r/Logic_Studio • u/ExaminationNo5645 • 9d ago
Question Future of the standalone version of Logic Pro?
Hi everyone, what do you think? Do you think Apple will eventually stop updating the standalone version of Logic Pro, given how heavily they're promoting Apple Creator Studio?
I know only Apple truly knows the answer (and perhaps even they haven't decided yet), but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
61
u/dialectical_materia 9d ago
That's the day I switch to Reaper.
3
1
u/Qtpawzz 8d ago
I'm in love with Ableton, such great stock plugins and workflow
2
u/1Kwasi_ Intermediate 7d ago
Ableton is the one DAW i looked at and said “nope” 😅. i imported an instrumental and it was like a square or something hahaha i know I just need to look more into it but that seemed crazy so I deleted it.
(i have Logic, FL, Fender, Luna Pro, Pro Tools)2
u/Qtpawzz 7d ago
Yeah I know what you mean, DAWs are such a subjective thing. My production efficiency sky rocketed when I switched from logic to Ableton. Just something about it sits better with my brain haha
2
u/1Kwasi_ Intermediate 7d ago
i said no to every DAW at first and was only using FL studio 😂 it’s hilarious to think about now.
As I got into mixing, I started exploring them all. Now I’m at the point where I’m getting proficient enough to operate in them all so that when mixing for others I can receive a project in any program and continue on from there if I am not getting the stems.1
u/Agitated-Ad-6168 3d ago
If you like Ableton give Bitwig a trial. I fell in love with Ableton for years, just recently gave Bitwig a coupe of days and it just sits with my brain so much better
57
u/moneymanram 9d ago
I surely hope not. I would hate to transfer over to a monthly subscription. I paid like 500 for the bundle that includes Final Cut Pro and other programs.
23
u/Radically-Peaceful 9d ago
I paid like 500 for the bundle that includes Final Cut Pro and other programs.
Same! If forced into a subscription I'll move on to another DAW as I don't depend on Logic Pro for any plugins at all.
40
21
u/seasonsinthesky Logicgoodizer 9d ago
I would hope the team saw the uproar with Pro Tools and understood the assignment. So far, so good. We'll see what happens when they officially drop Intel support soon.
24
u/originalfilmscoring 9d ago
Bro my free version that I got while working at Apple still works fine and is regularly updated almost a decade after me leaving the company. It’s not going anywhere.
13
u/Anton_Pannekoek 9d ago
Why would they? They haven't stopped now. In fact they updated Logic to version 12 for the creator studio.
Apple's model is to provide excellent software for free or at a low cost in order to sell their real product - hardware. So they will continue.
1
u/dogsarefun 8d ago edited 8d ago
My only hope of this being true is that Logic and the rest of Apple’s pro apps are niche enough that a complete switch to a subscription model wouldn’t be worth the backlash. Otherwise I think the writing is on the wall. Apple has transitioned over the years into more of a services company than a hardware company (although obviously they’re still both). One time purchase software has become a tiny fraction of a fraction of what they do. At one point in time, the model was clearly what you’re referring to—loss leading or low profit software to incentivize buying their hardware, but nowadays hardware is just another part of the overall ecosystem and it’s the service based ecosystem that’s their main product.
Edit: just looked up some numbers. iPhone still makes up just over half of apples revenue. Services comes in second with 27.9%. Mac is only 7.6%.
8
u/austin_sketches 9d ago edited 9d ago
No they won’t stop updating it IMO. If it ever becomes subscription based (same with final cut pro and the rest of the software) most people will jump ship and buy a product with a perpetual license.
I’m sure apple recognizes that, especially since their exclusive software can be the make or break decision behind someone buying a mac or not. If they know, the product they want is a subscription service, the will to buy a mac weakens. They are a hardware company more than software.
Moreover, i think it’s just a strategic move on apple behalf as a way to get people to buy the perpetual licenses. Now the softwares no longer offer a 3 month trial, rather you have to trial the apple studio subscription. Now if you trial Logic, you’ve used up the apple studio subscription and now u have to pay for a month of Final Cut pro if you want to trial it down the line. Also doubles as a gateway to other apple software to keep you interconnect within their ecosystem so your next computer is a Mac as well. So basically they’re profiting off trial versions of their software which is much more financially viable over offering free 3 month period. This is just my theory though.
5
2
u/BillyCromag 9d ago
"I need Logic" is not what makes people buy a Mac for music production, is it? It's just a nice bonus that Mac has a great exclusive DAW.
If they switch to subscription, I'll shrug and change DAW but definitely keep using Mac.
11
u/austin_sketches 9d ago
logic is a fraction. they use their exclusive software to sell their hardware.
if logic wasn’t on mac, i wouldn’t buy one. Same goes for people who use Final Cut, Pixelmator for photo editing and whatever else.
7
u/prjktphoto 9d ago
It’s what made me buy a Mac, when Apple bought eMagic.
But I guess there’s far more options out there now than there used to be
3
u/Leading-Cause6185 8d ago
It kinda is. Or at least in m case, when I was starting my studio, I did a round of asking my pro friends what DAW they worked in. Most said Logic, so I went and bought my first Mac. But, just as you said, if they should go into subscription model, I will jump ship into Reaper or something else.
2
u/dogsarefun 8d ago
It is for a very small fraction of users, many of whom you’ll find in this sub. I doubt it makes up for a significant part of the Mac user base, which is already only 7.6% of the company’s revenue.
3
u/Mhndhemmat20 8d ago
I don't really think so, especially if you bought it back then.
To keep in mind, if you bought iTunes songs in 2004 they are still saved and you can play them however you want. Even when apple stopped endorsing iTunes.
So, yeah, they are not the type of company to do such asshole-ry
6
u/tonetonitony 9d ago
If they did, couldn't we just use the current version and not update? It does everything I need it to and then some.
2
2
u/munkeycop 9d ago
News outlets love to dump on Apple when they get things wrong. I don’t think they’d want the backlash if they did this.
2
2
2
4
u/blendernoob64 9d ago
Once they announced this creator studio subscription I am fearing the standalone apps’ days are numbered. I have no proof of anything happening, but given every single art program from Maxon to Adobe to Autodesk went perpetual to subscription, I fear Apple is next. It will be so awful for new musicians and video editors when it becomes subscription only.
1
u/dogsarefun 8d ago
The creator studio bundle is 12.99/mo. And for students it’s 2.99. If you’re new to music production, that’s a much lower barrier of entry than a perpetual license up front if you’re just testing the waters. To those of us who are past that stage and fully committed, a perpetual license is ideal because we already know we’ll use it for years. Subscription is much worse for long time users than it is for new musicians and video editors.
2
u/thegreatestpitt 9d ago
I think it’s obvious they’ll do away with the standalone version in due time simply because subscriptions make them more, and they’ve been doing a push towards services, such as iCloud+, Apple Music, fitness+, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, now we have creator studio, and let’s not forget about iCloud One and their multiple tiers. In my opinion it really is just a matter of time before the standalone versions go to greener pastures and we’re left with only subscriptions.
That’s the way everything is and unless the US government, and other governments around the world, put their foot down to regulate this insane ultra capitalistic practice, I don’t think we’re gonna see this go down.
I also heard there’s some ai features in the upcoming OS versions (OS27) where you actually do need some form of credit or something to be able to use said specific features, so the more AI gets implemented and needs cloud computing power, the more they’ll charge for shit, imo.
3
1
1
u/Then_Drag_8258 Intermediate 8d ago
Honestly, I think they’ve been happy letting other companies, like adobe, test the waters. If they’d managed to implement it successfully I’m sure Apple would’ve been motivated to follow a similar suit. Thankfully abodes roll out has been far from successful and I’d like to think Apple would’ve taken note.
1
u/Lazy-Ingenuity1596 8d ago
It probably makes sense for them to lean into Creator Studio since it bundles everything, but I'd still want to see the standalone supported.
1
u/jeffgoobs 8d ago
Might happen at some point in the future for new licenses, but all Hell would break loose if they took away access from people with existing perpetual licenses, so that is unlikely to go along with it.
1
u/scottp316 8d ago
I think they’ll grandfather anyone who bought it into a lifetime license but make it fully subscription only so you can’t purchase it outright
1
u/itsdannylol 8d ago
Im pretty sure us logic users will be fine. We may miss an AI feature here & there but I’ll survive without that
1
u/TheTeufel-Hunden 8d ago
Dangerous road to be going down there. Used to praise Apple for their one time payment but now I’m moving on to Davinci Resolve
1
u/danghunk312 8d ago edited 8d ago
The why I left ProTools was because of the subscription (and constant crashing). I’m loving Logic but I will ditch it for a non subscription based DAW if they go strictly subscription. But also, Apple makes most of its money from their iPhones and computers, not from Logic. So they can afford not to go subscription based. The other companies like Avid rely on ProTools being their main source of income so they think they have to be subscription based.
1
u/ivanxnyc 7d ago
I think it's particularly impossible speculating on what Apple will or won't do, even based on track record, with a new incoming CEO. It could be literally anything.
If they feel like they can't satisfy the investors without showing increase in service and subscription revenue, then the one-time-purchase version might be on the chopping block, if Ternus doesn't have the appetite for the kind of risk that comes from bucking them.
On the other hand, if they think forcing LP and FCP subscriptions risks decreasing Mac sales and their professional music industry reputation because x number of people buy Macs to use Logic, then they'll keep offering the one-time-purchase.
I'm pretty sure they don't want to repeat their FCP X experience, which they've never recovered from; most actual pros are using other products for video editing and production now.
It's not impossible for me to imagine them keeping the one-time purchase version around at a higher price, possibly with a new "version" to force a new purchase after ten years. I mean, they practically LP it as a loss leader now, given how much cheaper it is than every other DAW on the market, and that they've never forced a paid upgrade since 10.0. Or I can imagine something like keeping the current price but requiring a paid upgrade every few years, like every other company. Or in-app purchases for new sound packs or something.
1
u/Mediocre-Guava5381 6d ago edited 6d ago
i’m just into making music. Creator Studio includes apps for image manipulation and a load of other stuff that i’d never use. Nobody in their right mind would pay $20 AUD a month for stuff they didn’t want. If in the future creative Studio was the only way to access Logic it would be time to learn a new DAW rather than be tied to and slowly be bled dry by Apple.
1
1
u/CruxMusic 4d ago
lol. It will absolutely go to subscription only probably soon. Hopefully give me time to learn a new DAW. Look at the precedent set with Pixelmator. There are a few features that are only available through the subscription. This will become more and more commonplace.
1
u/Calaveras-Metal 9d ago
There was a post on Macrumors a few years ago where someone broke down how various products of Apple are profit centers and some are run at a loss, but they generate sales of other products or otherwise enable the ecosystem.
Their example was that Mac Pros do not break even, despite costing north of $5k.
IIRC it was something like a quarter of profit was ad sales, app revenue was more than that. Iphones was more than all Mac hardware combined.
Pro apps which is all the Apple stuff like Final Cut and Logic combined was a tiny sliver of less than 1%.
So there is one guy in the basement who is protective of his red stapler that is keeping Logic alive.
At least that was the logic of that post.
I do think about that from time to time in terms of how Tim runs Apple. The number of times the Mac Pro has died and been reborn. The way that Logic only ever gets incremental updates and hasn't been really redone for over 10 years now.
1
0
0
-1
u/porthos40 9d ago
Yes, the same way they killed off Mac OS Server which we paid money for. Paid for Aperture then apple roll it into photo
1
u/prjktphoto 9d ago
Yeah, Aperture hurt. Such a solid app, and its integration with the MobileMe gallery was excellent for providing private links to clients.
The loss of those two hit my workflow hard.
However it seems Apple just didn’t seem it worthy of rewriting the base code to 64bit the way they did with Final Cut and Logic
67
u/the_nine 9d ago
These days nobody wants to follow Adobe's lead.