New Licensing

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by Chingy

One thing I hope from all of this is that Avid increases the frequency of their updates - look at Steinberg. Every year they release an updated version of Cubase - Cubase 8 just came out. AND they tend to include pretty big features (bounce in place, VCAs, new audio engine with very good performance, etc. this time around). PT 11 hasn't really seen any feature additions / improvements since it was released 17 months ago.

I must admit, its almost as if Steinberg have thrown down the gauntlet as a PT landgrab with that feature set (also multiple track routing destinations). Upgrade cost - 82 euros. And for the post crowd, Nuendo should benefit from all this in their next update cycle.

I feel a disturbance in the force...

[Righty27]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

I must admit, its almost as if Steinberg have thrown down the gauntlet as a PT landgrab with that feature set (also multiple track routing destinations). Upgrade cost - 82 euros. And for the post crowd, Nuendo should benefit from all this in their next update cycle.

I feel a disturbance in the force...

I logged in to my Cubase account (from a Yamaha-bundled Ai 4 licence) and actually get a discounted upgrade ... and I didn't even have to pay yearly support fees to keep this perpetual licence active :)

[nigelpry]

So, I woke this morning to find an email from Avid regarding my Media Composer licenses.

I'm including the contents here for people to read, or not, as they wish.

If you are turned off at the thought of wading through another one of my essays ... please take the time to draw your eyes down to the place where there is a '2)’ at the start of a paragraph. What is discussed there is both important, and new .... it is not something we have talked about here before, so far as I inow.

My point, as several others have said, is that while we can speculate about the exact nature of the fine print of what the revised arrangements for Pro Tools will be, when they are revealed, I believe it is folly not to recognise that the general thrust will be in the same direction as for Media Composer.

Everything that has already been revealed so far is consistent with the new Media Composer arrangements, so it makes more sense to suggest that this is also Avid's 'model 'for Pro Tools, than to suggest it will be different in any significant way.

Yes, the $ amounts may be different, there may be some additional subtleties regarding HD, but, in essence, the general lie of the land will, in my opinion, be the same.

There are two very important points in the email I think, one of which hasn't been discussed here so far, and that one is the reason I think it mportant to provide the email content and for us to get our heads around it.

1) First though, paragraph 4 confirms the concept that if you don't sign up to a support plan, or later let it expire, you will have to buy/rent a completely new license to get any future upgrades. Your existing licence will be frozen at its then current version.

My point regarding this is that I believe this policy is so firmly stated and integral to the new arrangements that it is nothing more than wishful thinking for some people here to suggest that we .... should not worry, as Avid will offer opportunities in the future to get those old licenses back onto an active support plan. Just think how people who stayed on a support plan would feel if those who didn't were then allowed to bring their old licenses back up to date. I don't think Avid will do that!

2) The next paragraph, that's paragraph 5, includes a very interesting arrangement, detailed in sentences 4 and 5.

The thrust of it is that when upgrades are released, and you have an active support plan, you can choose whether or not to upgrade. The important point being that you have to make that choice during the term of the support plan.

So, I interpret that as meaning that if you were to ever let the support plan expire, AND you had not at that point in time 'accepted' the upgrade, you would no longer have access to that upgrade.

Your frozen licence (frozen because you've let the support plan expire) will be forever stuck at the last version you upgraded to before the support plan expired .... NOT the last version that was released during the life of your support plan before you let it expire.

So, people will have to perform the upgrade before their support plan expires. But, of course, the key issues are ...

a) what if that upgrade has bugs that make it unusable for you? Which might legitimately mean you do not want to perform the upgrade just yet? And especially if ...

b) what if that upgrade removes access to running an older version you still use?

Imagine the scenario (ignoring the version numbering, I'm just using that to illustrate the point) ... What if a new V12 is released, while there are still issues with V11, and it removes the licence to run V10 which many are still using?

You are then left in a situation where you can either:
1) not take the upgrade, and if you choose to let your support plan expire, be stuck at V11, even though your support plan payment included upgrade to V12 that was released while your support plan was active,
2) not take the upgrade, but renew your support plan, in the hope that one day you'll have the confidence to upgrade,
3) perform the upgrade, and lose access to your old V10, leaving it to chance that the new version will be stable for you.

I'm sure many people will find that 'fact' that you have to actually perform the upgrade before your support plan expires, is a bit of a shocker. I, for one, had assumed that you would have perpetual access to any upgrades that you were entitled to by virtue of being on a support plan, but it seems not.

It is one more element of T&C that propels people towards accepting the need to perpetually keep their support plan running, because, if you let it expire, you lose access to any upgrades you were entitled to, but hadn't yet performed.

Ok then, anyway, here's the email in full .... enjoy reading it!

Dear Media Composer Customer,

This email is to notify you of important changes to our Media Composer | Software upgrade policy.

You may be affected by these changes if your Media Composer | Software license meets any of the following criteria:
Was not purchased after May 15, 2014
Is not covered by an active support contract
Is covered by an active support contract that will expire by the end of 2014
Is not a subscription license
Is an Academic Student license that is now outside the 4 year free upgrade period
If your Media Composer | Software license meets any of the above criteria, then it is important that you are aware of these changes and the options available to you. Effective May 15th, 2014, Avid is no longer selling individual software upgrades. In order to receive software upgrades, you must either be actively subscribed to Media Composer | Software, or your Media Composer | Software license must be covered by an active Avid Support plan.

To ensure you can receive future software updates, you have to purchase an Avid Support Contract by the end of 2014.

If you choose not to purchase a support plan by the end of 2014, your software will continue to work. You will not, however, be able to upgrade your license and receive software updates, and you will need to either purchase or subscribe to a new license of Media Composer | Software to receive the latest software release.

Avid Support Contracts provide software upgrades and customer support for one (1) year and are available for as low as $299 USD per year. Once your license is covered by a support plan, you may continue to run your current version of Media Composer | Software for as long as you wish; you do not need to upgrade your license or your software. As upgrades become available, you can choose to either accept the upgrade or not at any time during the term of the support plan. At the end of the support period, the software will continue to run and you may use it indefinitely. To continue receiving new features and support for your Media Composer | Software license you will need to renew your Avid Support plan for the following year.

For more details and information, please contact your local Avid sales representative, your authorized Avid reseller, or visit www.avid.com for helpful blog posts and community forums.

[mmcl]

I have just registered PT 10 for an edu institution, and I'm just finding all this out now as I am trying to upgrade that to PT11. I remember an upgrade from PT10 to PT11 was free after an amnesty date.

I myself also have PT10/11. I have checked my account and my edu institutions Avid account and there is no PT11 download in either. The PT10/11 licences are on both iLoks.

Have I missed something, can anyone help?

[Righty27]

Nigel - I did read your post and concur with your analysis and expectations regarding alignment of Media Composer and Pro Tools licensing options.

This is now getting into the detail of how support plans will work and, in fact, addresses an issue which I don't believe anyone has identified in the previous 200-odd pages of (10 per page) posts, regarding future availability of versions which were released during a support plan but not activated.

It may well turn out that Avid are only now working out the fine detail and that's why so many questions remain unanswered - all the more reason that they would likely apply rules consistently across products.

[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by Righty27

I logged in to my Cubase account (from a Yamaha-bundled Ai 4 licence) and actually get a discounted upgrade ... and I didn't even have to pay yearly support fees to keep this perpetual licence active :)

Yes, and my Cubase Licence allows me to run Cubase 8, 7.5, 7, 6, 5, 4, SX3, SX2 and SX1. They also provided a utility to convert my old Cubase VST5/32 licence, which came on a parallel port dongle originally, into an elicenser version.

No problems having to choose between new features and stability.

Multiple versions can be installed on the same partition too, without problems, except of course for any issues with it running on your chosen OS. Apart from having to keep a G3 running OS9 alive for VST5/32, all other versions happily run on my Mac Pro 8-core, although I do have several boot partitions to facilitate using different versions of various bits of software (Leopard, Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion and Mavericks).

[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by Righty27

Nigel - I did read your post and concur with your analysis and expectations regarding alignment of Media Composer and Pro Tools licensing options.

This is now getting into the detail of how support plans will work and, in fact, addresses an issue which I don't believe anyone has identified in the previous 200-odd pages (of 10 per page posts), regarding availability of versions which were released during a support plan but not activated.

It may well turn out that Avid are only now working out the fine detail and that's why so many questions remain unanswered - all the more reason, they would likely apply rules consistently across products.

Thanks for that Righty!

[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by mmcl

I have just registered PT 10 for an edu institution, and I'm just finding all this out now as I am trying to upgrade that to PT11. I remember an upgrade from PT10 to PT11 was free after an amnesty date.

I myself also have PT10/11. I have checked my account and my edu institutions Avid account and there is no PT11 download in either. The PT10/11 licences are on both iLoks.

Have I missed something, can anyone help?

Better to write in this thread ...

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=342034

Bruce, one of the admins here, is usually able to have a look at your account to determine what you are entitled to and if you are entitled to a free upgrade, what may have gone wrong.

Quite a few people did not receive their free upgrade emails, and some others had them dumped into their junk mail folders.

Bruce is normally able to see if that email was sent out, and can arrange to resend it again.

[Bob Olhsson]

I don't see where it says an upgraded license won't let you run older versions. "Upgrade" has also always meant new features as opposed to bug fixes which are called "updates."

[ronwasserman]

Originally Posted by Righty27

Nigel - I did read your post and concur with your analysis and expectations regarding alignment of Media Composer and Pro Tools licensing options.

This is now getting into the detail of how support plans will work and, in fact, addresses an issue which I don't believe anyone has identified in the previous 200-odd pages of (10 per page) posts, regarding future availability of versions which were released during a support plan but not activated.

It may well turn out that Avid are only now working out the fine detail and that's why so many questions remain unanswered - all the more reason that they would likely apply rules consistently across products.

Agreed - It's clear now how the program will work. Terribly sad as they'll screw themselves in the long run. Stock keeps going up (58% now for me) and I imagine the next several years will be good for them. Who knows? perhaps focusing solely on the high end market will start to create a profit for the company. With all the other DAW's out there competing for other users there really is no 'short term' sense to fighting that battle.

10 years from now when the next generation is only used to using Live, Cubase and Logic, Avid's audio division will probably decline and eventually fade away like Studer.