Avid have announced a change to the top tier product of Pro Tools. Pro Tools Flex has now reverted back to Pro Tools Ultimate and is now significantly cheaper. Here is the statement from Avid:
To simplify the Pro Tools product lineup, we are changing the name of Pro Tools Flex back to Pro Tools Ultimate. Along with this change we are also dropping the price of annual Pro Tools Ultimate subscriptions to $599 USD/year (Was $999) to better serve our independent audio post and music production customers. The cost of the current monthly license will not change and remain at $99 USD/month, and there is no change to educational annual pricing at $299 USD.
Why the change?
Since introducing Pro Tools Flex in April 2022 as part of the new Pro Tools product lineup (that also included Pro Tools Artist and Pro Tools Studio), we have been getting feedback from customers and resellers that the Flex bundle name was confusing. While Pro Tools Artist and Studio clearly reference the respective Pro Tools software included with each subscription, Flex didn’t follow this logic. And since early August, all Pro Tools Ultimate perpetual license customers with active Upgrades + Support plans are entitled to all the same content as Flex subscribers (plugins, third-party software, etc.), we’ve decided to unify the naming across both subscription and perpetual licenses to Pro Tools Ultimate.
We also talked with many customers, especially independent audio post and music production professionals, who require the full power and advanced workflows of Pro Tools Ultimate but needed a more affordable solution for their business. As a result, we have repriced Pro Tools Ultimate annual subscriptions (and renewals) to $599 USD/year. We hope that this gives more of our customers access to Pro Tools Ultimate’s extensive sound for picture workflows, Pro Tools | HDX and Pro Tools | HD Native system support, and unprecedented performance to continue to tackle the most challenging and complex projects.
So does anything else change?
No. There is no change other than the name and price. If you are an existing Flex subscriber you will automatically see your product show up in your Avid Account as “Pro Tools Ultimate”—other than that, there are no changes. You can find everything that is included with Pro Tools Ultimate here, and easily compare the capabilities of the various Pro Tools offerings here. Note that teachers and students still have access to special educational pricing for Pro Tools Ultimate of $299 USD/year.
Francois Quereuil, Vice President of Audio Product Management at Avid shared his thoughts with us on this change, this transcript is from a Production Expert Podcast we recently recorded with Francois and David Toomey, the new Senior Vice President & General Manager of Audio and Music Solutions, which offers more detail:
“Back in April we introduced the new tiers and the main driver for us introducing new tiers was, number one, we wanted to give people an affordable way to get into Pro Tools because there wasn't one, and for many people spending $30 a month or $300 a year is a big investment. So we basically cut ourselves out of millions of users that would've potentially had a desire to be part of Pro Tools. So we decided to get down that path, which I think so far has been very successful. And it's bringing more folks into our ecosystem and helping them start their journey in music production or post production.
Then we did the [Pro Tools] Studio thing. There's, a reality of our market today, this competitive pressure with other DAWs that have the capabilities to go surround or Atmos at a particular tier, and we wanted to be competitive, so we brought Atmos capabilities to our middle tier. And so we had this idea that we wanted to make the higher tier of Pro Tools this absolute powerhouse of functionality and we wanted to bring a lot of new things to the table.
We wanted to bring a lot of flexibility in terms of licensing for our bigger customers. We have customers out there especially in post production who have, a hundred, 200 Pro Tools systems and the complexity of them managing all their licenses is very.. And I think that's where the Flex name came from. We wanted to give those folks as much flexibility with our licenses as possible.
Now, I'll be super-candid on this. We had ambitions for Flex that we weren't able to deliver, and that also didn't really resonate. Because while we talked to enterprise customers and they were like “Yeah, this is cool. Like we can buy a hundred seats and you'll give us a big volume discount and we'll be able to manage our licenses. This is a great way for us to go”. Then we, we have this massive pool of our users who are freelancers, own their own studios, and the feedback was really strong. It was like “Why are you making me pay? Why am I not getting any more for more money?”. And that was a very good moment for us. Bad and good in a way where we we were more introspective as a follow up, as a follow on. And then with David [Toomey] coming on board it was also like a realization that we didn't do the right thing and that we really need to do the right thing. And as a result hopefully by the time this podcast airs, we are basically putting Pro Tools Flex on the shelf.
We are going back to calling it Ultimate and we are going to significantly reduce the annual price. So from the price tag of $999 right now, it's gonna go down to $599. And this is really in recognition to the fact that there are professionals out there that need an affordable way to do everything they need to do for their daily job.
It's very satisfying that David and I have been able to to make this happen in the organization. And it's it, hopefully it's a testament to the community that we are listening and and doing the right thing.
Another thing I'd like to mention, because obviously folks listening to this podcast who may have purchased Pro Tools Flex since late April and maybe have paid the $999 price tag [need to] know that we're gonna take care of every single customer that paid this elevated price. I think the plan currently is to extend their term by another year. So you're not gonna be left behind. When we do this price change we will be taking care of you and making sure that you're happy with your investment in in Pro Tools.”