Apple has finally decided to take the fight to Adobe by combining its collection of creator apps into a subscription service.
Apple Creator Studio is a monthly or annual subscription that gives Apple Mac and iPad users access to the company's creative apps.
For $19.99 a month (or $199 annually), subscribers get access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor and MainStage. There's also premium content and AI features for Keynote, Pages, Numbers and, later this year, Freeform.
University students and educators can grab the subscription for just $4.99 a month or $49 a year, which is a solid deal if you're eligible.
The subscription is available from 29 January, and new subscribers get a one-month free trial. If you buy a new Mac or a qualifying iPad, you'll get three months free.
What's included?
The headline apps are Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, Apple's professional video editing and music production software. Both are getting some serious AI upgrades as part of Creator Studio.
Final Cut Pro now has Transcript Search, which lets you find specific soundbites in hours of footage just by typing what was said. Visual Search lets you search for objects or actions in your clips. Beat Detection automatically analyses music tracks and displays a Beat Grid, making it easy to cut video to the rhythm.
On iPad, there's a new Montage Maker that uses AI to automatically edit together a dynamic video based on the best moments in your footage.
Logic Pro is getting Synth Player, a new AI Session Player that can create electronic music performances with chordal and synth bass parts. Chord ID can analyse any audio or MIDI recording and turn it into a ready-to-use chord progression, which sounds genuinely useful for anyone trying to figure out what chords are in a song.
Pixelmator Pro, the award-winning image editor, is coming to iPad for the first time with touch optimisation and full Apple Pencil support. Both Mac and iPad versions are getting a new Warp tool for twisting and shaping layers.
Apple's productivity apps (Keynote, Pages and Numbers) are getting AI features too, including the ability to generate presentations from text outlines, create presenter notes from existing slides, and generate formulas in Numbers.
There's also a new Content Hub with curated photos, graphics and illustrations, plus premium templates.
Should you subscribe or buy outright?
If you're not a fan of subscriptions, you can still buy most of these apps as one-time purchases on the Mac App Store:
- Final Cut Pro: $499.99
- Logic Pro: $299.99
- Pixelmator Pro: $79.99
- Motion: $79.99
- Compressor: $79.99
- MainStage: $49.99
Add all that up, and you're looking at $1,089.94 to own them all outright.
At $19.99 a month, you'd need to stay subscribed for 55 months, which is about four and a half years, before you've paid more than buying everything outright.
If you opt for the annual subscription at $199, that breakeven point is roughly five and a half years.
So if you're a professional who's going to be using these apps for years to come, buying outright still makes sense. You own the software, you can use it forever, and you don't have to worry about subscription costs eating into your budget year after year.
But if you're a student, hobbyist, or someone who wants to try professional creative software without dropping over a grand upfront, the subscription is pretty compelling. The education pricing, in particular, is hard to beat.
There's also the iPad consideration. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro on iPad are only available as subscriptions normally ($14.99 and $7.99 per month respectively), so if you want to work across devices, Creator Studio starts looking more attractive.
The AI features and premium content for the productivity apps are subscription-only, so even if you already own Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro, there might be a reason to subscribe if you want access to those bells and whistles.
Apple Creator Studio will be available on the App Store from 29 January, and you can share it with up to six family members through Family Sharing.
