Apple has just bundled a load of its creative apps, including the coveted Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, into the new Apple Creator Studio subscription service – and students can take advantage of a significant discount, at just $2.99 / £2.99 per month or $29.99 / £29.99 per year.
Don’t worry, though, you are not forced to subscribe – the individual apps can still be obtained via a one-time purchase.
Now, I know there’s a very vocal cohort who loathe subscriptions and extol the virtues of ownership – not that you ever truly own digital media in perpetuity.
Sure, subscription prices do have a habit of creeping up – and can offer less bang for your buck in the long term. But not everybody has the money or, indeed, wants to commit to a lump-sum purchase. And this is especially true for students or their respective guardians.
Education is a chance for people, young and old, to experiment. And as far as I’m concerned, Apple’s $2.99 student subscription is a fantastic deal.
The news, of course, comes just a couple of months after Canva announced that Affinity Photo would be rebranded as Affinity and available for everyone completely free.
And let’s not forget about the free version of DaVinci Resolve; industry-standard video editing and grading software that’s all over Hollywood.
I remember when I was studying photography at college. By day I’d spend as much time as possible playing around with Adobe Photoshop on a college computer as I could, before heading home and trying to relearn everything all over again on GIMP.
GIMP is an impressive free Photoshop alternative – although it now has big competition from Affinity – but my point is that I didn’t really have any other option.
Creative Cloud didn’t exist, and a one-time purchase of Photoshop was way more than I could ever hope to afford at the time. My parents certainly weren’t going to shell out what would have been a significant amount of money for a piece of software I might simply lose interest in.
Today, the landscape is very different. And while subscriptions might not always be ideal, they are much more accessible. I think this accessibility has made the market more competitive, too. And I personally think that camera phones have played their part.
You see, smart-device apps have always been free or extremely affordable. People simply aren’t used to shelling out large amounts of money for smart software. And yet, as the best tablets have become more powerful, applications are increasingly resembling their desktop counterparts.
What you’re left with are some incredibly impressive pieces of portable software, for very little outlay.
Sure, subscription prices get hiked up. Some force you into long-term contracts and the software isn’t yours to keep. But you no longer have to worry about a big outlay; upgrades are usually free, and you could argue that the market is more competitive and healthier than ever.
And that’s before you consider the range of excellent student discounts from Apple, Adobe, and more. I might have to enroll in some night classes…
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