JamesHimmerla:

In the subscription vs. perpetual debate, the major benefit of a subscription software model is the ease and simplicity for you, the customer. With SaaS software, the subscription includes all servers, storage, the management of that infrastructure, and essentially, everything that you need to actually run the software. You are able to implement software that can improve efficiency on the plant floor, without the headache of running it yourself.

Is this SPAM? This is totally incorrect. The subscription does not provide the necessary servers, storage and management ... everything you need to actually run the software. The subscription is a licensing mechanism. Nothing more. You still need to provide all the necessary hardware and infrastructure to run Media Composer.

As a side, since people are discussing their intent moving forward, this will be the first year where I let my MC perpetual license lapse. For now I am walking away from Avid but I expect to return in my retirement if I happen to get into more editing work. Having a dongle, I can continue to use Media Composer 2022.7 for as long as it is supported on my Windows PC. I find the annual update fees are just too pricy for my personal use (unpaid work).

JamesHimmerla:

I am a spammer. I've been moderated. Hopefully I won't be able to post again. Happy editing, everyone!

Some people have too much free time...

Job ter Burg:

We're not allowed to speculate, but I sincerely doubt it, as Avid are moving away from perpetual with support fees. Everything will be subscription-based.

I'm surprised this thread didn't generate more (sane) comment. It's a valiant attempt by Chris to convince us of something, that is principally in the interests of shareholders, is to our advantage too, but I am grateful for fair warning and here's what I'm personally going to do: I will probably continue with support payments until they end on my perpetual licence, though I am undecided on that. Then, not being in the least intersted in crossgrading, since you both lose forever your perpetual and only benefit with reduced subscription for a year or two, I will rent when and only I need to for a job.

In practice and in my case this will represent lost business for Avid because: a) most remote work I do now, I am not even using my own Avid and b) Most facilities here in the UK are 2-4 years behind the current version, so I would not even need to rent anything, most likely for some years to come, since my perpetual would be more than sufficent. Added to which more and more of my finishing work is moving towards Resolve Studio and in light of this news and no development for years in Symphony, that will increase.

As I say the only reason I am undecided about continung support payments on my perpetual is that it has been tax effiicient up till now but that tax deduction can be moved to other capital investment.

In practice, having had to pay for compulsorary 'support', that I very rarely needed or used, on something I supposedly owned that was more expensive than renting, felt like a large mortgage on a house you say you own, whereas for a large chunk of your life the bank really do. So I'm not really distressed, this will actually save me money now.

Subscription software benefits the supplier in that it ensures a steady income stream reguardless of product developments. How that licensing is implemented impacts the ease and simplicity for the user but its very hard to beat the simplicity of a plug in dongle.

But physical dongles can fail or be broken. Can be lost or stolen. Can't be used elsewhere in the world easily.

Also support for them on new Macs is now gone and that will likely continue across newer hardware.

That said Avid could transfer to an alternative hardware license but clearly won't as software subscription is the future.

Pat Horridge:

Subscription software benefits the supplier in that it ensures a steady income stream reguardless of product developments. How that licensing is implemented impacts the ease and simplicity for the user but its very hard to beat the simplicity of a plug in dongle.

Exactly! 

I value my dongle. I will never crossgrade it into subscription. But I'm absolutely neutral to subscription or perpetual in a 'perfect' world where Avid's development is up to its own specifications, the demands of my customers as a reseller and that of my own.

The subscription model DEMANDS, I repeat Avid!: it demands that development and QC is of the same level or (a lot) better than during the previous years using perpetual. Compromising backwards compatibility (Mediacentral), functionality, reliability and or performance of all products, Avid support, Avid services and Order management including the licensing infrastructure at the same time is a recipe for disaster. 

Pat Horridge:

But physical dongles can fail or be broken. Can be lost or stolen. Can't be used elsewhere in the world easily.

Also support for them on new Macs is now gone and that will likely continue across newer hardware.

That said Avid could transfer to an alternative hardware license but clearly won't as software subscription is the future.

1 Avid Perpetual licence can be either dongle or software activation, easily changed bewteen the two, at any time, I don't think that's going to change? For Resolve Studio, I own both a dongle and software licence (this infact free when I bought a camera), since it only comes with one or the other, but then I could buy 7 of them, forever with nothing further to pay and free upgrades/support, for the price of one Avid MC perpetual with 1 year's support!

In the "for what its worth" department, dongles are no longer supported on Monterey (Mac). It is out of Avid hands as it is a Mac OS 64 bit situation.

Adman:

In the "for what its worth" department, dongles are no longer supported on Monterey (Mac). It is out of Avid hands as it is a Mac OS 64 bit situation.

Thanks Adman, no it's useful to know. My dongle still works fine on Windows 11. I like dongles principally because they are network/internet independent - my Symphony option is also on there too - and like Jeroen, I will never willingly surrender it. But if I work away from base I tend to switch to software. I have a hub with plenty of ports back at base and so both Resolve and Avid are licenced through dongles. My dongle dates to 2001, when I first bought DV Express - the first Avid I ever owned after working on it then for almost 10 years!