Avid announces Pro Tools 12 with Flexible Licensing, Avid Cloud Collaboration, and New Services in the Avid Marketplace

Avid has announced Pro Tools 12, which introduces several innovations that further deliver on Avid's commitment to customer choice and collaboration, key elements of Avid Everywhere.

"These new Pro Tools innovations demonstrate our commitment to providing audio customers with the choice, power, and flexibility they need to create the highest quality music and audio, " said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of Products and Technology at Avid. "With Pro Tools 12, audio professionals can now access the software in more ways than ever, and enjoy an outstanding customer experience via the Avid Marketplace. And with the upcoming Avid Cloud Collaboration for Pro Tools, customers will be able to create, connect, and collaborate in unprecedented new ways."

Flexible Licensing Options

Pro Tools 12 delivers new flexible licensing options, allowing customers to subscribe for $29.99 per month, or to buy a perpetual license. With these new subscription options, users can stay current with future software updates as soon as they are released via the cloud, at no additional charge.

Avid Cloud Collaboration

Avid Cloud Collaboration for Pro Tools 12 is a set of collaboration capabilities that enable artists to compose, record, edit, and mix sessions working with other Pro Tools users in the cloud, as if they are all together in the same studio. They simply invite other artists to collaborate on a session using built-in chat, or find new collaborators through the new Avid Marketplace Artist Community. If the person they want to work with doesn't already have Pro Tools, they can simply download Pro Tools | First to start working together immediately.

Key benefits and features of Avid Cloud Collaboration for Pro Tools include:

• Secure and hassle-free setup: Post sessions to your own cloud storage space and invite others to collaborate.
• Fully integrated collaboration: Work on the same session at the same time or create offline and share updates directly within Pro Tools.
• Comprehensive workflows: Share audio and MIDI tracks, edits, mix changes, automation, and more.
• Simplified project and media management: Keep track of all contributors and version changes with automatic and fully customizable metadata tagging.
• Built-in communication tools: Engage with collaborators through text or video chat directly from within Pro Tools.

Avid Marketplace

The Avid Marketplace allows Pro Tools users to engage in a community of artists, acquire new plug-ins and apps as they need them, and easily store and share their work on a global platform.

The Avid Marketplace enables artists and professionals to:

• Find new talent and start new collaborations: With the Artist Community, any media professional and organization can search for the skills and specialities they need on a project, and start a working relationship.
• Get plug-ins and apps immediately: With the Avid App Store, artists can find and immediately download the latest plug-ins and applications directly from within their creative tools.
• Store and share their work with the world: The Avid Content Marketplace provides a new channel for artists to monetize their work by sharing it with a wide network of potential purchasers – with all licensing and rights agreements worked out through automatic templates.

Avid also announced that 17 new plug-ins and nine new plug-in bundles are now available in the Avid Marketplace and as in-app purchases in Pro Tools. There are now over 60 Avid plug-ins and bundles available for in-app purchase for Pro Tools | First, Pro Tools, and Pro Tools | HD. The new bundles include:

• Eleven Effects Bundle — A collection of 17 Avid AAX Native, DSP and AudioSuite 64-bit plug-in effects modeled after circuitry and design of many popular analog "stomp-box" guitar effects.
• Pro Series Bundle — Includes all five of the popular Avid Pro Series processors in AAX Native, DSP and AudioSuite 64-bit format as a single bundle at over 50% savings.
• First Distortion Bundle, First Reverb Delay Bundle, First Guitar Bass Bundle, First Modulation Bundle, First EQ Dynamics Bundle, First AIR Effects Bundle, and First AIR Instruments Bundle — Include selections from the new Eleven Effects and other Avid plug-ins, allowing Pro Tools | First users to access the professional creative tools they need to create richer sounding, more complex mixes.

Availability and Pricing

Pro Tools | Software subscription and licensing options will be available in February 2015:

• Pro Tools | Software monthly subscription (one-month license subscription with updates and support) starts at $29.99/month.
• Pro Tools | Software annual upgrade plan (12-months of updates and support) starts at $199.
• Pro Tools | Software annual subscription (12-month license subscription with updates and support) starts at $299.
• Perpetual licenses for Pro Tools | Software (includes 12-months of updates and support) start at $899.

The new plug-ins and bundles are now available as in-app purchases within Pro Tools via the Avid Marketplace.