View Single Post
  #9  
Old 02-07-2012, 07:39 PM
adamqlw adamqlw is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 493
Default Re: Eleven rack stand alone editor

Quote:
Originally Posted by moff View Post
But do ANY of us NEED Pro Tools 10? Did PT 9 or PTLE suddenly stop working? I would say no - none of us NEED it. We've all convinced ourselves that we want it, or that we're somehow entitled to it - so much so that we believe we need it, but the fact is, most of what many of us do could be accomplished on PTLE.

Certainly, a hobbyist demo-maker doesn't need PT10. Some of us may be pro musicians, maybe even semi-pro "engineers", and the more experience we gather, the more you'd think we'd need the full deal. In reality, we realize over time that we won't be tracking the next Grammy Award-winning CD in our living rooms using Pro Tools 10 on our MacBooks (unless you're a rap/hip hop guy who uses pre-mastered loops), and so our home\portable recording rigs are really scratchpads at best. And with that in mind, lots can be accomplished with the PTLE\PT9 that you already have.

If we DO get the opportunity to record a major-label album, it'll be at a "real" studio. And guess what? Even though some of us might be upset enough at Avid to decide not to buy Pro Tools in the future, it is in most of the major studios (and Logic has the remainder), and those studios spend BIG bucks on HD (HDX) and TDM systems, consoles, control surfaces, etc. The same goes for video production houses and the ISIS products. We, on the other hand do not spend big bucks, relatively speaking, and we're not likely to be in a position to do so. So once we weigh our spot in the marketplace against their core business, we see that a $500-$1000 customer is chump change, compared to the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars their "real" customers spend.

Sometimes I think we overestimate our importance. Our collective portion of Avid's business could go away tomorrow, and they'd never notice. Not only that, but we represent such a small drop in the revenue bucket that "future profitability" wouldn't notice if we all spontaneously combusted.
I don't only buy stuff that I NEED. I buy quite a bit of stuff that I want, because I derive pleasure from it. Companies sell people an awful lot of stuff they don't NEED. Look at Apple. How many people needed an iPhone 4S? How many did they sell?

Studios on the other hand, are more likely to buy stuff they NEED... because they are a business and are driven by return on investment. Avid might get chump change from me every year. They might get chump change from the studio once every upgrade cycle. The same "need" arguent applies to professional products, anyway, in fact, even more so.

I don't fantasize that Avid sits down and worries that they have lost me as a customer... I just take my dollar elsewhere. If I observe other people with similar sentiments, then on an heuristic basis, I would imagine that over time, market forces (ie. sales, and consequently Avid's bottom line) will invite them to rethink whether or not they wish to cater to the consumer base. With the low cost of computers these days, and the rapid proliferation of home recording (certainly MUCH more so than a decade ago), one must really wonder if it's a good idea to ignore the consumer/pro-sumer market, particularly when the product is one that benefits greatly from economies of scale. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people pumping out independent material on YouTube, ReverbNation etc etc aren't doing so on ProTools HD systems.
Reply With Quote