Has Avid Lost Their Mind?
By Jim Bask
By Russ Hughes
Avid has gone off the deep end with their latest release, or it seems so at least. For $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, you can get Avid’s Complete Plug-In Bundle for Pro Tools. This bundle includes 51 Pro Tools plug-ins for less than a dollar a plug-in with the yearly price. For anyone looking to branch out into what Pro Tools can do, this bundle is an easy purchase to make. For those that are weary of such plug-ins and even bundles like this, worried about policy and support, the price alone makes this decision also easy to make. At that price to test and see if these add-on products are worth it costs virtually nothing when compared to other media products. Even at the yearly $49.99 price for anyone with Pro Tools, this should be an instant buy.
Of course, there will be those who will want to pick the Avid The Complete Plug-in Bundle apart and suggest the plug-ins are old, or already included in various Pro Tools bundles. They may just be the growing number of people who feel entitled. But set those things aside and $5 a month for even a few of the gems in this package is still a steal.
Another thing to note is that as Avid continue to develop the collaboration option, there’s one thing that can kill it – people not having the same stuff on their systems. Ask any post professional, and they will tell you what a pain in the ass that can be if you move around facilities. This offer means that you can have any system with the same 51 plug-ins for $5 a month, that’s more than enough time to complete a project.
Just think back a couple of years with Avid, and the Pro Tools offer. You had a couple of choices, a native system that was more locked down than a high-security prison or software with all the features as long as you bought expensive HD hardware.
The Complete Plug-in Bundle for less than the price of a sandwich and a beer per month tells me something else. The world Avid is selling to has changed, companies are making better hardware and software and often for a fraction of the price, so it’s time for Avid to get with the program or continue to lose customers and revenue.
Rather than Avid losing their mind, it seems they have come to their senses. Whatever their rationale, the new plug-in bundle is a great deal, even if it’s tied to Pro Tools AAX and for someone like me who uses more than one DAW paying £4.80 for the bundle is a no-brainer….[continue reading]