Back in May, Adobe made the decision to end perpetual licensing on some of its software (most notably Photoshop), forcing many users to convert to the subscription based Creative Cloud option. This meant no more paying a one time fee for Photoshop and using it as much as you like. If users wanted to use the lastest versions of Photoshop and other Adobe Suite applications, they now had to subscribe for $49.99 a month for access to all apps or $19.99 a month for a single app. As you can imagine, this did not go over well with many photographers and other Adobe product users.
Adobe bundle for photographers
Overwhelmed in a sea of complaints and with a petition to reinstate the perpetual license model collecting a solid 39,000 signatures, Adobe presented a new bundle for photographers at the annual Photoshop World conference. The new deal is still subscription based, but includes the following perks:
- A $9.99 monthly price (with an minimum one-year subscription)
- Access to Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5
- 20 GB of online storage
- A Behance Prosite membership
However, the deal comes with three constraints: First of all, you must already have a version of Photoshop, CS3 or later. Secondly, if you want to keep your $9.99 price, you have to sign up by December 31. Lastly, it is subscription based and you cannot end your subscription without also ending your $9.99 price guarantee.
For those who lashed out against Adobe’s unfavorable decision in May, now may be the time to reconsider. The $9.99 price tag will reaming locked in forever for those who stay within the above constraints.
Like This Article?
Don't Miss The Next One!
Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current:
Turns out this offer is good to those who had existing CC memberships. I ‘upgraded’ my Photoshop CC $19.99/month subscription to the $9.99/month which now includes LR5 – Now, i will just say I haven’t been through one full month to know if they’ll be charging me twice – one for each subscription, but it was supposed to be an ‘upgrade’ so I guess i’ll take it up with them when and if that happens. Interestingly, the adobe member website said I was eligible (after putting in my PS CC serial), but the guy who I called when the website initially didn’t load properly (due to server issues apparently) said that I wasn’t….but then he said he couldn’t tell because the servers were down. Anyway, I now have LR5 and PS CC on the $9.99/month subscription, and couldn’t be happier…
What about? I already subscribed to PS CC. had planned to purchase LR.
How do I convert to the current offering. Most of all I would like to lock in the 9.99 cost for lifetime.
I honestly have no clue why people were so upset with Creative Cloud in the first place. If it’s the cost that is the issue then offer a promo once a month for a $65 shoot. If it’s the accessibility that’s the issue, ask yourself what other program you would use instead of Photoshop (hint: none).
CC is a good change for Photogs. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.
More thoughts here: http://stephenelliot.com/2013/05/23/my-take-on-the-creative-cloud/
Once you subscribe you’re stuck with it forever. CS6 is enough for me and I can store my work where ever I choose.
Nowhere did I see on Adobe or other commentators mention that the $9.99 p/month price “…will reaming locked in forever for those who stay within the above constraints.”
Pretty much all that has been said is that the subscription price will stay the same – caveat: the same for how long? Two years? Ten years? The way it’s worded at Adobe on their FAQ Sheet:
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html#pslr-bundle
Will the cost of my Photoshop Photography Program membership increase?
Customers who sign up by December 31, 2013 will be able to continue their membership. This price is not a special introductory price for your first year only; it is the standard price for this level of membership. But if you cancel your membership in the future, you will not be able to re-join at this special price.
You can’t “rejoin” at this price. Swell. Says nothing at all about being grandfathered in at 10 quid forever until death do us part.
Don’t throw away your old copies of Photoshop and Lightroom just yet; you may need to reinstall them when the subscription rate reaches the point of intolerable.
I have Photoshop CS6 with the serial number…but could not get this , so bought Lightroom 5 two days ago…the adobe site checked to see if I would qualify, but alas I did not………..photoshop CS6 was NOTgood enough!
Avril, it only took effect today. Try again with your manage account in CC. Adobe also says to contact them if there is an issue and they will sort it out.
Adobe is really panicking. If you do the math you’ll realize that this price ($120/year) for Lightroom and CC is probably less than a lot of us would have spent upgrading every couple of years under the old system. Evidently there have been a lot of photographers who weren’t upgrading on every new release. But I still think the main problem is that they’re running out of ideas for upgrades. Look at what’s happened to Microsoft with Office. All of the upgrades since 2005 of so have been just cosmetic. How good does a spreadsheet and a word processor need to be. I think if we give in to Adobe and subscribe will just be paying for essentially the same programs forever. There will no incentive for them to improve anything and we’ll be paying just not to loose the ability to re-work our pictures.
I agree with the major point that you made; however I would like to point out that Office 2007 introduced the new compressed file formats with the “x” at the end (i.e. .docx and .xlsx) that substantially reduced file sizes. Under the old formats it didn’t take much for spreadsheets & powerpoints to get quite huge. Granted this is a minor improvement to home users, but for corporate IT departments, I imagine it substantially lowers network storage requirements.
Also curious about for those who decided to be faithful and trustworthy of Adobe and purchase the $19 single app subscription. Will this offer be around by the time our subscription ends I wonder…?
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you for putting all the eggs in one basket. Makes krackin’ ’em oh so much easier. Krack one you got ’em all. And the hens too.
Man I can smell a chicken parm omelet coming on.
I’m wondering the same thing. It seems as though it should be offered to LR owners as well.
How about people owning LightRoom 5 , are they applicable ?