Apple Bundles Creative Apps Into a Single Subscription 13
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple today introduced a new Apple Creator Studio bundle that offers access to six creative apps, as well as exclusive AI features and content, as part of a single subscription. In the U.S., pricing is set at $12.99 per month or $129 per year. Here are the six apps included with an Apple Creator Studio subscription: Final Cut Pro on the Mac and iPad; Logic Pro on the Mac and iPad; Pixelmator Pro on the Mac and iPad; Motion on the Mac; Compressor on the Mac; and MainStage on the Mac.
Pixelmator Pro was previously only available on the Mac, but it is coming to the iPad. Apple Creator Studio subscribers will also receive access to exclusive AI features and premium content across not only the Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro apps, but also the iWork apps Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, and the Freeform app later this year. So if you want the best, fully-featured versions of all of these apps going forward, you will need to subscribe to the bundle.
Apple says there will be separate Creator Studio and one-time purchase "versions" of each app. If you have both versions installed on your Mac, the Creator Studio versions will have "unique icons" so that they stand out, according to Apple. Apple Creator Studio will be available through the App Store starting Wednesday, January 28. All new subscribers will be able to receive a one-month free trial, and customers who purchase a new Mac or a qualifying iPad model with an A16, A17 Pro, or M-series chip or later will be eligible for an extended three-month free trial. "If you are not interested in subscribing to the new Apple Creator Studio bundle introduced today, you will officially start to miss out on some new features," adds MacRumors in a separate article. If you bought the apps via a one-time purchase, or plan to do so in the future, "you will no longer have access to all new features," though they will continue to receive updates.
"There are some exceptions, as Apple says Logic Pro and MainStage will have all the same features whether they are subscription or one-time-purchase versions," notes MacRumors. "It looks like most if not all of the new features that will be limited to Creator Studio subscribers will be powered by AI, as Apple repeatedly describes them as 'intelligent' features. The apps are continuing to receive other new features that do not require a subscription over time, so one-time purchasers are not completely left out."
Pixelmator Pro was previously only available on the Mac, but it is coming to the iPad. Apple Creator Studio subscribers will also receive access to exclusive AI features and premium content across not only the Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro apps, but also the iWork apps Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, and the Freeform app later this year. So if you want the best, fully-featured versions of all of these apps going forward, you will need to subscribe to the bundle.
Apple says there will be separate Creator Studio and one-time purchase "versions" of each app. If you have both versions installed on your Mac, the Creator Studio versions will have "unique icons" so that they stand out, according to Apple. Apple Creator Studio will be available through the App Store starting Wednesday, January 28. All new subscribers will be able to receive a one-month free trial, and customers who purchase a new Mac or a qualifying iPad model with an A16, A17 Pro, or M-series chip or later will be eligible for an extended three-month free trial. "If you are not interested in subscribing to the new Apple Creator Studio bundle introduced today, you will officially start to miss out on some new features," adds MacRumors in a separate article. If you bought the apps via a one-time purchase, or plan to do so in the future, "you will no longer have access to all new features," though they will continue to receive updates.
"There are some exceptions, as Apple says Logic Pro and MainStage will have all the same features whether they are subscription or one-time-purchase versions," notes MacRumors. "It looks like most if not all of the new features that will be limited to Creator Studio subscribers will be powered by AI, as Apple repeatedly describes them as 'intelligent' features. The apps are continuing to receive other new features that do not require a subscription over time, so one-time purchasers are not completely left out."
Just say no (Score:5, Insightful)
...to software subscriptions
Re:Just say no (Score:5, Interesting)
I also have an inherent dislike of subscriptions. But, I've noticed this: my ios apps that are subscriptions instead of one-time purchases get way better updates and support.
Can still purchase perpetual licenses (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
You will just miss out on some new "AI" features and what sounds like a new stock library.
Except the two programs that matter to my circle, Logic Pro and Mainstage, which have feature parity between one-time-purchase and subscriptions (at least at launch).
Re: (Score:2)
I see the word subscription (Score:4, Insightful)
And I'm not interested.
Re: (Score:2)
And I'm not interested.
Doubly so for me, as someone who already owns Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and Logic Pro.
Guess it's time for me to start writing replacements. I will not be forced into a subscription. Not my Adobe, whose products I no longer use, and not by Apple, who I am now officially ashamed of, because I thought they were better than that. Apparently greed knows no bounds.
Who needs this? (Score:1)
Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription package makes sense; most professional designers are using at least three of those apps on a daily basis. But these Apple apps serve four different fields. Who needs to do video editing, graphic design, music production, and live sound? Is that person a three-horned baby of two unicorns? This is a solution in search of a problem.
Re: Who needs this? (Score:2)
The price point isnâ(TM)t too bad, but it is another subscription. The main thing here is that the office related stuff (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) was available without a subscription or purchase, so Iâ(TM)m curious where this leaves them? Will they still be available without this bundle?
Re: Who needs this? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription package makes sense; most professional designers are using at least three of those apps on a daily basis.
Subscription software makes no sense for creative software, period. Why? Because there's no guarantee that these companies will be around forever.
With purchased apps, I can keep the last working copy on the last machine I licensed it on, and keep it working essentially forever. I can even dd the disk into a disk image and run it in a VM on subsequent hardware.
With rental apps, once the last licensing server instance gets turned down, the software won't ever run again unless you find some way to binary pa