New Pricing

[P_J]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Am I hallucinating a Mike Thornton post earlier here that linked to some info from Avid that has now vanished? I didn't get to check out the link as had no time.

I saw it too (Tapatalk resent posts notification), but never saw the actual post.

[moshuajusic]

Originally Posted by P_J

I saw it too (Tapatalk resent posts notification), but never saw the actual post.

Are we talking about Pro Tools Expert guy? He probably realized it was a mistake/irrelevant. He tried saying that reinstatement was discontinued back in July, and to read his article from back then. But even that article said reinstatement for PT Standard was up in the air. (A week later Avid would announce that it'd be maintained. Now it's rumored to be axed next month.)

[Mike Thornton]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Am I hallucinating a Mike Thornton post earlier here that linked to some info from Avid that has now vanished? I didn't get to check out the link as had no time.

No, you are not hallucinating. I did post a comment to this thread which has disappeared.

Originally Posted by jscomposer

Are we talking about Pro Tools Expert guy? He probably realized it was a mistake/irrelevant. He tried saying that reinstatement was discontinued back in July, and to read his article from back then. But even that article said reinstatement for PT Standard was up in the air. (A week later Avid would announce that it'd be maintained. Now it's rumored to be axed next month.)

I did not remove the comment.

At the time that the price changes were originally announced by Avid on 18th June 2019, the graphic posted by Avid on Facebook included a reference to the reinstatement being only available to rental subscription. However, as you say, Avid changed their minds and asked us to update the article accordingly. I quote...

Q - Will Avid still support Perpetual reinstatement programs?

A - We are currently evaluating these programs. (This answer was “Will Avid still support Perpetual reinstatement programs?” as taken from the Pro Tools Users Facebook group but Avid have asked us to change it to match the announcement that is in the DUC).

This comes from our article Avid Are Changing Pro Tools Pricing On July 1st 2019 - Is This Good Or Bad News For You?

I also included in my original post here, links to our price comparison for those considering going from perpetual with an upgrade plan to a rental subscription plan because Avid is now bundling the Avid Complete Plugin Bundle and HEAT for rental subscription customers, it changes the numbers.

This is in our article If You Think Subscriptions Are Bad And Only Benefit Professionals Then Read This - We Run The Numbers On Avid Pro Tools Plans

Let's hope that this post doesn't disappear.

Mike

[noiseboyuk]

Very interesting on a number of fronts. Thanks very much for posting, Mike - I can see no reason on earth why that first post vanished.

So as of now, there's nothing official from Avid at all as to the future plans for reinstatements. If it is true that they are going to cease them in less than 6 weeks time, I sense an impending nuclear explosion. Here's hoping wiser heads prevail, as it looks like they did last time this came up during the summer.

[Stephen Bond]

Originally Posted by Mike Thornton

This is in our article If You Think Subscriptions Are Bad And Only Benefit Professionals Then Read This - We Run The Numbers On Avid Pro Tools Plans

Anyway you look at it, Pro Tools is expensive, prohibitively so for increasing numbers. I am NOT a fan of subscription. It is a vendors dream and a buyer's nightmare. This is worse that the "never never" hire-purchase of old. This is the true "never never" i.e. you never own it or end up paying for it

As much as the likes of Steven Slate want us to sub up for the price of "a few coffees per month" it makes no sense to pay over and over for the same products we wish to use. Slate has lost my custom by focusing so heavily on subscription. The products I use from Slate I own and won't buy any others because they are prohibitively expensive in the market at around $150 compared to excellent offerings from competitors.

Plugin Alliance sure want to encourage us into the same subscription deal but it makes know sense to someone like myself, considering the company was built on deals of plugins costing an average of $30 or so net cost.

Avid will not be getting my money if they continue with demands for exorbitant yearly update costs or even worse, never ending subscriptions.

Stephen

[Frank Kruse]

The hard lesson to learn here is that you never really "own" a piece of software. You pay a fee to use it. A license fee.
What's bad about subscription only is the same thing that's bad about Spotify. No matter how many 10k$ you paid over decades, the moment you miss one dime of payment or you're a day late, EVERYTHING you have in your account is essentially gone as if you've never had it in the first place and you might have better bought the CDs in the first place for less money (in case of Spotify I mean). Gone without a trace. And there's no "ownership" to transfer, nothing to sell, and no music collection to leave to your children one day unless they continue to pay for the rest of their lives.

Once you're on 100% subscription you have to pay whatever they dictate. There's no such thing as staying on the last lapsed version. You're left with nada if you don't pay even after having paid for 10 years.

[Blinkofani]

Originally Posted by Frank Kruse

Once you're on 100% subscription you have to pay whatever they dictate. There's no such thing as staying on the last lapsed version. You're left with nada if you don't pay even after having paid for 10 years.

I hope people see the game Avid is playing. They announce these bad news for us close to the end of a fiscal quarter end forcing people to lay down cash before they would have. This is giving them a big cash income at the end of the quarter. They did it in june this year for the renewals and will now do it in december for the reinstatements.

Someone doesn’t have to own a crystal ball to predict that in june next year they’ll announce a price increase, effective in july, for the subscription or whatever product or service they offer that didn’t go up in price yet. People will buy upfront yearly subscription deals without knowing what new features PT will bring to the table. Fear is a powerful motivator.

Blink

[FilterDecay]

I will never go onto a subscription plan. I use protools to pay my mortgage and feed myself. I will never put that at the whims of wallstreet. If avid tanks subscriptions will lapse with no recourse. No way.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by FilterDecay

I will never go onto a subscription plan. I use protools to pay my mortgage and feed myself. I will never put that at the whims of wallstreet. If avid tanks subscriptions will lapse with no recourse. No way.

Personally I think its unlikely Avid would vanish overnight in a way that abandoned all customers. Someone would buy it and keep some kind of service going. But your point is fair in the sense that this could take some time. Their servers have gone down before, as have iLok's. If you rely on PT for your job, you can't be without it for an hour, let alone a month. These are solid reasons for always having a permanent license.

[deanrichard]

Some people may not need this, but I need to be able to open old projects. I stopped upgrading at 12.8, but made sure I kept a permanent license. It seems like more people than not want that ability.

Originally Posted by FilterDecay

I will never go onto a subscription plan. I use protools to pay my mortgage and feed myself. I will never put that at the whims of wallstreet. If avid tanks subscriptions will lapse with no recourse. No way.