Avid rolls out lower-priced Media Composer

Ron Lindeboom CreativeCOW.net Paso Robles California USA ©2008 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

Avid's big news centers around a single word: price. And it's a word that most longtime industry veterans do not associate with Avid -- well, unless they are applying it from a high-side perspective. But in today's news the word is used in the context of radical price cuts. The kind that Avid has never done before. I know, I have owned a couple of them and they have never been cheap.

Until now...

NEW EDUCATIONAL PRICING
When it comes to educational pricing, Avid has always been very aggressive. They have always operated from the viewpoint that getting students to use their system is a great way to insure that they will remain Avid users after they graduate. It has worked well for the company and has been one of the reasons that so many broadcasters and studios use Avid.

With today's new pricing for educational customers, Avid has dropped the cost of an educational license for Avid's Media Composer Academic software to just $295. Compare this to Apple's educational license for Final Cut Studio that is $695 as of today. (I expect to see some reactionary move to this disparity once the news of today's Avid announcement makes its way through the halls of Cupertino.)

Some will argue that for $695 Apple is giving their complete Studio (and a nice set of tools it is) and Avid is only giving Media Composer. But there is something to be said for learning the software used to edit roughly 90% of the films in Hollywood and around the world, while handliing 85% of today's broadcast television seen and 80% of the commercials. And while some would argue that this has changed radically with the ascent of Final Cut, FC still accounts for very few films -- I can count all the major films that I know of on one hand -- and the only major broadcast series I can recall is the FC edited "Scrubs" on NBC. The rest? Think Avid.

AFTER GRADUATION ADVANTAGE: AVID
So, in an academic market wherein teaching is done to open up job opportunities for their graduates, a $295 box of Media Composer is a compelling argument to make to educators and those that plan the curriculum at their respective institution. And in another unique Avid move, once you've graduated, graduates can pay the difference between the educational price and the pro price and get a full pro license -- a gap now much smaller than it once was. FCS's educational licence is end of the road and can't be upgraded -- at least not in any way that we have heard or are aware of.

XPRESSWAY TO THE TOP: MEDIA COMPOSER
Once upon a time in an editing universe far far away, Avid launched the original Xpress to largely compete with Media 100, who at the time held the high ground in new sales and online finishing quality. Later Avid launched Xpress software edition to compete with Final Cut and its wealth of features. Neither version of Xpress was ever enough to displace its rival as they didn't have the features -- most notably, all the frame rates and resolutions that were needed. Xpress also didn't have the features needed to support Avid's own Media Composer editors -- too few formats, including support for critical Avid resolutions (AVR), and most annoying for people who actually work for a living, incompatible keyboard shortcuts.

As a result, people complained that Xpress was annoying on purpose. I owned one, it was. I sold it after a year. Also, Xpress was purposely hampered by limitations designed to protect Avid's sales of its flagship Media Composer. Understandable, but still frustrating to Xpress owners.

Now, Avid has fundamentally changed all that, merging its Avid Xpress Pro software into its flagship Media Composer software product line. They have also radically dropped the price a couple of grand, establishing a new price point of $2,495 USMSRP for Media Composer software.

In a move to avoid ill-will with those who purchased Media Composer software at the prior $4,995 USMSRP price after January 1, 2008, they are now eligible to receive a credit towards future purchases. Not perfect but it does acknowledge the feelings of their customers and I think that deserves a tip of the ole cow ears on my cow hat.

Yes, with Media Composer there's a premium price, but it's due to the fact that the product genuinely does carry a premium, along with the ability to earn more money. But still affordable -- barely more than a second copy of FCS for your bag of tricks, less than a tricked out MBP or desktop -- and Media Composer is a trick that opens up new earning potential.

No reasonable person anywhere, including Avid, believes that any current FCP customer will stop using FCP. With this move Avid is not trying to convert anyone, Avid's real goal is likely to make this such a compelling price -- one with such a potentially huge upside -- that no serious pro anywhere would miss this opportunity to create new, more lucrative earning possibilities.

This is Avid's biggest advantage, the ability to say that you really DO edit on an Avid -- Media Composer no less. The flagship. At a price that I still scratch my head at, remembering that I once paid about $35,000 just for my first copy of Media 100 software.

Man, have things changed. And so now has Avid.

Ron Lindeboom
Creative COW

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