An interesting picture is emerging following our recent story on the Avid Pro Tools Support announcement at AES last weekend.

Several sources have independently confirmed to us that behind the muddle, is not an effort by Avid to confuse their customers, but simply that internal politics were not ironed out before the announcement was made. This would explain both an incomplete picture from the Pro Tools Support announcement and the unwillingness for Avid to comment publically on it thus far.

It seems that there is a possibilty that Pro Tools licensing in the future will include both the option to rent and to buy, which is in line with the statement made by the Avid CEO;

Some in the industry have been frustrated that they’ve been forced to a single delivery or pricing model, like cloud or subscription, that benefits the vendor more than the actual customer and, in fact, in some cases may be more costly and less flexible.

Our customers will be limited by only their own imagination and strategy, not by limits dictated by their vendor.

Furthermore it would appear from our sources both within and outside of Avid, they are trying to iron out the possibility and mechanisms of buying certain features for Pro Tools such as surround, track counts etc. 

It woud seem that yet again the lack of information coming from Avid on this and many other issues is simply down to a lack of internal agreement. Until that is settled, we will have to wait this one out.

We often say here at Pro Tools Expert, most of the issues at Avid can be put down to cock-up and not conspiracy. Lets hope that the people inside Avid championing the cause of the Pro Tools users win out in these battles.

As is always the case, Avid do not make official comments on these matters and so they are unlikely to confirm or deny these rumours.