It was a big day at the Adobe MAX conference yesterday as your Creative Cloud application came alive and all of those video updates we talked about earlier in the year were ready for download. And it wasn’t just the video apps as most everything across the board got updated, some new products were introduced and we got to have a look at what might be in-store in the future for Creative Cloud users. The always entertaining MAX keynote is now online for a replay and if you’re an Adobe user it’s required viewing. There isn’t a ton of time focused on video products but if you are a subscriber I think it’s important to keep an eye on what all is in the suite of tools you pay for and the MAX keynote is always a good way to do that. Adobe has dedicated blog posts to the main video apps including Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition.
Speaking of the always controversial subscription plan it’s worth addressing the biggest little bit of news that came down, not with fanfare in the keynote but at the end of an Adobe blog post about this biggest update to Adobe products ever:
we’re making a modest adjustment in Creative Cloud commercial pricing for North America customers, which will take effect on March 1 or at the next contract renewal.
I lead with this because pricing is very important to those of us operating in the video space since margins on video production these days are often razor thin and we watch our budgets very closely. A price increase someday was inevitable as price increases always happen. I just think we take note of them more closely when they are in a monthly charge for a product that many of us can’t live without. Sadly prices like this never go down and I ask Adobe what I’ve asked Comcast and my health insurance provider: So in 10 years I’ll be paying what??
But about that price increase:
It’s a small price increase for us in North America, $3 per month, with a bigger increase for those using a Team plan. Education, Photography and XD plans see no increase.
I’ll take this time to once again call on Adobe to make a video-production specific bundle of Creative Cloud apps for those of us that will never touch InDesign, XD, Dreamweaver etc etc. And I’m not the only one.
https://twitter.com/scottmakescuts/status/920682751354798080
Back in 2014 I wrote an article called Hey Adobe, how about that video focused Production Premium CC bundle? and I think its important to point that out again, now more than ever. As the years pass and prices continue to go up more and more video creators will want to pay a little less for only those tools they need. With the Final Cut Pro X price remaining constant at $300 over the years and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve being free Adobe might one day feel the pressure to create this video-bundle. Or they might not.
The truth is, even at $52.99 / month the Creative Cloud all-apps bundle is still a tremendous value. Look at all you get:
That is a lot of stuff for a relatively small price, if you’re using the tools to make a living. One thing I’ve found is that I will often try out stuff I would never have otherwise if I wasn’t a subscriber to the full Creative Cloud. I’ll open an EPS in Illustrator to change colors or resize a vector image in seconds instead of messing with it a lot longer in Photoshop. I’ll use Spark to create a cool experience for a family vacation instead of just sending a Google Photos link to pictures. I’ll utilize the convenience of going through hundreds of photos with the Lightroom iPad app since it’s so much more relaxing to rate and reject on the couch with a tablet instead of in the chair at the desktop. And I’ll experiment with something like XD, Behance and Portfolio since it’s all part of my plan.
And I might find something very useful in there.
As mentioned in Adobe’s blog post this is the first Creative Cloud price increase in 5 years. We all knew it would happen … it wasn’t a matter of if but when. I do hope it’s another 5 years or more before it happens again and I do hope we someday get that Adobe video-specific bundle as there are those out there that would love it.
As for everything else, dig in and update away if you are at a place to do so. You never want to update in the middle of a project but those that will do it anyway make sure you do it right.
And since I can’t stress that last point enough here’s two tweets that will help:
Happy updated editing!