Photoshop CC and Lightroom subscription

[JClishe]

Which might make one think they lost a lot of photographers when they went to the subscription method, and aren't getting as many photographers to sign up on the subscription plan as they think they need.

In one of Scott Kelby's blog posts from last November or so, he mentioned that Adobe was hoping for a million CC subscribers by the end of 2013 and they hit their goal 4 months ahead of plan. So no, they didn't lose a lot of photographers.

My guess is they're selling a metric sh*t ton of the $10/mo plan and they'd be foolish to turn it off until net-new signups start to decline.

 

[ronlane]

I'd get the subscription to be able to have the latest LR and CS. My problem is that I need to upgrade my OS first and I've been dragging my feet on that.

 

[KmH]

Which might make one think they lost a lot of photographers when they went to the subscription method, and aren't getting as many photographers to sign up on the subscription plan as they think they need.

In one of Scott Kelby's blog posts from last November or so, he mentioned that Adobe was hoping for a million CC subscribers by the end of 2013 and they hit their goal 4 months ahead of plan. So no, they didn't lose a lot of photographers.

My guess is they're selling a metric sh*t ton of the $10/mo plan and they'd be foolish to turn it off until net-new signups start to decline.

Do you mean Sept. 9 when he quoted Adobe as having 750,000 total CC subscribers back in June and was speculating about total CC subscribers- not stating a fact - by the end of Sept (Q3).

My Take on Adobe?s Creative Cloud Deal for Photographers | Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider
. . . Back in June Adobe announced they had over 720,000 paid CC subscribers. This month when they announce their quarterly earnings where do you think those numbers will be now? I wouldn’t be surprised to see them at nearly a million paid subscribers.. . .

He was also stressing in that blog post that the "limited time offer" to subscribe to the Photoshop Photography Program ended at the end of 2013 - but it's been extended by 5 months - so far.
He also pointed out that Adobe dropped the qualifying requirements. If all was hunky-dory why did Adobe decide they needed to do that?

How many of the new subscribers changed their minds and canceled their PPP ( Photoshop Photography Program) subscription?

According to Adobe's Q4 FY2013 Financial Results report the total number of all Creative Cloud subscribers was only 1.4 M.
All Creative Cloud subscribers would include Adobe's full range of users and not just customers availing themselves of the Photoshop Photography Program.
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/pdfs/201312/Q413Earnings.pdf

So it is still my opinion that Adobe is struggling to lure photographers to the $9.99 a month PPP (so far effectively unlimited time) subscription offer.

 

[JClishe]

Do you mean Sept. 9 when he quoted Adobe as having 750,000 total CC subscribers back in June and was speculating about total CC subscribers- not stating a fact - by the end of Sept (Q3).

No I meant exactly what I said. A November blog post where he said Adobe hit 1MM CC subscribers 4 months ahead of plan. Check the Q&A: Adobe?s Letting Everyone In On $9.99 ?Bundle Deal? But Only For a Few Days | Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider

According to Adobe's Q4 FY2013 Financial Results report the total number of all Creative Cloud subscribers was only 1.4 M.

OK awesome, thanks for confirming the point I was making!! Kelby said Adobe's original goal was 1M subscribers by the end of calendar 2013 and you've provided data that says they exceeded their goal by 40%. Thanks!

 

[KmH]

None of that says how many photographers, just total CC subscribers.

Most of Adobe's CC customers aren't photographers. Adobe CC is a variety of software applications that Photoshop CC and LR are is just part of.

So we have no idea what impact the change to subscription pricing had on the number of photographers.

 

[JClishe]

Most of Adobe's CC customers aren't photographers.

So what? Adobe set a goal of 1MM subscribers in 2013 and they ended with 1.4MM.

So we have no idea what impact the change to subscription pricing had on the number of photographers.

I'd assume it didn't have much impact since the $9.99/mo pricing was introduced at the end of the year.

 

[SpikeyJohnson]

Something you can look into is if your company allows you to get a cheaper sub plan. I work for a college and all faculty and staff have the option to get the $50 monthly sub from Adobe for $10 a year instead of the insanely large price. So maybe if you work for certain companies they can help you out with that.

 

[hotdrop]

Generally speaking its a bad deal overall unless you fall into the frequent upgrader category. It doesn't seem like they add all that much to Photoshop each year to make it worthwhile, the biggest factor tends to be OS compatibility, most people could use CS1 or earlier and still not use most of the features. They added some nice lens correction stuff in CS5 but that seems like the only very worthwhile feature since like CS1 for normal photo editing.

 

[Buckster]

What will do when the subscription price goes up? What do you do with all your edits once you stop paying the fee? Files won't be able to be backwards compatible to operate on old CS6. Do you plan on paying monthly for the rest of your life?

Are you saying that .PSD files created in Photoshop CC aren't backwards compatible with CS6? I don't own CS6 so I can't test this, but I think you're wrong.

And lets be honest - CS6 won't be operable on any current operating system in 10 years or so anyway. Can you install CS6 on Windows 2000? Nope. So do you think you'll be able to install CS6 on Windows 11 or Mac OSIV or whatever happens to be current in the year 2024? Doubtful. So if you're going to throw around the file compatibility "for the rest of your life" argument then the only way that holds any validity whatsover is if you're suggesting hanging onto a Windows 7 / 8 / 9 / OSX computer "for the rest of your life" in order to run CS6.

You've got it backwards.

No, you can't generally install today's software on older OS versions. But you CAN install older software on new OS versions. You can install Photoshop version 2.5 on any current OS, if you want to. And chances are that you will be able to install it or CS6 on any future OS for the foreseeable future as well.

As for file compatibility, I have both CS6 and CC installed. I've been doing my work in CC, and the most recent of my CC PSD files, made with the latest CC updates, currently opens up and works just fine in CS6.

As to the post being responded to:

What will do when the subscription price goes up?

That depends on how much it goes up by. As long as it remains reasonable, I'm okay with it. The Adobe rep I talked to said they currently have no plans to raise the subscription price. That doesn't mean it can't happen, of course, but I'm not going to worry about it until it becomes an actual issue.

What do you do with all your edits once you stop paying the fee? Files won't be able to be backwards compatible to operate on old CS6.

They're compatible so far. IF future updates make them incompatible, and IF I ever decide to stop my subscription because they've raised the price too high, there is always the fact that I retain my original RAW files, and can use any other editor to recreate an image, if I REALLY need to, which I honestly don't anticipate happening very much, if at all. I plan to keep CS6 in any case, so I can always go back to that if I have to.

Do you plan on paying monthly for the rest of your life?

As long as the price remains reasonable, and as long as I continue to have an interest in using it, yes. At this time, it's a better price than I paid for each update every 18 months or so. As long as it remains reasonably priced in the future, even with some slight increases due to inflation that causes all goods and services to increase, I'm fine with it.