Adobe Sparks Firestorm With Cloud Switch

It’s like being transported back to college when someone laid a turd in the Whopatooli bowl, only this time we already know who dropped the deuce.

Many video editors who switched from FCP to Premiere Pro after Apple laid the X egg are now feeling just as betrayed by Adobe’s plan to discontinue selling boxed versions of its CS software in favor of a cloud-based subscription model.

That means if you want to stay with Adobe software your only option will be to pay $19.99 a month if you want Photoshop, or about $240 a year. A collection that might cost over $1,000 will be available for $49.99 a month or $600 if they commit to a one year subscription. Video editors are having none of it.

“I will absolutely not go to the Adobe Cloud system,” says video professional Bill Pryor. “It costs more money and once committed, you’re stuck. They can raise the fees anytime they want and you have no recourse but to go with another system. Adobe promised us a meaningful upgrade about every 18 months, and they did that last year. Now instead of giving me the upgrade for a reasonable price, they want me to pay a monthly fee forever. Screw that.”

Pryor is not alone as the comments in this StudioDaily article illustrate. Customers are balking at the idea of a mandatory subscription and the way it was dropped on them.

Adobe’s switch to subscription only is good news for Avid and Sony. Avid’s stock has been on the decline in recent months and Adobe’s announcement has revived interest in their video editing products, lifting their stock to $6.89 in late trading.

Sony has never been able to get much traction with it Vegas Video software, a product that was originally called CoolEdit Pro. That changed within hours of the Adobe announcement with many shops downloading the trial copy of Vegas 12 to evaluate it as a possible replacement for Premiere Pro.

The work Sony has been putting into Vegas may be peaking at an opportune time. The software supports 2K and 4K frame sizes and can edit 3D. Changes to the editing timeline will make Vegas familiar territory and new effects like shape masking, FX masking and color matching will be welcome productivity drivers for overloaded editors.

Bill Pryor is one of the people evaluating Vegas 12, which means adding a PC to their office for the first time in years. “As soon as time permits, I’ll download the Vegas 30 day trial and check it out,” says Pryor.

Just like FCP X was a gift to Premiere Pro, it looks like Adobe’s emphasis on subscription software is going to be a gift to Avid and Sony. If the execs at Adobe assumed users would fall into line, it proves they know nothing about filmmakers. The current firestorm is only the warm up act.  Take a lesson from Apple with the FCP X debacle or be prepared for users to jump ship.

This analysis at Slashdot shows how subscription software costs more.

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