If you are a regular listener on the podcast then you may have heard us reading some emails from community members who are concerned about Avid charging for them to obtain the Pro Tools 11.3.2 service release (point upgrade) by insisting they have a Avid upgrade plan.
Via the DUC Avid have written: (see image above)
Pro Tools v11.3.2 is also now available. This will be the final software update for version 11 and is available to customers on an Upgrade Plan. Please see:
Pro Tools 11.3.2 Information & Downloads
Moving forward, Pro Tools updates will only be distributed to owners of perpetual licenses on an Upgrade Plan and to customers with active Subscription Licenses. Eligible customers will find installers in their Avid account, and Pro Tools v12.x can be updated through Avid Application Manager.
Concern has been expressed especially because when Avid have been asked about charging for point upgrades in October 2014 they gave this response.
Yes, dot releases are included without a support plan.
What seems to have happened is that Avid have now reversed the decision of not including earlier Pro Tools versions in the $99 deal, and from what we understand will now include Pro Tools 10/11 and 12 - although this is unconfirmed in any official documentation thus far.
However in making this change it has meant that in order to get bug fixes for 11 via 11.3.2 (the last version of Pro Tools 11) you will have to pay. As you can imagine this has made some people unhappy. There are a couple of threads on the Avid DUC with people expressing differing views over the u-turn by Avid:
What do you think? Should we take the rough with the smooth or should Avid honour the promise they made to their users in writing last year?