Avid’s Future

[Will Salley]

Maybe I shouldn’t respond this post in the current state that I’m in – having just spent the last 7 hours trying to activate Avid Pro Tools software that I bought and paid for two weeks ago but still can’t use.

But since I am Avid Media Composer certified I feel I have something to say as well. I have not used Avid since 1998. I switched to Media100 and then to Final Cut Pro in about 2002. I have still used Pro Tools throughout that time, and have been incredibly amazed at the audacity of the company.

The original Media Composer was very groundbreaking in a lot of ways and Avid set a standard as far as reliability and performance that left everyone else playing catch-up. That dominance had a quick and apparently long-lasting effect on the company’s mentality (and greed). Everything they did so far as development, compatibility, and support was dictated by how much extra cash they could squeeze out of their user base. They practically invented the word “proprietary”.

Now here we are many years later contemplating the future of Avid. I do think the company will survive? Probably, but it will take a heavy dose of restructuring and re-focusing to keep it going. There are not enough professional users to keep them afloat and they have made a whole bunch of them steaming out of the ears mad.

I’m hoping they stay around simply because Adobe needs the competition.

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