The end of perpetual licenses

[abc1mce2]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Okay… so there’s a unique subscription plan for Ultimate users that isn’t Flex that no-one else has access to now?

My head hurts. I’ll check in again tomorrow.

1st. The Non-Transferable Ultimate License that was given to all Carbon users before Dec. 31, 2021, is just a regular Ultimate License that can't be transferred to another user's iLok account. It must stay in your iLok account, it can't be sold, traded, or given away. In your iLok account, it'll be labeled as NFR (Not For Resale) under the type field.

2nd. The PT Flex Subscription is just Avid's top-tier PT Subscription Plan. It includes an Ultimate Subscription, Complete Plugin Bundle Subscription, PT Inner Circle Rewards goodies (Some goodies are licenses), SoundFlow Cloud Avid Edition subscription, and upcoming 3rd party software subscriptions which have yet to be named or released. All of this is included as long as your subscription is current. If you cancel your subscription or don't renew, you lose everything except some of the Inner Circle Rewards Licenses.

[abc1mce2]

The unique subscription plan you're referring to is the standard Perpetual Parachute License that ALL CARBON USER STILL RECEIVE.

The Ultimate License is what your confusing with the Perpetual Parachute License. These are two (2) separate and different licenses on PT|Carbon user's iLok account.

1) Ultimate Perpetual License with 1-year of Software Updates and Support Plan. Renewable for an additional years at $399 each before that year's term has expired. If you don't renew before that year's term is up, you'll have to do a Reinstatement to get current at the price of $749 for that first year and $399 to renew each following year(s). Hence you'll be back on the Software Updates + Support Plan after the Reinstatement year is up.

2) PT Subscription Perpetual Parachute which is now the PT Studio feature set equivalent. It's a 1-year subscription plan that can be renewed for additional years at $249 per year. If you don't renew at the end of that year's term, your subscription plan turns into a Perpetual Parachute License. This means you can stay at the last PT version that was available to you when your subscription plan ended forever, but you can purchase another year's subscription plan for $249 at any time in the future to get the most recent versions of PT available and keep using it once that year's subscription plan runs out. You can continue doing this as long as you like cause once the subscription plan ends, it turns back into a Perceptual Parachute License you'll always have in your iLok account. This way you're never without a perpetual license for use with your Carbon interface. This is unique to Carbon only, the Perpetual Parachute License.

I hope I made things a little clearer now.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by StudioTalk

That’s not the way boards work. They do not have say in the management of the company, only the oversight if the CEO, CFO, and COO, but primarily the CEO.

Their literal oversight was hiring the CEO based on game plan. They tied his bonus to the plan. This is exactly how it worked.

[abc1mce2]

Also, users who already had a PT license prior to their Carbon purchase were given an option to forgo the Perpetual Parachute License and extend their existing PT Software Updates + Support Plan for an additional year for free. That's what I did so the existing PT Ultimate License Software Updates + Support Plan doesn't expire till April 1st., 2023. I also still have the Carbon promo PT Ultimate License in my Avid Master Account that I haven't activated yet. In hindsight, if I knew Avid would have added more features to the standard PT License (now called PT Studio), I might have just taken the Perpetual Parachute License. I really don't need two (2) Ultimate Licenses for one machine, but anything can happen in the future.

[romhey]

Originally Posted by abc1mce2

Also, users who already had a PT license prior to their Carbon purchase were given an option to forgo the Perpetual Parachute License and extend their existing PT Software Updates + Support Plan for an additional year for free. That's what I did so the existing PT Ultimate License Software Updates + Support Plan doesn't expire till April 1st., 2023. I also still have the Carbon promo PT Ultimate License in my Avid Master Account that I haven't activated yet. In hindsight, if I knew Avid would have added more features to the standard PT License (now called PT Studio), I might have just taken the Perpetual Parachute License. I really don't need two (2) Ultimate Licenses for one machine, but anything can happen in the future.

So your original Ultimate License which you extended with carbon 1 year parachute didn’t actually became parachute? It stays as a standard Ultimate as it was before? In that case Standard Pro Tools with parachute seems to be better option from economical point of view for carbon. Unless you need Ultimate extended features.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by abc1mce2

The unique subscription plan you're referring to is the standard Perpetual Parachute License that ALL CARBON USER STILL RECEIVE.

The Ultimate License is what your confusing with the Perpetual Parachute License. These are two (2) separate and different licenses on PT|Carbon user's iLok account.

1) Ultimate Perpetual License with 1-year of Software Updates and Support Plan. Renewable for an additional years at $399 each before that year's term has expired. If you don't renew before that year's term is up, you'll have to do a Reinstatement to get current at the price of $749 for that first year and $399 to renew each following year(s). Hence you'll be back on the Software Updates + Support Plan after the Reinstatement year is up.

2) PT Subscription Perpetual Parachute which is now the PT Studio feature set equivalent. It's a 1-year subscription plan that can be renewed for additional years at $249 per year. If you don't renew at the end of that year's term, your subscription plan turns into a Perpetual Parachute License. This means you can stay at the last PT version that was available to you when your subscription plan ended forever, but you can purchase another year's subscription plan for $249 at any time in the future to get the most recent versions of PT available and keep using it once that year's subscription plan runs out. You can continue doing this as long as you like cause once the subscription plan ends, it turns back into a Perceptual Parachute License you'll always have in your iLok account. This way you're never without a perpetual license for use with your Carbon interface. This is unique to Carbon only, the Perpetual Parachute License.

I hope I made things a little clearer now.

Good morning from the UK! I appreciate your efforts to clarify it all. It feels every time the proposition changes - there's TWO licenses now? I'm going to try to understand it one more time.

1. The Ultimate Perpetual license. This now seems identical to everyone else's, working on the same rules going forward. Great.

2. Now there's a one year subscription for the Studio version added? And although it's a SUBSCRIPTION plan, this is called "PERPETUAL parachute"? And it's not for Ultimate at all?

Try as I might, I can't see any way that this makes sense.

Joanna Doe has just bought Carbon. Congrats Joanna! She starts using her new Utlimate perpetual license. But there's another license in her account too, a subscription plan for Studio. "What on Earth is that"? she says? She ignores it.

A year later - May 2023 - she is doing fine with it and lets her support plan lapse. But the next year - May 2024 - she needs to update because Apple changed the OS again. She can now either a) pay $399, get up to date and carry on as before in perpetuity, or b) use her free one year subscription for Studio. Hey it's free, she doesn't work in Post so choses the latter.

In 2025 she lets it lapse again. But - uh oh - she suddenly finds her rig doesn't work any more. Now she's stopped paying the Studio subs, she is relying on her Perpetual Ultimate Licence which only works on software up until May 2023. But she installed software on her machine in April 2024, when she had the Studio license. "Darn it" she says (I'm not using the real words she uses), "guess I'll roll back to the old version so my Ultimate license works again". But - uh oh - she can't do that because she only updated in the first place to make it work with her new MacOS. "Gosh darn it" she says (these definitely aren't the real words she uses).

Have I got all this right now? Is Joanna a plausible scenario?

[thin ice]

Originally Posted by BScout

Year 5 is when perpetual starts saving you money.

When licensing becomes as complicated as the Avid schemes, there simply has to be something wrong with it. The chart says it all Just reading this thread is enough to give you a headache.

Surely if you have a strong enough product, you can sell a license and then the updates. Move to a new OS, or the new features are attractive; then you pay for the upgrade.

Either this is being made up as they go along, or someone has spent more hours than the development team deciphering all the permutations possible in a rental system.

[abc1mce2]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Good morning from the UK! I appreciate your efforts to clarify it all. It feels every time the proposition changes - there's TWO licenses now? I'm going to try to understand it one more time.

1. The Ultimate Perpetual license. This now seems identical to everyone else's, working on the same rules going forward. Great.

2. Now there's a one year subscription for the Studio version added? And although it's a SUBSCRIPTION plan, this is called "PERPETUAL parachute"? And it's not for Ultimate at all?

Try as I might, I can't see any way that this makes sense.

Joanna Doe has just bought Carbon. Congrats Joanna! She starts using her new Utlimate perpetual license. But there's another license in her account too, a subscription plan for Studio. "What on Earth is that"? she says? She ignores it.

A year later - May 2023 - she is doing fine with it and lets her support plan lapse. But the next year - May 2024 - she needs to update because Apple changed the OS again. She can now either a) pay $399, get up to date and carry on as before in perpetuity, or b) use her free one year subscription for Studio. Hey it's free, she doesn't work in Post so choses the latter.

In 2025 she lets it lapse again. But - uh oh - she suddenly finds her rig doesn't work any more. Now she's stopped paying the Studio subs, she is relying on her Perpetual Ultimate Licence which only works on software up until May 2023. But she installed software on her machine in April 2024, when she had the Studio license. "Darn it" she says (I'm not using the real words she uses), "guess I'll roll back to the old version so my Ultimate license works again". But - uh oh - she can't do that because she only updated in the first place to make it work with her new MacOS. "Gosh darn it" she says (these definitely aren't the real words she uses).

Have I got all this right now? Is Joanna a plausible scenario?

She bought her PT|Carbon between July 1st. and Dec. 31, 2021. During that time only, a Carbon buyer received two totally different licenses Ok (a Perpetual Parachute Subscription License and a PT Ultimate License).

Now during registration of her PT|Carbon purchase in her Avid Master Account, the Subscription Perpetual Parachute License is automatically started and the license is placed on her iLok. So this means the 1-year subscription starts for that Perpetual Parachute License from the 1st. day of your Carbon's registration (You need at least one PT license activated so you can run Carbon).

Since she bought and registered her PT|Carbon before Dec. 31, 2021, she also received the than currently running promo unactivated Non-Transferable PT Ultimate License that was placed in her Avid Master Account under Products Not Yet Downloaded. This license was not activated during registration but can be activated at any time in the future when she pleases. So the clock is not running on this license til it's activated.

So in your scenario, she wouldn't need to activate and use the Ultimate license, she would be using the Perpetual Parachute License cause it was activated during registration. At the end of that year, she could pay $249 to continue the subscription to receive the latest PT updates for that year and any additional years. Also, she could wait a number of years before renewing her Perpetual Parachute License to get the than current version of PT. The Perceptual Parachute License never stops working as a license. If you don't renew it after that year is up, you'll keep the last version of PT you were using when that year was up. This way Carbon is always working for you in the future.

The only reason to activate the Ultimate License is;
1. for the Ultimate License only feature set.
2. you want to take a year off from paying the $249 subscription fee for the Perpetual Parachute License but want to stay current for another year.
3. buy a 2nd iLok, register it to your account, add the Ultimate license to that 2nd iLok and use one of them on a 2nd desktop or mobile rig.
4. use one license at the Studio and the other license at home.
5. your music partner uses one iLok and license and you use the other iLok and license.
6. leave one license on your iLok and the other in the iLok Cloud so your mobile rig doesn't need a physical dongle when your away from the studio.

You still need to consider that once you activate the Ultimate License and you decide to keep both licenses current after the 1-year Subscription and 1-year of Software Update + Support plan is up. You'll be paying two separate fees to do so.

The Perpetual Parachute Subscription fee is $249 a year. No reinstatement fee if she let it lapse.
The Ultimate License Software Updates + Support Plan is $399 a year. A Reinstatement fee of $749 to get current and $399 every year thereafter if she let it lapse.


All this doesn't matter anymore for new buyers of PT|Carbon since the Non-Transferable Ultimate License promo has ended. If you purchase PT|Carbon now, you only get the one (1) Perpetual Parachute Subscription License only.

[coolbass]

Hahahaha.....

What an utterly confusing mess this has become for customers, and even more for potential customers.

I am sure they are under the impression that they have done a good job.

[noiseboyuk]

OK, thanks abc. Holy cow.

So. That was then, still trying to wrap my head around the now.

This is what is on the Carbon specs page today, sentence by sentance.

Carbon comes with a 1-year subscription to Pro Tools software, which includes access to the Avid Complete Plugin Bundle, HEAT, Celemony Melodyne 5 essential, a 3.4 GB Sound-Library, and Standard support, renewable annually.

Although they don’t name it, this is 1 year of Pro Tools Studio subscription, right? So Ultimate has gone for good for new Carbon users. That was worth $2.5k, versus $600 for (what is now called) Studio. That’s a $1.9k loss compared to last year right away.

If you choose not to renew your subscription, your Pro Tools license includes a “perpetual parachute” that allows you to continue using Pro Tools at the last version you downloaded (it won’t ever expire).

Okay, so you keep going on the last version before your subscription expired. It’s not specified specifically, but presumably this will always be true for multiple lapses.

Please note that you will need to renew your subscription if you’d like to continue receiving access to the latest Pro Tools updates and all bundled items noted above.

Like a Perpetual License-holder, you lose the extras until you start subscribing again.

Perhaps this is why you called it a “Perpetual Parachute Subscription”, which is a term I don’t see in any of their literature. It is like Perpetual for everyone else, except for two things:

1. There is no reinstatement fee, currently (I think) $349 for Studio. But:
2. Thereafter you have to pay the annual subscription rate, currently $249. For perpetual license-holders to keep current, it is $199.

Have I finally got it?

The big shocker for me now is that it is not Ultimate at all, and is accordingly worth far less, but aside from that let’s look at Joanna over 6 years and one lapse.

Year 1 - Included
Year 2 - Lapse.
Year 3-6 - Subscribe for $249pa

Total cost - $996.

Let’s compare with if it were a regular perpetual license.

Year 1 - Included
Year 2 - Lapse
Year 3 - Reinstatement $349
Year 4-6 - Support for $199pa

Total cost - $946. (But you don’t have some of those extras).

So in this scenario it’s still a worse deal. If Joanna never lapsed, over 6 years (including a free first year) it would be $1,245 on this deal, whereas if it were perpetual it would be $995.