what comes next!? | AVID Pro Tools goes subscription only
4 minHallojis! This week, I’m changing things up with a current events topic— AVID Pro Tools, the “industry-standard” DAW for music, has gone 100% subscription only 😱.
Instead of discussing facts and features, I want to talk about the broader impacts on the music industry re: this move. Let’s go.
Background: What was the announcement?
To quickly recap, AVID is moving their flagship DAW ‘Pro Tools’ to a subscription-only model.
Under the new system, they are offering 3 packages—
Pro Tools Artist, for music creators just starting out, at $9.99/mo.
Pro Tools Studio, for serious music creators and producers, at $39.99/mo.
Pro Tools Flex, for audio post and high-end facilities, at $99.99/mo.
Source: https://www.avid.com/resource-center/meet-the-new-pro-tools-lineup
Impact #1 - the consumer music industry moves away from Pro Tools
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been on Pro Tools since day one— it was my very first DAW and how I do ALL of my mixing for Ravi Ray Audio.
But monthly subscriptions imply new value added each month for the money you pay. While there are some additional bonuses like virtual instruments being offered, my opinion is that most people just need the base software and customer support.
For “replacement” DAW’s, Reaper seems to be the breakout star. They offer perpetual licenses for as low as $60.
Impact #2 - the pro music industry continues on as is
Here I am talking about recording studios and production houses for film/tv. If we’re being completely honest, these studios make up the cost for a 1-year subscription in just a few days. They’ve also outfit their entire workspaces around consoles that run on Pro Tools.
To me, this is AVID’s true customer base, and who they should cater to going forward.
Impact #3 - educational institutions start to diversify their course offerings
Students, as low-budget music consumers, will most likely seek out the most cost-effective DAW’s. There are now a multitude to choose from, and institutions like Berklee Online are offering courses in Ableton, Logic and more (in addition to Pro Tools).
Moreover, Berklee has also recently created a ‘Songwriting and Producing Music’ degree specifically geared towards people who want to create music from their home. Which leads me to my final point—
Impact #4 - music is now created in the home studio the majority of the time
You might think “lol this is a no brainer”, but let’s take a second to think about it. I’d argue there are far reaching impacts of this—
If we consider music creation as producing, mixing, and mastering, the latter parts of the process become more accessible too.
I ran an informal poll on the subreddit r/WeAreTheMusicMakers where I asked:
Artists/Producers: what do you do yourself, and what do you outsource?
Only 35% of respondents outsourced ANY part of the process, meaning that the remaining 65% produce, mix, and master all of their own tracks.
Take this^ with a grain of salt however, as this subreddit is (of course) not representative of the entire music industry.
Online mastering softwares such as eMastered or Landr start to take projects away from professional mastering engineers.
And we haven’t even touched on Web3 and how the consumer music industry is trying to cut as many middle men as possible.
In summary, going back to Pro Tools going subscription only, to me it overall represents a shift AWAY from Pro Tools, thereby ending their dominance as the “industry standard” DAW (at least in the consumer music space).
What are your thoughts? Does this change affect you at all? If you’re a Pro Tools user, are you considering switching DAW’s?
Check out the video at the top for more. Stay well, shine bright.
~Ravi
