Media Composer licensing and upgrades: What you need to know?and do ?before the year is out
Avid Blogs by Kate Ketcham
You've probably heard a lot about Avid Everywhere, our vision for moving our company and industry forward. There have been a number of changes to our product lines and offerings over the last 12 months, with the promise of more to come.
My hope is that by the end of this post, you'll have the information you need to make the right choice for you and your business.
For Media Composer users, the introduction of new licensing models and policy changes provides interesting opportunities, although it could all seem a bit confusing at times. You may have asked yourself (more than once), "What does this all mean to me?", "When will this affect me?", and "How do I know I'm making the right decision?" My hope is that by the end of this post, you'll have the information you need to make the right choice for you and your business.
"What Does This All Mean To Me?"
Let's start with the basics: All new copies of Media Composer [ Software come with a year of support and upgrades, called Standard Avid Support. That means that not only do you get access to world-class customer support, you're entitled to receive every software upgrade that's released throughout the year. As the year anniversary approaches, you'll simply renew your annual Standard Avid Support to continue to get support and upgrades. If you don't renew and let your Avid Support expire, that's fine -your license will continue to run, but it will be frozen at the last version you upgraded to, and you won't be able to upgrade it further. We'll talk more about that later.
We've also introduced Subscription licensing; now you can pay a small amount each month (or pre-pay for the full year) to effectively "rent" Media Composer [ Software. Support and upgrades are also included, so subscribers can always stay current with the latest release. Each model presents different advantages according to one's needs, but both are great options for new users.
Now you may be thinking, "Yes, those are great options for new users, but I already own Media Composer [ Software. What choices do I have?"
The first thing you need to know is that we're no longer selling individual software upgrades. Gone are the days when you made a one-time purchase to upgrade your license to the latest version. Buyers used to have to navigate the different upgrade options based on what they were upgrading from and what they were upgrading to (one version back, two versions back, Interplay support, etc.) and mistaken purchases were common. We've removed those pitfalls and have simplified the entire upgrade portfolio. read more...
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