by matt.vanhemm View Post
I saw a couple responses that people that purchased after April 2013 are not eligible. I purchased/registered by September 2013, so under that I'm not up for free upgrades.

Curious as to what the reasoning is behind not honouring the 4 year upgrades after a specific date, considering it was extremely clear at the time of purchase that there would be 4 years of free upgrades provided? Just seems a tad odd to me under any circumstances that we're expected now to pay $99 for it, contrary to what I read when I opened that ProTools box with the iLok in it
When Pro Tools 11 was announced, on 7th April 2013, Avid DID also announce a change in the T&C for the student license. I remember it well.

This post http://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=2026288&postcount=33 in April 2013 was Avid's confirmation that the old terms would apply to old purchases and the new terms to new purchases.

If you read the rest of that thread you will see there was some confusion that people on the free upgrades deal might have to pay $99 but that doubt was put to bed by the post I've linked you to, and others in that thread.

Avid's Tony Cariddi also posted at one point to confirm this as well .... but I haven't bothered searching for that one as well.

Students who bought a Pro Tools 9 or 10 license prior to 7th April 2013 got four years of free upgrades.

Students who bought a Pro Tools 10 or 11 license on or after 7th April 2013 got four years of upgrades at $99 per upgrade. So anyone in this category will need to buy a student upgrade for $99 to get Pro Tools 12. But carry on reading, further below, because the situation has changed for these students.

One other point .... some stores, like Studica for example, continued to advertise the four years of free upgrades deal for a while after 7th April 2013. In fact I bought one. I have been in an ongoing battle ever since. Avid point blank says they won't honour it, its the store's fault for advertising it. The store says it is the fault of Avid's distributor, and the distributor says it only supplied what Avid gave it. Over two years later this has still not been resolved. I just want what was advertised, but the three companies involved are all playing at passing the buck.

Anyway, with the announcement of Pro Tools 12, the student T&C have changed again. For students who bought a Pro Tools 11 or 12 license after the Pro Tools 12 announcement there is no longer a time limit on the number of years you can buy student upgrades for that license. You get a support plan for the first year and you have to renew that support plan every year at $99 per year.

For the students who bought a license under the four years at $99 per upgrade deal, things have changed. When they buy a $99 upgrade to PT12, they are given a support plan AND ARE MOVED ONTO THE NEW $99 per year support plan renewal T&C introduced for Pro Tools 12. Tony Cariddi confirmed this in a post, saying that they were similar plans.

But, and this is the important thing, under these new Pro Tools 12 T&C you have to PROVE YOU ARE STILL A STUDENT EVERY TIME YOU RENEW THE SUPPORT PLAN at student pricing in the future.

Under those previous four year deals (the free one and the $99 one) you only had to prove you were a student at the time of original purchase.

So you could buy Pro Tools in the last year of your studies and still be entitled to three more years of student upgrades even though you are not a student anymore. Now, as soon as you finish your studies, you can no longer have student upgrades.

Another point for clarity .... Avid defines you as a student if you are CURRENTLY undertaking a qualifying form of study, OR if you FINISHED those studies WITHIN THE LAST SIX MONTHS. So you can buy a student license after you have finished your studies, as long as it is withing six months of finishing.

Most students will be on three year degree courses. Many of those won't bother to actually buy Pro Tools until towards the end of their studies, when they can see the prospect of not having access to it via a campus computer. Thus they will be severely disadvantaged compered to the older schemes, as they may never be entitled to a student upgrade.

I posted a question about what happens to people who by upgrading to PT12 from the four years at $99 per upgrade deal are now on the new Pro Tools 12 scheme and how their entitlement to four years of student pricing upgrades is affected by the new requirement that you have to prove you are still a student very year.

To my knowledge that question has never been answered, and I take that to mean that once you upgrade to Pro Tools 12, the new T&C will apply. So beware, if you don't get confirmation otherwise, you are probably giving up your entitlement to four years of student upgrade pricing by upgrading to PT12. If I were you, I'd be fighting to keep the four years without having to prove you are still a student each year.

Finally, there is a different problem for people on the old four years of free upgrades deal. They were NOT put on a support plan, but were provided with a Pro Tools 12 license. Hence one problem is that they have not received the 12.2 update in their accounts (or hadn't the last time I checked, on 5th September, I'm away on holiday at the moment) because that has only been rolled out so far to people on a support plan.

In the webinar, the panel asserted that EVERYONE ON PRO TOOLS 12 IS ON A SUPPORT PLAN, which is a) not true, and b) the cause of the problem above.

The second problem for people on the four years of free upgrades deal is what happens if your four years end date is after the end of 2015. Arguably, we should not have to sign up to a support plan until our four years is up, but the deadline is 31st December 2015 otherwise licenses become frozen at their current version, forever.

Jeffro has set up a support case for me to get this resolved, and I have suggested that one option might be that if we buy a support plan before 31st December 2015, its expiry date should be set to credit us with the number of days remaining on our four years of free upgrades deal.

I'll let people here know ehen that support case gets resolved.
__________________
Mac Pro 2009 with 2010 firmware, 12-Core 3.46ghz, 64gb RAM & working Thunderbolt, OS 10.14.6 and Windows 10
iMac 2012 27", 3.4ghz i7, 32gb RAM OS 10.14.6
Digi 003 Console for control surface only, Focusrite OctopreLE and MOTU Traveler for extra analog-ADAT conversion, UAD Apollo Quad Silver with Thunderbolt card, Apollo x4 and pci-e Octo, Adam A77X monitors.
Pro Tools 2022.4, Media Composer 8.9, Sibelius 8.7, Cubase Pro 11, Wavelab Pro 11, Logic Pro X 10.5.1, Mainstage 3.
Various apps, soft synths, FX plugins.
Plenty of hardware synths, rack gear, microphones etc.
And then there's the studio ;-)

Last edited by DigiTechSupt; 09-25-2015 at 02:21 PM. Reason: Split out from the original thread - that is focused on EDU owners that didn't get their v12 upgrade.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 09-11-2015, 06:53 AM
onbeat's Avatar
onbeat onbeat is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: West palm Beach, , FL
Posts: 62
Default Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

I was on my last year of the free 4 year Edu upgrades and received Pro Tools 12 without a support plan. I have 12.1 in my account but got access to 12.2 thru application manager. I'm wondering what my status is with that license. I figured I would get a year support when I got the 12 license. Now from what I read above I'm thinking that if I don't get on a Support plan by the end of the year, it will cost me $299 to update it later.

Does this sound correct Nigel?
__________________
Mac Studio M1 Max
Apollo X6
MacOS Ventura

Last edited by onbeat; 09-11-2015 at 07:09 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 09-11-2015, 07:06 AM
jvrdiez jvrdiez is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Madrid
Posts: 3
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

Onbeat, Im in the same situation as you
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 09-11-2015, 07:42 AM
JSams JSams is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Ithaca, NY
Posts: 6
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

I'm also on the last year of my 4 years of free upgrades. I have 12.1, but haven't seen 12.2 in either the application manager or on my avid account on the website.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 09-11-2015, 09:51 AM
nigelpry's Avatar
nigelpry nigelpry is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Home
Posts: 2,166
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

Quote:
Originally Posted by onbeat View Post
I was on my last year of the free 4 year Edu upgrades and received Pro Tools 12 without a support plan. I have 12.1 in my account but got access to 12.2 thru application manager. I'm wondering what my status is with that license. I figured I would get a year support when I got the 12 license. Now from what I read above I'm thinking that if I don't get on a Support plan by the end of the year, it will cost me $299 to update it later.

Does this sound correct Nigel?
Yes, you are not on a support plan. Unless they treated you differently to me, which I doubt. A quick check in the App Manager would show any support plan you are on.

I have 3 licenses ... A 10/11HD bundle, a 10/11/12 bundle that is on the four years of free upgrades deal, and a 10/11 bundle that is on the four years at $99 per upgrade deal (that's the one I'm still in dispute with Studica about).

That's why I'm fairly well up on the whole licensing thing. My 12.2 was also only available via the App Manager, it's not in my Avid account.

If your four years have already run out, then you have to buy a support plan before the end of 2015, at normal prices, otherwise your license will forever be frozen at its current version. You'll always be able to use but never be able to upgrade. Your problem will come at some point in the future when you can't get it to run on a new computer and can no longer maintain an old computer that it will run on.

You have a choice of upgrades: $99 with no support and you only get a 12 lcense, or $199 with support and a 10/11/12 license bundle.

If you are still in your four years of free upgrades deal, things are not fully clear and this is the subject of the support case Avid's Jeffro has opened for me.

We have the paradox that we must sign up to and pay for a support plan even though we are entitled to free upgrades, in my case until September 2016, but in theory some people might be until 6th April 2017.

Hopefully we will get a solution to this soon. I did mention it in te DUC when Pro Tools 12 details first came out but nobody from Avid picked up on it then, even though I bumped it quite a few times. Fortunately Jeffro saw me mention it in reply to a question in another thread and opened a support case for me.
__________________
Mac Pro 2009 with 2010 firmware, 12-Core 3.46ghz, 64gb RAM & working Thunderbolt, OS 10.14.6 and Windows 10
iMac 2012 27", 3.4ghz i7, 32gb RAM OS 10.14.6
Digi 003 Console for control surface only, Focusrite OctopreLE and MOTU Traveler for extra analog-ADAT conversion, UAD Apollo Quad Silver with Thunderbolt card, Apollo x4 and pci-e Octo, Adam A77X monitors.
Pro Tools 2022.4, Media Composer 8.9, Sibelius 8.7, Cubase Pro 11, Wavelab Pro 11, Logic Pro X 10.5.1, Mainstage 3.
Various apps, soft synths, FX plugins.
Plenty of hardware synths, rack gear, microphones etc.
And then there's the studio ;-)
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 09-11-2015, 10:16 AM
nigelpry's Avatar
nigelpry nigelpry is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Home
Posts: 2,166
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JSams View Post
I'm also on the last year of my 4 years of free upgrades. I have 12.1, but haven't seen 12.2 in either the application manager or on my avid account on the website.
You don't 'see' 12.2 in the App Manager. You 'see' 12.1 listed, and to the right of it is either the word 'current' or the word 'update'.

Assuming you see the word 'update', you just click on it and that triggers download of the update. Once downloaded, the word changes to 'install'.

Click on 'install', and guess what it will do ;-)
__________________
Mac Pro 2009 with 2010 firmware, 12-Core 3.46ghz, 64gb RAM & working Thunderbolt, OS 10.14.6 and Windows 10
iMac 2012 27", 3.4ghz i7, 32gb RAM OS 10.14.6
Digi 003 Console for control surface only, Focusrite OctopreLE and MOTU Traveler for extra analog-ADAT conversion, UAD Apollo Quad Silver with Thunderbolt card, Apollo x4 and pci-e Octo, Adam A77X monitors.
Pro Tools 2022.4, Media Composer 8.9, Sibelius 8.7, Cubase Pro 11, Wavelab Pro 11, Logic Pro X 10.5.1, Mainstage 3.
Various apps, soft synths, FX plugins.
Plenty of hardware synths, rack gear, microphones etc.
And then there's the studio ;-)
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 09-11-2015, 11:10 AM
JSams JSams is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Ithaca, NY
Posts: 6
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

The only thing that the application manager shows me is that I have a perpetual license of Pro Tools. There's no button to update and it doesn't say 12.1 (even though that's what I have installed). All the other tabs are empty. On the avid website it shows I have Pro Tools Academic 12.1 as well as 9/10/11 and there is nothing under the products not yet downloaded. For the record my 4 years runs out at the end of September and I'm not entirely clear if that means I have until the end of the year or the end of my 4 years to get on the support/update plan.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 09-11-2015, 11:28 AM
nigelpry's Avatar
nigelpry nigelpry is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Home
Posts: 2,166
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JSams View Post
The only thing that the application manager shows me is that I have a perpetual license of Pro Tools. There's no button to update and it doesn't say 12.1 (even though that's what I have installed). All the other tabs are empty. On the avid website it shows I have Pro Tools Academic 12.1 as well as 9/10/11 and there is nothing under the products not yet downloaded. For the record my 4 years runs out at the end of September and I'm not entirely clear if that means I have until the end of the year or the end of my 4 years to get on the support/update plan.
Not sure than about App Manager. Mine showed 12.1 as installed with the word 'update' to the right of it. Clicked on that and 12.2 downloaded.

There is a distinction I believe between a 'student' and an 'academic' license, though I'm no expert on that. I thought the academic licenses were for faculties, teachers and the like, maybe that's why yours is different?

If your four years runs our at the end of September this year (2015) all that means is that you wouldn't be entitled to any more student priced discounts after that date.

You've still got until the end of 2015 to decide whether you want to sign up to an upgrade plan or upgrade + support plan.
__________________
Mac Pro 2009 with 2010 firmware, 12-Core 3.46ghz, 64gb RAM & working Thunderbolt, OS 10.14.6 and Windows 10
iMac 2012 27", 3.4ghz i7, 32gb RAM OS 10.14.6
Digi 003 Console for control surface only, Focusrite OctopreLE and MOTU Traveler for extra analog-ADAT conversion, UAD Apollo Quad Silver with Thunderbolt card, Apollo x4 and pci-e Octo, Adam A77X monitors.
Pro Tools 2022.4, Media Composer 8.9, Sibelius 8.7, Cubase Pro 11, Wavelab Pro 11, Logic Pro X 10.5.1, Mainstage 3.
Various apps, soft synths, FX plugins.
Plenty of hardware synths, rack gear, microphones etc.
And then there's the studio ;-)
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 09-11-2015, 11:56 AM
JSams JSams is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Ithaca, NY
Posts: 6
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

I've always had a student license. I'm not sure why 12.1 says academic and not student
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 09-11-2015, 06:55 PM
matt.vanhemm matt.vanhemm is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: London, Ontario
Posts: 2
Default Re: Where is my Pro Tools 12 No Charge (Student/EDU) Upgrade?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nigelpry View Post
When Pro Tools 11 was announced, on 7th April 2013, Avid DID also announce a change in the T&C for the student license. I remember it well.

This post http://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=2026288&postcount=33 in April 2013 was Avid's confirmation that the old terms would apply to old purchases and the new terms to new purchases.

If you read the rest of that thread you will see there was some confusion that people on the free upgrades deal might have to pay $99 but that doubt was put to bed by the post I've linked you to, and others in that thread.

Avid's Tony Cariddi also posted at one point to confirm this as well .... but I haven't bothered searching for that one as well.

Students who bought a Pro Tools 9 or 10 license prior to 7th April 2013 got four years of free upgrades.

Students who bought a Pro Tools 10 or 11 license on or after 7th April 2013 got four years of upgrades at $99 per upgrade. So anyone in this category will need to buy a student upgrade for $99 to get Pro Tools 12. But carry on reading, further below, because the situation has changed for these students.

One other point .... some stores, like Studica for example, continued to advertise the four years of free upgrades deal for a while after 7th April 2013. In fact I bought one. I have been in an ongoing battle ever since. Avid point blank says they won't honour it, its the store's fault for advertising it. The store says it is the fault of Avid's distributor, and the distributor says it only supplied what Avid gave it. Over two years later this has still not been resolved. I just want what was advertised, but the three companies involved are all playing at passing the buck.

Anyway, with the announcement of Pro Tools 12, the student T&C have changed again. For students who bought a Pro Tools 11 or 12 license after the Pro Tools 12 announcement there is no longer a time limit on the number of years you can buy student upgrades for that license. You get a support plan for the first year and you have to renew that support plan every year at $99 per year.

For the students who bought a license under the four years at $99 per upgrade deal, things have changed. When they buy a $99 upgrade to PT12, they are given a support plan AND ARE MOVED ONTO THE NEW $99 per year support plan renewal T&C introduced for Pro Tools 12. Tony Cariddi confirmed this in a post, saying that they were similar plans.

But, and this is the important thing, under these new Pro Tools 12 T&C you have to PROVE YOU ARE STILL A STUDENT EVERY TIME YOU RENEW THE SUPPORT PLAN at student pricing in the future.

Under those previous four year deals (the free one and the $99 one) you only had to prove you were a student at the time of original purchase.

So you could buy Pro Tools in the last year of your studies and still be entitled to three more years of student upgrades even though you are not a student anymore. Now, as soon as you finish your studies, you can no longer have student upgrades.

Another point for clarity .... Avid defines you as a student if you are CURRENTLY undertaking a qualifying form of study, OR if you FINISHED those studies WITHIN THE LAST SIX MONTHS. So you can buy a student license after you have finished your studies, as long as it is withing six months of finishing.

Most students will be on three year degree courses. Many of those won't bother to actually buy Pro Tools until towards the end of their studies, when they can see the prospect of not having access to it via a campus computer. Thus they will be severely disadvantaged compered to the older schemes, as they may never be entitled to a student upgrade.

I posted a question about what happens to people who by upgrading to PT12 from the four years at $99 per upgrade deal are now on the new Pro Tools 12 scheme and how their entitlement to four years of student pricing upgrades is affected by the new requirement that you have to prove you are still a student very year.

To my knowledge that question has never been answered, and I take that to mean that once you upgrade to Pro Tools 12, the new T&C will apply. So beware, if you don't get confirmation otherwise, you are probably giving up your entitlement to four years of student upgrade pricing by upgrading to PT12. If I were you, I'd be fighting to keep the four years without having to prove you are still a student each year.

Finally, there is a different problem for people on the old four years of free upgrades deal. They were NOT put on a support plan, but were provided with a Pro Tools 12 license. Hence one problem is that they have not received the 12.2 update in their accounts (or hadn't the last time I checked, on 5th September, I'm away on holiday at the moment) because that has only been rolled out so far to people on a support plan.

In the webinar, the panel asserted that EVERYONE ON PRO TOOLS 12 IS ON A SUPPORT PLAN, which is a) not true, and b) the cause of the problem above.

The second problem for people on the four years of free upgrades deal is what happens if your four years end date is after the end of 2015. Arguably, we should not have to sign up to a support plan until our four years is up, but the deadline is 31st December 2015 otherwise licenses become frozen at their current version, forever.

Jeffro has set up a support case for me to get this resolved, and I have suggested that one option might be that if we buy a support plan before 31st December 2015, its expiry date should be set to credit us with the number of days remaining on our four years of free upgrades deal.

I'll let people here know ehen that support case gets resolved.
Definitely appreciate the response. Not sure why I wasn't aware of that change. The one I bought was a PT11 Student edition, and it was certainly advertised as having 4 years upgrades from all the stores in the area. Sounds like perhaps someone dropped the ball informing the stores about the change. At least where I bought it, nobody had a clue that it wasn't being honoured until students started complaining being very confused once PT12 was released.

I have to agree on the whole "passing the buck" scenario. The store I bought it from were very confused because they were being told something completely different each time they asked for an update on the clarification. Since ProTools 12 was announced, it's gone from "they aren't honouring it anymore" to "hey they're going to be honouring it" to "nobody at distribution seems to have an actual answer."
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Licensing for Students - on-going eligibility for student upgrades nigelpry Licensing & Accounts 54 12-23-2015 11:31 AM
Welcome To the Licensing & Accounts Forum - Start Here Avid Licensing & Accounts 0 09-11-2015 08:50 PM
Licensing Pro Tools LE on Two Computers adamzapple 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 0 01-29-2008 09:58 AM
Pro Tools Licensing bsomer 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 1 05-15-2004 05:03 PM


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 01:40 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Forum Hosted By: URLJet.com