Revised Pricing for CPTK to PT HD Upgrades

[dstryrwiz]

I am still truly disappointed in Avid for failing to provide a discount for those whom already have Pro Tools 11+CPTK and wish to move to Pro Tools 11HD. Why must users who wished to delay in taking the plunge into the higher pricing structure and first attempted to struggle with making Pro Tools 11 standard edition work for them, then later deciding to move to Pro Tools 11HD need to pay the same amount as those who decided to move directly to HD? I fail to understand the justification behind the additional $300 charge associated with this process. If anything, the 2 routes should equal the same, so $600 to go from 10 to 11HD, or $300 to go to 11, then another $300 to go to 11HD. Unless this option is offered, at least for myself personally, I will likely not upgrade, and in doing so may seek to consider other DAWs in the future, even though I am Pro Tools certified, and I will encourage others to do the same. I have been a firm believer in Avid and the Pro Tools software for a number of years, but this blatant disregard for Avid's loyal customers has made me waver in my stage. Avid, please do the right thing and offer a $300 upgrade path for 11+CPTK to 11HD.

[Zarabozo]

Originally Posted by dstryrwiz

I am still truly disappointed in Avid for failing to provide a discount for those whom already have Pro Tools 11+CPTK and wish to move to Pro Tools 11HD. Why must users who wished to delay in taking the plunge into the higher pricing structure and first attempted to struggle with making Pro Tools 11 standard edition work for them, then later deciding to move to Pro Tools 11HD need to pay the same amount as those who decided to move directly to HD? I fail to understand the justification behind the additional $300 charge associated with this process. If anything, the 2 routes should equal the same, so $600 to go from 10 to 11HD, or $300 to go to 11, then another $300 to go to 11HD. Unless this option is offered, at least for myself personally, I will likely not upgrade, and in doing so may seek to consider other DAWs in the future, even though I am Pro Tools certified, and I will encourage others to do the same. I have been a firm believer in Avid and the Pro Tools software for a number of years, but this blatant disregard for Avid's loyal customers has made me waver in my stage. Avid, please do the right thing and offer a $300 upgrade path for 11+CPTK to 11HD.

I completely agree with you. I'm not even on that case myself, and it still makes me angry.

Avid not offering a $300 upgrade path from PT11 + CPTK is just plain wrong. But making it a $599 upgrade path is simply beyond that.

Francisco

[Bruce Paine]

Originally Posted by dstryrwiz

I am still truly disappointed in Avid for failing to provide a discount for those whom already have Pro Tools 11+CPTK and wish to move to Pro Tools 11HD. Why must users who wished to delay in taking the plunge into the higher pricing structure and first attempted to struggle with making Pro Tools 11 standard edition work for them, then later deciding to move to Pro Tools 11HD need to pay the same amount as those who decided to move directly to HD? I fail to understand the justification behind the additional $300 charge associated with this process. If anything, the 2 routes should equal the same, so $600 to go from 10 to 11HD, or $300 to go to 11, then another $300 to go to 11HD. Unless this option is offered, at least for myself personally, I will likely not upgrade, and in doing so may seek to consider other DAWs in the future, even though I am Pro Tools certified, and I will encourage others to do the same. I have been a firm believer in Avid and the Pro Tools software for a number of years, but this blatant disregard for Avid's loyal customers has made me waver in my stage. Avid, please do the right thing and offer a $300 upgrade path for 11+CPTK to 11HD.

But you didn't pay anything extra. You purchased Pro Tools 9 at a discounted rate for students. Then you received Pro Tools 10 for free. Then you received Pro Tools 11 for free. You are not being forced to pay anything more now than you would have if you had decided to upgrade to PTHD 11/10 a month ago. What you are asking for is an additional discount based on your free upgrade.

[Zarabozo]

Originally Posted by Bruce Paine

But you didn't pay anything extra. You purchased Pro Tools 9 at a discounted rate for students. Then you received Pro Tools 10 for free. Then you received Pro Tools 11 for free. You are not being forced to pay anything more now than you would have if you had decided to upgrade to PTHD 11/10 a month ago. What you are asking for is an additional discount based on your free upgrade.

Bruce,

That's really not the point. Explaining how someone saved money (e.g. thanks to the student's offer) is not an answer to this matter.

The real fact is how someone that gets PT11, no matter how or why as far as it was legally given by Avid, has to pay the same amount as someone that has not (e.g. someone with PT10 only).

All math on upgrade paths points to a price of $300. If I had upgraded to PT11 at first from PT10, I would've spent $299. If I later wanted to use my CPTK license to get PT11HD from PT11+CPTK, it would only be fair to get that upgrade for $300, making it equal to someone that got the PT10+CPTK upgrade.

Another example: If I had bought an MBox recently with PT10 included and a free upgrade to PT11, and I happened to have a CPTK license, why is it fair from any point of view that I had to pay $599 to get PT11HD, just like someone that didn't get PT11 at all?

It already was a very ugly and unethical thing Avid did with the withdrawal of CPTK to all of us customers that once believed Digi/Avid word to pay $2000 for something that would unlock the HD features on any PT version. Was CPTK a bad idea business wise in the first place? That's not your customers fault and they shouldn't have to pay (yet more and again) for it.

Avid didn't care on dropping CPTK and taking back a power that once sold to loyal customers, ok. So, the least Avid should be doing before dropping it is being more than fair to any CPTK owner (just to amend that lack of respect to the original deal) and, at least for the first version dropping CPTK, give them the HD version in exchange for their CPTK asset - after all, they were being forced to pay for much more expensive upgrades in the future, which was not the original deal. But no, that didn't happen either - Avid needed to charge $300 extra for that, no matter how unfair or unjustified was for CPTK owners who were already being screwed with the withdrawal of that paid power.

And now, not only that happened. Now Avid wants to get $600 out of any CPTK owner that, no matter how, legally got PT11 in his hands. It doesn't matter it's the same offer for a PT10 owner. It doesn't matter if he got PT11 out of another deal that Avid itself offered in the past or present.

This is really sad.

Francisco

[dstryrwiz]

Originally Posted by Bruce Paine

But you didn't pay anything extra. You purchased Pro Tools 9 at a discounted rate for students. Then you received Pro Tools 10 for free. Then you received Pro Tools 11 for free. You are not being forced to pay anything more now than you would have if you had decided to upgrade to PTHD 11/10 a month ago. What you are asking for is an additional discount based on your free upgrade.

For one, I am not speaking merely in regards to my own situation, however with my situation, as you stated, I was entitled to the free upgrade to 11, however that upgrade which was part of the deal I purchased when purchasing my student copy becomes worthless if the price is the same from 10 or 11. Those "free upgrades" were part of the original purchase price, even if it were a reduced price. Whether the upgrade "price" was $0, $100, or $300, the price of the upgrade needs to be based off of the retail cost, as that is the price of the upgrade, no matter what each individual person paid for it. It's the same concept as what is being applied with the CPTK. Whether someone purchased it for $50 or $2,000, everyone's license is valued the same. The fact of the matter is that the CPTK was supposed to be version independent, and this was discussed heavily at the initial release of Pro Tools 10 due to the inclusion of RAM Cache and everyone's fear that they would lose the features they purchased with the CPTK, but we were reassured that the CPTK would remain version independent so we wouldn't need to keep paying for the features we already purchased. We are already being forced to pay for features we already purchased, but for students, it's been taken a step further, as we purchased 4 years of free upgrades with our purchase or crossgrade to Pro Tools 9 Student, which included Pro Tools 11, yet we're being forced to purchase that same upgrade a second time as we already have 11 now, but are being forced to pay the same price as those with 10. This upgrade pricing structure surrounding 11 to 11HD doesn't make any sense, and I don't understand how it can be justified at all.

[JFreak]

Upgrade paths are not supposed to be equal price. "Upgrade from any version" upgrade path costs 1499 which means from PT7 or PT8, but you could upgrade to PT9 for few peanuts and then upgrade the PT9 to PT11 for 999. Not equal, just simple.

Avid has a product called roughly "update your CPTK to PTHD" and because there is no CPTK in PT11 I believe Avid does not care whether you have PT10 or PT11 or a future PT12 "vanilla" license to trade in. The program is only about upgrading that CPTK to real PTHD license, plain an simple.

In my opinion it is great that Avid has this program available to begin with, because they very well could have just not do it. If someone has paid PT10 to PT11 upgrade fee to try it out and then later finding out he or she would have actually wanted/needed to grab that PTHD license, then well tough luck but at least one has been able to fully and throughly evaluate PT11 before taking the bigger plunge.

I do not have any sympathy for this "I already upgraded to PT11 so I need discounted CPTK->PTHD crossgrade" talk because I really sincerely think that CPTK owners are treated with a special upgrade path to PTHD software -- something that is not usually available without a hardware purchase.

So please, just accept the situation and pay the price if you want to crossgrade your CPTK to a real PTHD. That exception is a great opportunity and might not last forever.

[dstryrwiz]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Upgrade paths are not supposed to be equal price. "Upgrade from any version" upgrade path costs 1499 which means from PT7 or PT8, but you could upgrade to PT9 for few peanuts and then upgrade the PT9 to PT11 for 999. Not equal, just simple.

Avid has a product called roughly "update your CPTK to PTHD" and because there is no CPTK in PT11 I believe Avid does not care whether you have PT10 or PT11 or a future PT12 "vanilla" license to trade in. The program is only about upgrading that CPTK to real PTHD license, plain an simple.

In my opinion it is great that Avid has this program available to begin with, because they very well could have just not do it. If someone has paid PT10 to PT11 upgrade fee to try it out and then later finding out he or she would have actually wanted/needed to grab that PTHD license, then well tough luck but at least one has been able to fully and throughly evaluate PT11 before taking the bigger plunge.

I do not have any sympathy for this "I already upgraded to PT11 so I need discounted CPTK->PTHD crossgrade" talk because I really sincerely think that CPTK owners are treated with a special upgrade path to PTHD software -- something that is not usually available without a hardware purchase.

So please, just accept the situation and pay the price if you want to crossgrade your CPTK to a real PTHD. That exception is a great opportunity and might not last forever.

Seeing as we already technically paid for almost every single feature in Pro Tools HD with the exception of a couple features that were essentially hardware related that we still wouldn't be able to use, the fact we need to pay anything is ridiculous, but if we do, then at least it should be a fair pricing structure. After telling us that our money wouldn't be going to waste when Pro Tools 10 came out, then turning around and telling us we now need to pay for those features we already purchased was bad enough. And I don't know, but shouldn't those early adopters that are willing to commit the money to upgrade be rewarded for their loyalty, not punished? Many that are following everything right now and not upgrading are likely looking into other DAW options, and by making it even harder on people considering trying out Pro Tools 11 is not going to help Avid at all. CPTK users already have felt immensely scorned by Avid, so making it any harder on them in any way is going to just push them away, no matter how loyal they may have been in the past.

[dstryrwiz]

Additionally, in regards to your pricing comparison, actually the longer you wait, therefore the further you are from the current release, the higher the penalty, so in fact the upgrade from 11 to 11HD under that structure should be less than $300 if you consider the $600 upgrade from 10 to 11HD as being subject to a penalty, but I was saying that at the very least the 2 paths should be equal rather than costing more for the people who purchase 11 first. Your reasoning is flawed, plain and simple.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by dstryrwiz

Your reasoning is flawed, plain and simple.

I could say the same, so it's like an end of discussion.

Avid made a decision and they're not going to change it. Their reasoning is not flawed, which I tried to say, and I still think that it's okay.

1) You get to crossgrade the PT10+CPTK to PT11HD which is something Avid would not have had to do.

2) It is up to you if you want to upgrade your PT10 to PT11 or choose to stay at PT10 and take a peek of PT11 using a 30-day trial license. Whatever the case, whether you have PT10 or PT11 license, you can still crossgrade your CPTK to PTHD just that the price is same.

That is because there is no PT11+CPTK platform available; hence no crossgrade path from PT11+CPTK to PT11HD.

In other words...

The crossgrade path is from CPTK to PTHD and the latest CPTK platform being PT10 that is what is the cheapest price. Very understandable, not at all flawed reasoning.

So let us respectfully disagree, and end this here. It is just what it is, get used to it.

[dstryrwiz]

Originally Posted by JFreak

The crossgrade path is from CPTK to PTHD and the latest CPTK platform being PT10 that is what is the cheapest price. Very understandable, not at all flawed reasoning.

...and yet PT9+CPTK to PT11HD is $1,000. If your statement were true, there would not be a tiered pricing structure at all, yet there is.