It's been a while Avid.
I know you've sold out to private equity firm STG in August of 2023, so the future is bleak.
We are likely contemplating a dismemberment in the not so distant future, and stoppage or at least a slowing down of development.
Avid you've been sick for a long time, you've been standing on the crutches of large installs, incapable of luring enough young and new editors and small businesses to insure a healthy base of users. Maybe you will recenter your business solely serving these exclusive large companies. If you get lean enough, and if you find partnership to RnD intelligently and on the cheap, you may be around for some time still.
We like to hate you Avid, but your presence is somewhat comforting. No one knows for sure how many years, weeks, days you have left, but I sure will be monitoring what's up with you old pal.
In the meantime, this is your current offering for Media Composer and ProTools (which you acquired a while ago from Digidesign for the non initiated.)
Media Composer First -Free. For new users to play around with, and old users for personal, ultra lightweight projects. I should download and install this software, so I can make more useful comments. Maybe soon, stay tuned.
Media Composer $23.99/mo. For users that are not editing fully funded projects, (yep, work can be pretty precarious for many pros), or one-off productions.
Media Composer Ultimate $49.99/mo. For users editing well funded projects, and/or in need of active collaboration.
Media Composer Enterprise -Call. For aforementioned large companies, with multi year funding and project slates.
The offer is not great, it's not too shabby either. It's just that MC is a bloated software riding on old code, old ways of thinking, and old ways of doing things. It's very hard to make such an app evolve gracefully, and even harder to make it evolve quickly.
ProTools Artist $9.99/mo. A very lightweight version of ProTools. Yeah it's somewhat affordable, it's also severely limited for audio post. Maybe OK for aspiring musicians, and just fine for podcasts and the likes. But why even bother for us picture editors when you can do most things in the NLE?
ProTools Studio $29.99/mo. The new "vanilla" ProTools, for single production post work, or the indy sound post person who needs the proper tools and workflow, and is able to give more of his/her time to achieve some tasks, in exchange for a less steep sub price.
ProTools Ultimate $99/mo. The only viable option for a busy post house or post pro working on fully funded projects. The complete automation set will save time over and over again. But dawg, it's $99/mo!... Granted in this situation, most users will go for the yearly sub at $599. Still frikin' expensive man. I mean, I will mitigate my views by the fact that in this case, ProTools is THE software you spend over 80% of your time with. Unlike me nowadays.
This picture, pardon the pun, is even crummier than the MC one in my opinion. It really reflects the entrenched position ProTools is holding on our industry. Decades of Digidesign and Avid Audio accumulated RnD, and ultimately an even smaller market than the picture editing one, if that's possible. Now, is a world without ProTools even possible?
WHAT TO SAY?
What to say... I'm looking at the meager competition, the comparatively small market, the new online players in these fields, and I'm flabbergasted. Avid is infuriating, it's also solid. It's cumbersome, yet it's familiar. It's somewhat overpriced compared to the competition. It's the ultimate (sic) PRO Software. But does anybody care anymore? Does anybody need it anymore? We continue our migration from a hardware to a software world, but we still need some hardware, base hardware, specialized hardware, that plays nice with the software. We need interoperability, and lean prices. But mostly we need agile, self effacing, stable, powerful software, and we need healthy competition. And we need STANDARDS.
MEDIA COMPOSER OR...
Final Cut Pro: $299, one time fee. Own it forever. Free updates so far (10years+) Modern app with a modern way of working. Maybe does not do everything MC does, but does it way better. No PC people though, and that's why Adobe & Resolve have the biggest market.
Resolve: $295, one time fee. Own it forever. Free updates so far. Modern app with a modern way of working. Progressing leaps and bounds very quickly. The next de-facto industry standard?
Premiere Pro: $20.99/mo as a single app, or better $54.99/mo with a Creative Cloud subscription which includes After Effects, Photoshop, Media Encoder, Audition. Old app though, just like MC, but it's trying its best to evolve, and so far it's making advances that Avid has not been able to do as well as Adobe.
PROTOOLS OR...
Nuendo: $999, buy once, $299 upgrades. Nuendo is just as powerful as ProTools, It's kind of cumbersome to use and has many quirks. It's not the "industry standard" but it's a solid choice. Money wise it's less expensive as long as you don't upgrade every year. For me it does not really makes sense as I'm used to ProTools, and I often suspend my sub when work gets scarce. So not a real competitor for me. But for others, surely.
Reaper: $225 buy once. Own it forever. Free updates so far. Reaper is very powerful and relatively easy to use, but lacks import capabilities for film post work. Vordio will help with that, and more, for an extra $200. Buy once. Discounted upgrades. Lively update cycle. Definitely a viable and sleek combo. If you are in adjacent markets to cinema and TV, learn Reaper now!
Adobe Audition: $20.99/mo as a single app, or better $54.99/mo. as part of Creative Cloud subscription afore mentioned. Kind of a "vanilla" ProTools, and if using Premiere, a no brainer option as you get both MC and PT replacements for the price of MC alone.
Presonus Studio One: "Pro" $399.99, or annual subscription "+" $19.99/mo. Updates: $199.99. Now has Dolby Atmos, and DAWproject open-source file exchange format. Also "Artist" $99.99, not as well featured, not as useful.
Apple's own DAW, LogicPro: $199.99. Own it forever. Free updates so far. Dolby Atmos.
Resolve AGAIN!: $295, one time fee. Resolve does NLE and DAW - via the Fairlight page, and COLOR, and VFX! Resolve has Dolby Atmos as well with integrated Dolby renderer.
CONCLUSION
I'm not using Media Composer or ProTools full time, so for me, I subscribe to either, whenever I need it, for the length of the project I'm working on. One month, two months... Most of the time I've been able to get by with Media Composer and ProTools Studio and avoided paying for the Ultimate versions high fees.
I deal exclusively with indy film, TV, Web, corporate and educational markets. I've invested into Final Cut Pro early, (and Motion and Compressor), and I have a CC subscription. I spend most of my time with Apple and Adobe apps. Probably 60% Apple, 20% Adobe, and 20% others, including Avid. Nothing beats ProTools for serious audio work for me, and I'm still having fun using it, although it seems I'm using it less and less year after year. Each time I open and use Media Composer though, I curse profusely, even more than when using Premiere, and I wish I could be using Final Cut Pro instead.
What's your situation?
