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Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

As someone who uses Apple’s desktop Final Cut Pro app almost daily, I’ve been wondering if they would ever switch to a monthly fee as this pro version phone app does.

I think I paid around $350 eight years ago and get regular updates for free. I also have Adobe’s Premiere on my machine but I gravitate toward FCPX and wonder why I still pay Adobe monthly for that app. I might add syncing multiple cameras in FCPX is pretty easy in post production.

I’m wandering if this is a precursor for the future. Apple charging monthly for desktop apps.

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Realistically though, your $350 one time buy was the equivalent of 5.8 years of this version of Final Cut Pro at $4.99/month. So while you using it for 8 years busts through the total cost of ownership numbers, seems like $4.99 is very reasonable monthly.

Plus as a low monthly, it’s more likely people will try the app out and start creating videos with it, vs having to stomach and justify a $350 up front spend.

This all being said: I’ve never understood the issue with subscription software assuming the developers keep iterating on it. Seems like that is actually BETTER alignment of usage and commercial model than one time buy, because one time buys technically don’t incentivize the developers to keep iterating on software…

You are ignoring the misalignment of user and developer needs that happens when the devs spend all their time adding new features that mean absolutely nothing to your process; in the pre-subscription days I would skip new versions of Illustrator that only added stuff for people who do text layout or whatever. Now I'm sitting here paying for them to spend an entire dev cycle fucking around with text-to-image generation garbage I have no use for, like it or not.

> I’ve never understood the issue with subscription software assuming the developers keep iterating on it

That also assumes the iteration provides value to me as a customer.

I bought a license for Sketch years ago. It expired. Thankfully Sketch provide old versions for download so I’m still on version whatever-it-is… and it does everything I need. I know there’s new functionality but I’m not really interested in it.

I think this shows that the best option should be to be able to choose.

Use it all the time and want all the latest updates? Buy it as a subscription.

Casual user who doesn't need all the latest updates or support? One-time purchase.

I believe that this applies to Photoshop for a lot of people and is what makes the Adobe CC subscription such bad value if PS is all you want/need.

CS2 is perfectly adequate for my needs and it wouldn't be that bad to have to get by with CS1 or even 7.0. Most of the features added since then just make it slower and heavier with little benefit to me as a user which was bad enough with the paid releases, but with the subscription and how one has no choice but to fund further bloat makes it that much worse.

To be fair, the vast majority of people that think they need Photoshop for what they do, actually don’t, especially considering how good the many, way cheaper, alternatives have become. For professionals, the Creative Cloud has many pain points but I personally would argue that the price/value we get is not as bad as many like to claim. Also, for professional the suite is a business cost that’s totally easy to deduct.

Just to put this out in the universe: I hope it stays 1-time.

It's something I've wondered about as well. But I can see a lot of reasons why a loss leader is a good strategy here:

- It's a trojan horse onto the platform, that'll always be worth more than a subscription.

- New features utilise new hardware leading to upgrades, and FCP has been a useful way for Apple to show off the mac platform's speed.

- Standardising to FCP can lead to the purchase of some of Apple's more lucrative hardware such as Afterburner cards and MacPros, or even just halo purchases as teams grow. (I consider the iPad subscription one of these halo purchases.)

- So why not just make FCP free? They have iMovie for that - I think a free pro app would put Apple in competition hot water.

It keeps you buying high end Macs though, which have gotten ridiculously expensive now. That alone seems like a good reason for Apple to keep investing in Final Cut and Logic.

I know multiple people still clinging on to their old 2012 MacPros running FCP7 as HD tape capture systems running OS X 10.6. And ONLY for that purpose. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, especially if it requires ripping out all of your existing capture devices, switching to USBC/TB4 type connectivity.

Yah I made a mental note when I saw that setup being used in the Tiger King Netflix show (where they show quite a bit of behind the scenes of making it). I think it stuck in my head just because it was FCP7 but it’s like a high quality power tool - it doesn’t just stop working (unless you break it hehe)

I honestly believe the bang for your buck is the best it has ever been for macs. The entry level hardware is also reasonable priced when looking at similar specced lin/win machines. The high end is pricey but so are HP/Lenovo workstations.

I also wonder the same. I use Logic almost daily, but would immediately change to something else if it ever becomes subscription-based. Maybe Bitwig and Linux.

I was a Premiere user, switched to Davinci Resolve a few years ago, and never looked back. I still wonder why such a great piece of software is free. There's a learning curve though - nothing serious, but I had to put in a couple of hours to learn how to do things I used to do in Adobe Premiere.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/ca/products/davinciresolve

There's a paid version too, but I doubt anyone who's not making REAL money from editing ever needs it.

Retired a paid Vegas install for Resolve. It is quite feature packed. And the learning curve wasn't bad. I also like that it's backed by a hardware company so they aren't incentivized to gate a lot behind the paid version.

>I still wonder why such a great piece of software is free.

My impression has been that it's "a rising tide buoys all ships" sort of perspective: having more people creating drives more Black Magic hardware purchases and the upgraded software (which is quite reasonably priced).

I will go months between making videos, having a monthly subscription is painful when I'm not using it.

Bitwig is so good, nowadays. I paid full-price for a Studio license, and their Linux support is so top-notch that I don't feel bad putting money in their pocket. I used to use Logic and Ableton, but I don't miss anything from them when I use Bitwig.

I think the competition in this segment will make that less less likely. davinci resolve is good enough to keep them competative, same cant be said for photoshop or illustrator alternatives.

Especially considering that over the past decade software monetization has been shifting towards subscription models

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