It came to our attention that in mid December Avid announced the end of Pro Tools First, their free version of Pro Tools. The following announcement was made on the DUC:

Pro Tools | First has been discontinued. There are no new downloads or new licenses. Existing users of Pro Tools First (that have Pro Tools | First in their Avid and iLok accounts) will be able to continue using the product and work on their projects. For a limited time, Pro Tools | First will remain available to schools in the Avid Learning Academy program.

Also on the DUC some further detail was provided:

"Unfortunately, Pro Tools First has, on a technical level, become unviable for us to continue. Every alternative has been considered in the hope we could continue providing access to it, and we haven't taken the decision to end the program lightly. We've welcomed millions of users to the program, and we thank everyone for their support over the years, but time has come for us to discontinue Pro Tools First. We're now looking at alternatives to replace it with something new and compelling in the future, so watch this space.

Existing users of Pro Tools First can continue using the product to work on their projects. For those asking about Media Composer First and Sibelius First, we have no plans at this time to end those programs.

As we've posted before, if you're new to Pro Tools, you can get up and running with the Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate trials, and we hope you enjoy the amazing features and workflows of the Pro Tools family.

What Does The Discontinuation of Pro Tools First Mean?

When it was announced back in January 2015 Pro Tools First was met with some disappointment because it was so closely tied to use of the cloud. There were restrictions of course in terms of features but the necessity to run cloud based projects was met with some consternation. Subsequent versions of Pro Tools First relaxed this necessity and an update in 2019 allowed unlimited Projects could be stored locally.

Free Cloud accounts were an integral feature of Pro Tools First and while in 2015 the promotion of the Avid Everywhere cloud collaboration project was a priority for Avid, the announcement in December 2020 that Avid were planning to clear down older cloud Projects might indicate that one of the consequences of the pandemic is that the cloud collaboration infrastructure, which many questioned the value of in a pre-Covid world, has become too valuable to be populated with old Pro Tools First users’ Projects.

The explanation given in the quote from the DUC could support this: “Unfortunately, Pro Tools First has, on a technical level, become unviable for us to continue” might be referring to the drain free cloud accounts places on this infrastructure, infrastructure which in light of the changing working patterns the pandemic has brought would have become more valuable and probably more expensive.

Will Pro Tools First Be Replaced?

It certainly looks like it will. “We're now looking at alternatives to replace it with something new and compelling in the future, so watch this space” is pretty unambiguous. We certainly hope so as a free offering is absolutely essential if Avid are to capture new users right at the beginning of their careers. The cost of entry to Pro Tools is seen by some as a barrier to entry and whether you agree or not, there really doesn’t seem to be a downside to providing a free version which strikes the right balance between features and restrictions.

Of course another way to look at this is that the barrier to entry is intentional with Avid wanting to concentrate on professional users willing to pay for subscriptions. Having a free entry level version of Pro Tools and then a leap up to the paid versions had been somewhat a large step, therefore this might be Avid reinforcing their commitment to professional users. Some may see this as a bad thing, however it does make business sense to concentrate on your core business rather than trying to keep every segment happy. However, in their statement Avid say a new something is coming, so watch this space…

Those of us with long enough memories will remember Pro Tools Free. A version of Pro Tools restricted to 8 mono tracks. We loved it and it was the beginning of many people’s Pro Tools journeys. In a world where Garage Band, Reaper and Studio One Prime exist does Pro Tools need to have a free version to stay relevant to those users who will be tomorrow’s professionals?

What do you think?