Avid ProTools free coming

[Andrew Kimery]

[Mark Raudonis] “How do you measure the success of a “free product”?
“

By how much it gets people to pay for your ‘not free’ products?

[Gustavo Bermudas]

For me it’s insane that still the ProTools version has no 5.1 mixing capabilities, and for that you have to go to HD and pay a high premium, while any video program now does it as an afterthought. It’s certainly not a hardware issue. They need to come back to 2015 instead of getting lost in the cloud

[John Rofrano]

[Andrew Kimery] “By how much it gets people to pay for your ‘not free’ products?”

+1

What other measure is there? Companies are in business to make money so generating cash flow has to enter the equation at some point.

It looks like Avid’s strategy here is “give away the razor and make it up on the blades”. This is not so much ProTools for free as it is a new cloud-based offering called ProTools | First built from the ProTools source that requires that you purchase plug-ins from their marketplace (no, your 3rd party plug-ins do not work like they do with the “real” ProTools) and you have to purchase space to store your projects past the first 3. As the name suggests, Avid is hoping this is the “First” or “Entry” version of a new cloud based ProTools designed to lower the bar of entry and hook customers into buying more of their cloud services.

So the measure of success for this “free” offering is how many people who sign up and download it actually buy more cloud storage and plug-ins from the marketplace.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Paul Figgiani] “And the existing professional user base is just going crazy over their newly announced pricing/subscription model. I’ve read a ton of comments by music producers stating that they’ve had it and they’re moving to Logic X. The Post guys are (at least for now) rolling with it. “

I just got an email from Cakewalk that they are starting a subscription based service for their DAW as well. It seems that Logic X is the only DAW you can “own” anymore. Subscriptions may be fine for big corporations who would rather have the expense than capital investment but it can be death for small independents like myself. Imagine if every plug-in developer moved to a subscription based model? Soon you’ll be paying $1,000 each month in subscriptions just to keep your computer functioning. It’s madness!!!

I’m glad I bought Logic X instead of ProTools. I bought it because Logic is more of a music composers tool than ProTools is but the fact that I don’t have to pay a monthly fee would have been enough for me.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Craig Seeman] “Feature comparison on Avid’s site.”

It’s very interesting that they say, “Singers, songwriters, and musicians who are new to audio recording, or musicians who have always wanted to try Pro Tools” Try? Try? Yea, it’s just a free trial limited to 3 projects with build-in plug-ins. It will be interesting to see how this works but it looks like it’s really a new subscription based cloud service to me. Very cleaver marketing but Avid’s strategy is cloud so it makes sense that they would do this.

Avid already has a free version called ProTools SE that they give away with various audio devices (I have a copy). This is something entirely new to feed their subscription based services. I just signed up to be notified when it’s available and they take you to a page that says:

• See Cloud Collaboration in action, coming soon to Pro Tools | First

So this is definitely lining customers up for buying more cloud based services. I’ll know more once they notify me and I download it and see what the real cost is for this “free” version. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Shawn Miller]

[John Rofrano] “I just got an email from Cakewalk that they are starting a subscription based service for their DAW as well.”

Yes, but after 12 months, you get to keep whichever version of the software you’ve subscribed to. You can pay full price upfront for a year long membership, or you can pay the monthly subscription fee… the only catch is that the software won’t be permanently activated if you subscribe for less than 12 consecutive months.

https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Membership

Shawn

[John Rofrano]

[Shawn Miller] “Yes, but after 12 months, you get to keep whichever version of the software you’ve subscribed to.”

This is what Adobe is missing. I can live with that but not with Adobe’s “you stop paying it stop’s working” mentality.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Shawn Miller]

Yes, I agree. I think a lot of us would welcome a buyout option for Creative Cloud software. Hopefully, Adobe is at least considering the possibility.

Shawn

[John Rofrano]

[Shawn Miller] “Hopefully, Adobe is at least considering the possibility. “

I don’t see any reason why they would. The whole idea of CC was to provide a continuous revenue stream from year to year. Allowing people to opt-out would upset that stream and decrease their earnings. On no… they have customer right where they want them and they’re not letting go. (sorry for getting off-topic)

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Shawn Miller]

[John Rofrano] ” [Shawn Miller] “Hopefully, Adobe is at least considering the possibility. ”

I don’t see any reason why they would. The whole idea of CC was to provide a continuous revenue stream from year to year. Allowing people to opt-out would upset that stream and decrease their earnings. On no… they have customer right where they want them and they’re not letting go. (sorry for getting off-topic)”

I don’t think a company like Adobe leaves many options off the table. To the public, it may be one vision, one direction one unified front. Behind the scenes… who can say. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Adobe was watching the field and taking notes on how others are doing subscriptions, with an eye to changing/improving it’s own programs. If it becomes clear that a subscription only model is less effective (profitable) than a buyout/membership model, then I don’t doubt that Adobe will change in a second. In short, they may be more flexible than you imagine… or less than I imagine… no one outside of Adobe’s management can say for sure.

Shawn