Avid Announces Pro Tools 12 – Flexible Licensing, Cloud Collaboration, Avid Marketplace, Free Version

(Editor’s update: On March 23, 2015, Avid announced that Pro Tools 12 is officially available. Pricing is as follows:

• Pro Tools software monthly subscription (one-month license subscription with updates and support) starts at $29.99/month
• Pro Tools software annual upgrade plan (12 months of updates and support) starts at $199
• Pro Tools software annual subscription (12-month license subscription with updates and support) starts at $299
• Perpetual licenses for Pro Tools software (includes 12 months of updates and support) start at $899

Pro Tools 12 is available to purchase online via the Avid Marketplace.)

The long-awaited promise of Avid Everywhere is beginning to materialize.

Pro Tools 12 intends to bring the audio world together.

Avid gave NAMM a kick in the pants today with the announcement of Pro Tools 12, and the sizzle behind their new DAW – which will be available in February – is as much about how you pay for it as how you play with it.

That’s because Avid is launching it with flexible licensing, a plan which will allow customers to subscribe to Pro Tools starting at $29.99 per month — buying it outright is always an option of course. The arrangement brings Pro Tools in line with other software-as-a-subscription models, allowing audio pros to stay 100% current with future software updates and fresh features the moment they’re released via the cloud, with no additional charges.

Alongside arrives Avid Cloud Collaboration, wherein the cloud will enable all things audio for Pro Tools users (and eventually other platforms as well). This makes good on their announcement back at NAB 2014 that it was coming. Not entirely clear is if Cloud Collaboration will launch simultaneously with Pro Tools 12, but it’s definitely coming closer (see details below).

The same can be said of the Avid Marketplace, which has come into focus as the previously announced “monetization” initiative. If you like the convenience of Avid helping you to manage, and possibly elevate, your career this will be a boon (again, more official details follow).

Beware Big Data, of course — The unspoken side effect of all these online tools is that Avid may or may not be collecting info on how you use Pro Tools in the process.

Outside of the financial and conceptual angles, the fun part of the Pro Tools news is that a whole slew of new individual plugins and bundles are now available via the Marketplace. Mix away!

All of this coincides with a new free version of Pro Tools, called Pro Tools | First, detailed nicely on Pro Tools Expert. Ironically, Pro Tools | First is the second time the DAW has been available for no cost, as anyone who remembers Pro Tools Free (2000-2003) will tell you. Still, it’s a smart re-addition to the lineup, especially in conjunction with Cloud Collaboration, which will enable people to work together on PT sessions, whether or not all of them actually own the DAW. Presumably, those who are won over will convert to subscribers/buyers.

But enough our yammering! Here’s all of the official details on Pro Tools 12, direct from Avid:

Flexible Licensing Options in Pro Tools 12

Pro Tools 12 delivers new flexible licensing options, allowing customers to subscribe by as little as $29.99 per month, or to buy it outright. With these new options, users can stay current with future software updates and innovations as soon as they are released via the cloud, at no additional charge. This flexible licensing now provides artists with access to the same tools used by the top industry pros, at a price point they can afford.

Avid Cloud Collaboration

Avid Cloud Collaboration, initially to be accessed by Pro Tools users with others to follow, is a groundbreaking set of collaboration capabilities that enable artists to compose, record, edit, and mix sessions working with other Pro Tools users in the cloud, as if they are all together in the same studio. They simply invite other artists to collaborate on a session using built-in chat, or find new collaborators through the new Avid Marketplace Artist Community. If the person they want to work with doesn’t already have Pro Tools, they can simply download Pro Tools | First to start working together immediately.

Key benefits and features of Avid Cloud Collaboration for Pro Tools include:

• Secure and hassle-free setup: Post sessions to your own cloud storage space and invite others to collaborate
• Fully integrated collaboration: Work on the same session at the same time or create offline and share updates directly within Pro Tools
• Comprehensive workflows: Share audio and MIDI tracks, edits, mix changes, automation, and more
• Simplified project and media management: Keep track of all contributors and version changes with automatic and fully customizable metadata tagging
• Built-in communication tools: Engage with collaborators through text or video chat directly from within Pro Tools

Avid Marketplace

The Avid Marketplace invites Pro Tools users to engage in a community of artists, acquire new plug-ins and apps as they need them, and easily store and share their work on a global platform.

The Avid Marketplace enables artists and professionals to:

• Find new talent and start new collaborations: With the Artist Community, any media professional and organization can search for the skills and specialties they need on a project, and start a working relationship.
• Get plug-ins and apps immediately: With the Avid App Store, artists can find and immediately download the latest plug-ins and applications directly from within their creative tools.
• Store and share their work with the world: The Avid Content Marketplace provides a new channel for artists to monetize their work by sharing it with a wide network of potential purchasers – with all licensing and rights agreements worked out through automatic templates.

Avid also announced that 17 new plug-ins and nine new plug-in bundles are now available in the Avid Marketplace and as in-app purchases in Pro Tools. There are now over 60 Avid plug-ins and bundles available for in-app purchase for Pro Tools | First, Pro Tools, and Pro Tools | HD. The new bundles include:

• Eleven Effects Bundle — A collection of 17 Avid AAX Native, DSP and AudioSuite 64-bit plug-in effects modeled after circuitry and design of many popular analog “stomp-box” guitar effects.
• Pro Series Bundle — Includes all five of the popular Avid Pro Series processors in AAX Native, DSP and AudioSuite 64-bit format as a single bundle at over 50% savings.
• First Distortion Bundle, First Reverb Delay Bundle, First Guitar Bass Bundle, First Modulation Bundle, First EQ Dynamics Bundle, First AIR Effects Bundle, and First Air Instruments Bundle — Include selections from the new Eleven Effects and other Avid plug-ins, allowing Pro Tools | First users to access the professional creative tools they need to create richer sounding, more complex mixes.

Availability and Pricing

Pro Tools software subscription and licensing options will be available in February 2015.

• Pro Tools software monthly subscription (one-month license subscription with updates and support) starts at $29.99/month
• Pro Tools software annual upgrade plan (12 months of updates and support) starts at $199
• Pro Tools software annual subscription (12-month license subscription with updates and support) starts at $299
• Perpetual licenses for Pro Tools software (includes 12 months of updates and support) start at $899

The new plug-ins and bundles are now available as in-app purchases within Pro Tools via the Avid Marketplace.

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