I recently had a conversation with a few colleagues about editing software and the way Adobe is now presenting its editing package Premiere Pro via the internet.
For a year Adobe are giving you the chance to use Premiere Pro and all the various apps including Photoshop for a reduced rate of £27.34 a month going up to £46.88 a month after the year.
Adobe have learned over the years that their software suites have being pirated giving them a lot less income in return for all their hard earned work, no matter what they throw at protecting their software the pirate within weeks overcomes all their efforts with a keygen that makes the software look legitamate offering the free pirated software access to upgrades.
Hence the move to the cloud, it’s Adobes last chance saloon at overcoming vast sums of lost revenue but it’s also causing a lot of anxiety and resentment among some of their loyal troop who would prefer to stay with a one off payment.
Alistair “I dont want to be beholding to Adobe, it may be £46 a month this year but as we all know prices go up and if your nailed to Premiere you either pay up or Adobe pull the software…electronically”. “I prefer to get CS6 Production Premium up front at a one off cost then you know were you stand”.
Unfortunately for Alistair it looks like Adobe are giving full support to cloud members with updates and new features whilst fully paid up members are not only behind with support but rumour has it that CS6 will be the last Adobe software available on disc.
Another person who will remain anonomous told me that the “boys” have cracked the cloud service as well so it looks like Adobe are onto plumbs if they are looking for the cloud to be their savour.
I personally use Adobe’s cloud for one of my computers at the moment, giving me access to Premiere, Encore and Photoshop and to be honest if you are earning a living out of Adobe’s software £46 a month is not a lot to ask or as someone told me £46 is the monthly coffee bill for a small production house !
In the U.S. it was $29 a month, then up to $49, which I think is a pretty good rate as long as the support is there. There’s lots of online training as well
I started with CC in 2011 when it cost $85/month for just Premiere Pro / Encore! Now it’s a lot less and I have access to the entire Master Collection plus web products and some other features. Sure, nobody will probably ever actively use every app in the Master Collection on a regular basis, but it is great to know that I can receive files in almost any Adobe format and access them. My monthly went down to $29 for the last year, and will shortly go up to $49, but that’s really not bad per user for what you get. And Premiere Pro CC is faster, I don’t know how they did it, but I don’t have to render previews as often for my DV/Web format projects. And a lite but powerful 3D package – Cinema 4D, is integrated into After Effects.
Yes, I would like to have some sort of guarantee that the subscription cost won’t go through the roof next year, or that if I did stop my subscription, I would no longer be able to access my files, but I think we’ll have to trust market forces to manage that.
I’d support it much more if there were more usage oriented options as I probably only do a major edit 3/4 times a year and upgrade my software as infrequently as possible.
Right now I expect to be using my copy of CS5.5 for some considerable time. Having invested in that suite in the expectation of future upgrades I’m actually very annoyed and hope by the time I need to upgrade Adobe has provided more flexible options or a competitor has stepped into the breach.
My concern is that you need to keep paying the subscription for as long as you want to be able to open your project files.
With long term clients I often go back to projects that are 5, 6, 7 or more years old. No doubt I’ll have a machine sitting in the corner running FCP7 for years – just for that.
The idea that if in a year or two’s time you want to move from Premiere other software – as something else may be the best tool by then – you either have to continue to pay for Premiere or no longer have access to the files is scary. As neither options are good.
The other potential issue is upgrades. I generally only do software upgrades of main edit system during very quiet periods. If the system is running really reliably, I’ll often hold off doing upgrades for considerable periods of time. So the question will be whether you have to keep updating or can stay with stable versions.
Am now very glad I didn’t make the move to Premiere when they were offering the discounts.
I’m guessing that Adobe are going to discover that the one size (well, two technically) fits all strategy is going to work for the entire creative community – video, print, etc…; freelancers through to multinationals.
Piracy was the excuse for the move to Cloud. Locking us into subscriptions was the real motive.
The Adobe Cloud thing has not worked for me.
Was editing on site in a location with no internet access – CC wants to phone home, but it can’t. I’m left dangling. Did the job in FCPX instead.
Upon return, everything happy. However, within days, I’m in a similar position. No internet connection. So, having been bitten once, I’ve rigged up my iPhone to do tethering. JUST SO I CAN SORT THIS. No joy – it’s asking me for Serial Numbers!
It appears that, due to a billing fault (not my fault, Adobe’s fault), my annual subscription renewal got mashed. I am no longer a member. 3 hours of Adobe Support, and finally I am reinstated.
Then the bill arrives for that month. I’ll just state that it was almost double what it should have been. Another long call to Adobe, who – give them their due – sorted it out at the correct monthly rate.
But, friends, I am bitter and scarred. To have your Professional Tool whipped away from you in the moment of need, by an accountant’s error, then for this to happen AGAIN… It’s the billing. Any errors or slip-ups filter back to the ‘Bouncers’ that guard every launch of a CC app.
My trust in Adobe is gone, and I must “just get on with it” with FCPX.
I am using CC and I’m really liking it. I especially appreciate two of the new features in Premire Pro CC, the ability to use hardware acceleration with my video card (non-approved card) and the new ability to do audio sync on my multi cam shoot within PP. Before I used Plural Eyes. I like being constantly up to date. I also like paying a small some every month rather than a large payout every year or two.