Avid phasing out Pro Tools perpetual licenses

[Guy Rowland]

As from today, Perpetual licenses for Pro Tools are only available for existing customers. Resellers may still have stock, and AFAIK existing re-instatements will still work if they haven't yet been used (I certainly bloody hope so), but no new perpetual licenses from Avid. Presumably they will eventually be phased out altogether.

There are also new subscription tiers:

ARTIST - $99pa
(only a pathetic 32 audio tracks)

STUDIO - $299pa
(The old Vanilla)

FLEX - a whopping $999pa
(The old Ultimate)

These have various additional software bells and whistles. Here's the comparison chart:



https://www.avid.com/resource-center/me ... ols-lineup

AFAIK, existing Ultimate customers can renew for $399, but not have the additional stuff bundled in Flex. They seem remarkably thin to me though.

NOTE - there are some increased track and I/0 counts for Studio and Ultimate users, including those currently on perpetual plans, so it's not all terrible news.

[Geoff Grace]

New features are always welcomed, especially if they're not accompanied by too many new bugs; but the latest step of eliminating new perpetual licenses is disturbing. I'm glad I'm grandfathered in ... for now.

On a related note, new versions of Logic Pro and Digital Performer were released today as well. Digital Performer 11.1 finally offers Instrument tracks that can hold MIDI data.

Best,

Geoff

[Guy Rowland]

Now here’s a very weird thing. Avid are reintroducing reinstatements. So lapsed Ultimate users can get back on board the bargain $399 train to stay current, and are encouraged to do so. They have, in fact, taken away the possibility to “upgrade” their permanent licenses to subscription.

For new Post people however, they have to go subscription - for an eye-watering $999 per year. And the only extras you get for that $600 per year are a sound flow subscription and a handful of random freebies in their Inner Circle, that are pretty useless.

This makes absolutely no sense. But while the headline makes it seem like the opposite, it is perpetual license holders who are quietly getting the better deal. Or rather the less awful one.

[Guy Rowland]

An avid FAQ to the madness can be found here - https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/artic ... ools-Tiers . Good luck all.

[Guy Rowland]

Hey, this is fun. Avid have updated the Carbon page (their most recent hardware interface, which always came with a perpetual Ultimate license). Are you ready? You will get… wait for it… a 1 year subscription AND a “perpetual parachute”.

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. 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). 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. To learn more, visit avid.com/carbon-faq.

https://www.avid.com/products/pro-tools-carbon/specs

This is some new multi-headed horror that we haven’t seen before. A kind of perpetual, but one you seemingly cannot ever update. I guess they had to come up with something, otherwise new customers would have been able to have a proper perpetual license, and that can’t be right, can it?

There’s even more convoluted options if you already have a Pro Tools license before buying Carbon here - https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/artic ... Carbon-FAQ /

At a stroke, it almost halves Carbon’s value. Perpetual licenses - proper ones not, you know, parachutes, go for $2.5k. Carbon itself retails at about $4k.

Avid needs to take a long hard look at itself. It’s turning in a self-satire generator.

[lofi]

@Guy
Looking at the table I guess some smaller/Indie Post companies could use the studio version, something they really couldn't before.
Same with smaller music studios wanting to deliver in discrete formats.
And thus saving some one the license compared to the old Ultimate.

I haven't really looked at the perks of flex, installed the 2022.4 version the other day and my first custom key was insert tempo/bpm at marker position.
Cheers,

Anders

[Guy Rowland]

@Guy
Looking at the table I guess some smaller/Indie Post companies could use the studio version, something they really couldn't before.
Same with smaller music studios wanting to deliver in discrete formats.
And thus saving some one the license compared to the old Ultimate.

I haven't really looked at the perks of flex, installed the 2022.4 version the other day and my first custom key was insert tempo/bpm at marker position.
Cheers,

Anders

I think almost all music users can go with Studio now. It won't work for post though - even if you never use Field Recorder, having only one video track is the kiss of death. There's always new cuts and you need to A/B.

So absolutely, many music users could now downgrade. I do feel sorry for those who bought into the hardware though - HD / HDX users HAVE to keep using Ultimate, it won't work on Studio. There's a lot of people on the DUC in this position who are very depressed.

Flex as a subscription right now gives you very little over and above Ultimate - you get SoundFlow Cloud Avid Edition and some extra Inner Circle freebies. Seems very thin for an extra $600 per year.

As for 2022.4, first thing I did is remove the keyboard shortcuts either side of the R/T zoom toggles, which I routinely hit by accident 10 times a day. Also the shortcut for Pre/Post roll that I occasionally hit and drives me crazy...

[lofi]

@Guy
Looking at the table I guess some smaller/Indie Post companies could use the studio version, something they really couldn't before.
Same with smaller music studios wanting to deliver in discrete formats.
And thus saving some one the license compared to the old Ultimate.

I haven't really looked at the perks of flex, installed the 2022.4 version the other day and my first custom key was insert tempo/bpm at marker position.
Cheers,

Anders

I think almost all music users can go with Studio now. It won't work for post though - even if you never use Field Recorder, having only one video track is the kiss of death. There's always new cuts and you need to A/B.

So absolutely, many music users could now downgrade. I do feel sorry for those who bought into the hardware though - HD / HDX users HAVE to keep using Ultimate, it won't work on Studio. There's a lot of people on the DUC in this position who are very depressed.

Flex as a subscription right now gives you very little over and above Ultimate - you get SoundFlow Cloud Avid Edition and some extra Inner Circle freebies. Seems very thin for an extra $600 per year.

As for 2022.4, first thing I did is remove the keyboard shortcuts either side of the R/T zoom toggles, which I routinely hit by accident 10 times a day. Also the shortcut for Pre/Post roll that I occasionally hit and drives me crazy...

!!YES forgot about that damn Pre/Post roll key

I've worked on a few shows that didn't need more than one sidetrack, but yes you are right we need more than one.
The school I teach at only has vanilla versions and the workaround is aaf's from Davinci Resolve.
Not a viable way but a workaround

/Anders