I'm not trying to flame Avid, or you in this reply. This is me, a customer, expressing my personal feelings about a product I have used for a long time. And, while the product itself isn't going through a paradigm shift, the pricing and delivery of that product is evolving into something that will eventually be unacceptable in my business model.
So if I shouldn't feel coerced to migrate to the subscription model by rates approaching half the price of what I would pay to stay on my perpetual licenses, then perhaps I should be shocked that I'm being forced to pay nearly twice as much for less of a product.
It's the same software. Why can't they coexist at reasonable approximations of cost to each other? Those willing to expose themselves to the risks associated with a migration to SaaS may do so, while those who do not want those risks can continue with a proven working solution.
You say customers benefit from a subscription. I'm still waiting to hear sound reasons of how I would benefit from a migration to a subscription. You didn't provide any. The only reasons I've heard were given by VideoGuy's Gary in his webinar yesterday and those were (verbatim):
Advantage of subscription:
- You are constantly upgraded to the latest version of the software. (How is that not valid for perpetual users with support? And, if this implies auto upgrades, who wants those, especially in the middle of a project?!)
- It’s always available for you. (Again, how is this not valid for perpetual users?)
- You know what your price is. (What price guarantees have been given for either licensing option?)
- You don’t have the big up-front starting cost of buying the software for $1,499 or $1,999 going forward. (Why the price difference for the same software? I have a long history of renewing my perpetual licenses diligently every year, no differently than a subscription user would)
- Ultimate subscription gets you all the other tools: PhraseFind, ScriptSync, Symphony. (I already have Symphony on all my seats, don't need the others)
- The reason the folks at Avid are doing this is they really want to get you on subscriptions. (Yes, I keep hearing that.)
You mentioned Adobe and dozens of other companies who have moved to the subscription model. Perhaps Avid should take a hint from Microsoft, they do after all have a slightly larger presence in this model. Microsoft will soon be offering a perpetual release version of Office 2021 to users who want to reduce their online exposure and, surprisingly, reduce their "subscription fatigue" (yes a new term has entered our vernacular).
Avid will do what it wants to do, as will I. Neither of us will lose sleep or very much money over the others decisions.
Cheers,
Karl Knowles
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