[Righty27]

I recently renewed at the new price of $199 (previously $99) which, as a hobbyist user, probably doesn’t make sense compared to occasionally paying for a month at a time or switching to e.g. Logic. However, I also didn’t want to waste much time deliberating such a change, migration, etc., especially when I still perceive value in my previous ‘investment’ in my perpetual licence.

I do not doubt that Avid’s commercial approach over recent years has been positive for their bottom line, and using all these financial/product levers in order to increase their recurring revenues will surely by now have resulted in users finding their place within Pro Tools products or beyond.

Considering the cost of PT is now high relative to competitor DAWs, possibly a better reflection of the supposed ‘pro’ stature of the product, and with plenty of more general justifications for any gesture that alleviates financial pressures on small businesses in this sector, maybe the permanent reinstatement of the reinstatement option e.g. at 150% the price of an upgrade plan, would now be reasonable so that perpetual users could build this into their own plans.

Avid’s P&L may well be benefitting from all of this through fewer customers/users, in the same way that SAP has fewer customers than Adobe. However, I’m not convinced this reflects the direction of travel in the industries in which Avid is involved and might not be ideal in the long run.