$599/Year Gets Access to Symphony Option and More; $1,299 Purchase Option Remains Available
Avid announced a slew of subscription options for Media Composer at NAB that will allow users to pay for the software, including the Symphony option, on a month-to-month basis.
Rates for Media Composer 8 start at $49.99/month with an annual subscription, for a total of $599 annually, or $74.99/month on a month-to-month basis for a total of $899 for the full year. (Current owners of Media Composer v6.5 and above will get a special deal of $39.99/month for the first year of their subscription only.)
Users will also be able to buy Media Composer 8 outright for $1,299, including one year of Avid Support and software upgrades, which is mandatory. Another optional $299/year will renew Avid Support and keep the software updated perpetually.
The Media Composer subscription includes access to Symphony, NewBlue Titler Pro 2, Sorenson Squeeze Lite, and Boris Continuum Complete Lite. Purchasing Media Composer gets access to NewBlue Titler Pro v1 and Sorenson Squeeze Lite, with other options available for additional fees.
Avid published charts [PDF] comparing total costs for individual licenses of the software via annual subscription or perpetual licenses with Avid Support renewals (and the cost of buying options such as Symphony, ScriptSync, and the Avid Production Pack) over a three-year period.
For sites with 20 or more Media Composer seats, the company is recommending a floating license server that allows licenses to be distributed across a facility from a centralized server, or “checked out” on a temporary basis for off-site use over the duration of a given project. Seats can be added a month-to-month basis, allowing quick up- and down-scaling for larger facilities.
In other NAB news from Avid, Interplay Sphere has been rebranded as Media Composer | Cloud, allowing multiple remote editors to work simultaneously on a single production. With pricing starting at $35,000, Media Composer | Cloud workflows are aimed at large-scale newsgathering and feature-film post facilities who need to enable fluid global collaboration.
One more note: Avid said it held off rolling out new features in the forthcoming Avid Media Composer 8 so that it can concentrate on making sure the deployment of subscriptions goes smoothly. New features will come, via a software update, after the subscription options are implemented. Subscriptions and floating licenses are expected to become available in the second quarter.
