Apple Announces Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad With Subscription Models

[moonwalk]

Even the Son of God would have a tough go of it according to this classic 2003 Jobs quote given to Rolling Stone:

"The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt. I think you could make available the Second Coming in a subscription model and it might not be successful."

 

[allenvanhellen]

Well, I guess I could consider my iPad itself to be a subscription. The battery is going to fail and I won't be able to swap it myself.

 

[jsalda]

I would hate to use these on an iPad. I get most people use their phones/tablets these days but anything beyond basic web browsing, watching videos, or posting **** online I can't deal with touch screens. Give me a proper keyboard and mouse set up for doing anything serious like music production or video editing.


Yes, across all of the internet you are the only one who is sick of the subscription model.

You do know you can connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor to an iPad, don’t you?

 

[Cobra Kai]

As someone that uses FCPX extensively, I can't imagine using this as my main workflow but I'm happy this happened. I was shocked that Resolve came to iPad before FCPX. I use too many tools, plugins, etc for me to be the target demographic but this should make LumaFusion fans happy.

The only thing that sucks is the monthly subscription for it. I know $4.99 a month isn't alot, I just hate subscriptions. Almost wish it was just a flat $50-$100 one time fee. I actually look forward to watching workflows and how people use this. I consider this a win.

 

[Boil]

Steve Jobs, April 28, 2003:

'People have told us over and over and over again, they don't want to rent their music. Just to make that perfectly clear: Music's not like a video. Your favorite movie you may watch 10 times in your life; your favorite song you're going to listen to a thousand times in your life. If it costs you $10 a month, or over $100 a year, for a subscription fee to rent that song, that means for me to listen to my favorite song in 10 years I paid over $1,000 in subscription fees to listen to my favorite song 10 years from now, and that just doesn't fly with customers. They don't want subscriptions.'

Steve Jobs, April 28, 2003:

'These services treat you like a criminal. And they are subscription based and we think subscriptions are the wrong path. One of the reasons we think this is because people bought their music for as long as we can remember. We bought our music on LPs, we bought our music on cassettes, we bought our music on CDs. And we think people want to buy their music on the internet by buying downloads just like they bought LPs, just like they bought cassettes, just like they bought CDs. They’re used to buying their music, and they’re used to getting a broad set of rights with it. When you own your music it never goes away. When you own your music you have a broad set of personal use rights — you can listen to it however you want.'

Even the Son of God would have a tough go of it according to this classic 2003 Jobs quote given to Rolling Stone:

"The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt. I think you could make available the Second Coming in a subscription model and it might not be successful."

Sure, go on about "Steve Jobs said..." while ignoring the fact that it was all in relation to a personal music library, not first-party audio/video creation/editing apps...

Steve Jobs also said "Nobody wants a stylus", but the Apple Pencil is now a very useful thing...

Remember, Steve Jobs, above all, was a salesman, saying whatever drove the current narrative for various hardware/software sales...

 

[b.la]

Next version AirPod Pro Max...

I hope so!

 

[b.la]

USB-C docks/hubs. Preferably Thunderbolt 4. Aux In and a few USB-A ports gets all of my instruments and headphones connected. If it works for GarageBand it should be fine with Logic Pro. And that’s not considering iPadOS 17 potentially bringing multi-audio controls (assuming it’s for all iPads that support these apps, maybe just M1)

I have a powerful Mac for my desktop workflow, I don’t want to carry docks/hubs/adapters when I travel, that’s so 2018.

 

[moonwalk]

Sure, go on about "Steve Jobs said..." while ignoring the fact that it was all in relation to a personal music library, not first-party audio/video creation/editing apps...

Steve Jobs also said "Nobody wants a stylus", but the Apple Pencil is now a very useful thing...

Remember, Steve Jobs, above all, was a salesman, saying whatever drove the current narrative for various hardware/software sales...

Jobs was, first and foremost, a salesman, and he's making an economic argument, not a philosophical one. 'Your favorite movie you may watch 10 times in your life; your favorite song you're going to listen to a thousand times in your life. If it costs you $10 a month, or over $100 a year, for a subscription fee to rent that song, that means for me to listen to my favorite song in 10 years I paid over $1,000 in subscription fees to listen to my favorite song 10 years from now.' This same sales pitch would be made by 'Think Different' Steve to convince us to buy our work software that we use every day. (The guy who hoisted the pirate flag, not the corporate Steve who commissioned Starship Apple Park.) Owning one's daily workhorse software makes total economic sense. If you only use FCP or LP occasionally, it makes sense to 'rent the movie.' I have software that I may only try out a time or two. But my work software I have to rely on, and I must own it. Changing policies, and not being able to rely on some price that may or may not changed at the whim of some fickle executive, as we see here, are part of the problem.

 

[nathansz]

You do know you can connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor to an iPad, don’t you?

at that point don't you just have an underpowered computer with a crippled operating system?

what's the point?

 

[Ethosik]

Can you add more? Honestly, 2TB isn’t enough if you’re a Final Cut power user. I could see a way around this, keeping only projects currently in progress and libraries you frequently go back to. You can archive the rest on a local drive.

But Apple’s stingy approach to cloud storage really is a sore point and frankly kind of embarrassing.

As I said you can get 4TB. That’s the current max.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

If you fail to pay your monthly fee or rent, you lose access to the app and the ability to edit your source material, and lots more. Yuor render files. Your third-party extentions. It's rentware. It's also a no buena if you have a problem with your bank or your credit card and you lose access to your work software. I guess Apple wants you to get an Apple Card so you can hurry up get another vassel / slave job before you lose access to your work tools.

You are already renting the current version of FinalCut Pro, read the license agreement.
Apple can revoke your access at any time.

 

[Aston441]

Apple will watch the enthusiastic uptake or staunch rejection of software subscriptions on iPad and then "fix" that "problem" accordingly in future releases on Mac. I wonder which way it will go. 💰💰💰

That's scary.

 

[jchap]

There are too many comments on this topic to read through without dedicating two to three hours of my life to the task (sorry), but as a musician, I find that Logic Pro on iPad could be (a) useful (in terms of portability and spontaneity), but also (b) quite limited (in terms of plugins and software instruments), compared to its more mature Mac sibling.

The larger problem is note input and entry from external MIDI devices. Are these devices going to be able to plug-and-play into an iPad and "magically" connect to Logic on iPad? Even if USB-MIDI is supported, how about USB audio? I suspect there will be a lot of limitations and driver-related issues working with the iPad.

 

[jchap]

A dongle with earphone jack works.

It does, but then you can't plug anything else in, assuming you wanted to.

 

[jchap]

Usb c hub which supports power, hdmi, usb A and audio jack.

This number of ports and the power supply to the iPad via a hub is starting to look like a... Mac. (ahem)

Or at least a MacBook, with the single USB-C port when they released that model several years ago.

 

[Mac_tech]

unlike FCP, Adobe is constantly adding features. Premiere updates at about 10 to 1 ratio to FCP updates.

I dumped my M1 Pro and went with iPad Mini 6 so I don't really have a dog in this fight. Buuuuutttt... if Premiere hits the iPad, I may be back on the Pro.

Right but how stable is Premiere? It’s not about the features I feel, it’s stability.

Have you tried DaVinci Resolve?

 

[Mac_tech]

How would that help you in obtaining subscription based apps legally ?

By the company offering a single license option. Problem solved.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

As someone that uses FCPX extensively, I can't imagine using this as my main workflow but I'm happy this happened. I was shocked that Resolve came to iPad before FCPX.

I wasn’t. If FCP was already out, Resolve may not have been released. This allowed the competition to get set up with a good number of users before FCP’s introduced.

 

[chips99]

Nice to see it finally happening and wonder why it's dropping now and not at WWDC. Hard pass though since it's a subscription model I'll stick to my copies for my Mac.

 

[Mac_tech]

Steve Jobs, April 28, 2003:

'These services treat you like a criminal. And they are subscription based and we think subscriptions are the wrong path. One of the reasons we think this is because people bought their music for as long as we can remember. We bought our music on LPs, we bought our music on cassettes, we bought our music on CDs. And we think people want to buy their music on the internet by buying downloads just like they bought LPs, just like they bought cassettes, just like they bought CDs. They’re used to buying their music, and they’re used to getting a broad set of rights with it. When you own your music it never goes away. When you own your music you have a broad set of personal use rights — you can listen to it however you want.'

That was then. I hear you im not a fan of renting software, I like owning something.

 

[bradbomb]

Quoting Steve Jobs from 2003 is relevant in 2003. Clearly people wanted subscription music. If not, Spotify would fail, Apple Music would have failed. It has been 20 years since that quote, times can change and they have. And I’m amazed at everyone who is balking at subscriptions. Adobe has been on subscription only for Adobe Creative Suite since 2012 and all I’ve heard from people who use it have loved the switch. Instead of paying a lot up front, you are paying only when you need it for a job and you are getting more updates more frequently. I would hope switching to subscription would push for more frequent updates of these two pieces of software. FCP before version X had a cost for every major upgrade. I believe they switched the model with X because of just how polarizing the update to X was from 7. I’m someone who still missed FCP 7. That was always my NLE of choice. Nowadays, I don’t edit much and would use Resolve if I needed to cut anything because that is free and professional grade.

 

[Mac_tech]

Well, I guess I could consider my iPad itself to be a subscription. The battery is going to fail and I won't be able to swap it myself.

I wouldn’t call it that. You CAN replace the battery in your iPad, it’s tricky but can be done without damaging the display.

 

[halfmac]

They KILLED It! "Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad will each be available on the App Store for $4.99 (US) per month or $49 (US) per year with a one-month free trial". $50 a year! No Way!!!! I just canceled my Adobe subscription because I was tired of paying over $60 a month for software I only used for one client. All the others, I use FCP or Resolve Studio both of which I have paid $300, ONCE. I will stick for travel FCP using my trusty MacBook Air M1 which I already own. Even though I have a iPad Pro M2, I can always use Resolve on it as it was a free download. Hope it stays that way.

 

[Mac_tech]

Sure, go on about "Steve Jobs said..." while ignoring the fact that it was all in relation to a personal music library, not first-party audio/video creation/editing apps...

Steve Jobs also said "Nobody wants a stylus", but the Apple Pencil is now a very useful thing...

Remember, Steve Jobs, above all, was a salesman, saying whatever drove the current narrative for various hardware/software sales...

He said nobody’s wants a stylus in reference to an iPhone, not the iPad. The iPad has a bigger canvas so the stylus makes sense I guess.

 

[moonwalk]

Quoting Steve Jobs from 2003 is relevant in 2003. Clearly people wanted subscription music. If not, Spotify would fail, Apple Music would have failed. It has been 20 years since that quote, times can change and they have. And I’m amazed at everyone who is balking at subscriptions. Adobe has been on subscription only for Adobe Creative Suite since 2012 and all I’ve heard from people who use it have loved the switch. Instead of paying a lot up front, you are paying only when you need it for a job and you are getting more updates more frequently. I would hope switching to subscription would push for more frequent updates of these two pieces of software. FCP before version X had a cost for every major upgrade. I believe they switched the model with X because of just how polarizing the update to X was from 7. I’m someone who still missed FCP 7. That was always my NLE of choice. Nowadays, I don’t edit much and would use Resolve if I needed to cut anything because that is free and professional grade

Adobe not so long ago announced it was doubling the rental fee for the Lightroom / Photoshop bundle to $20 a month from $10. Adobe’s customers balked and Adobe had to back down. For now. This is really about treating customers like lobsters: raise the heat a little st a time and see if they kick, or notice.