CREATIVE LAYER

Where Technology Meets Imagination

Apr 06, 2012

Adobe Creative Cloud Membership: Your Questions Answered

22 COMMENTS
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We’re getting very excited about the upcoming availability of the Creative Cloud membership! Because this is a big transformation for Adobe, we understand that there are many questions about what the Creative Cloud Membership entails and what it means to you.

Evangelist Paul Trani has collected frequently asked questions about the Creative Cloud and addresses them in a series of videos below. Be sure to subscribe to our Creative Cloud YouTube channel to get the latest updates in the series, and check Adobe.com for more information about the Creative Cloud Membership.  If there are questions you want answered, please post a comment and we’ll get you the information you need.

Also feel free to reach out to the Creative Cloud team on Facebook and Twitter.

Related posts:

  1. Creative Cloud and CS6 Ask a Pro Launch Week Recap
  2. Adobe Create Now Event – Creative Cloud
  3. Creative Cloud and CS6 Ask a Pro Sessions
  4. Updated 4/14: Adobe Creative Cloud Scavenger Hunt: $10,000 and then Some

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=88201306 Efe Abbe

    We got it. now when is the release date?

  • Tomd8

    Interesting marketing concept…but definitely not for me :D

  • JW

    Here’s my problem; If I transition my boxed license to the Cloud, and after a year (and $600 in subscription costs) I decide the Cloud isn’t offering me everything I thought it would, then I have to spend more to upgrade my CS5.5 Master Collection physical product (another $550).

    What if after a few years of this subscription service, I no longer want to continue paying a monthly rental fee and would prefer to be satisfied with, say, CS 7.0? It could be possible that my upgrade path has expired and then I would either have to purchase another non-Cloud license for maybe $2600 again, or keep paying Adobe $6,000 every 10 years in order to use the products I enjoy playing with if at that time I were no longer making money with the suite but were using it for a hobby?

    • Someguy

      Why in the hell would you transition your boxed license to the Cloud? Just buy a new seat under the sub. model and keep your old seat.

    • guest

      There will be a month-by-month option, so later on you can say “hey, i’m on a staycation for the next 30 days and I want to edit all my home videos of my cat barfing on things” and all you have to do is pay the $79 fee once to have the software that month.

      Also, the trend has been heavily downward on Adobe’s software the last 10 years, so 10 years from now you wouldn’t be considering the same prices at the rate that Adobe has been going. See if you can dig up the price for Photoshop or After Effects in 2002…either one would have run you about the same as any of the suites right now.

    • DanielSw

      As if you’re going to last ten years in this business while quibbling over relative peanuts! If you’re not making 10-30-40 times your subscription fees for the software/services, you’re in the wrong business anyway.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/VPLMIGNPTQBQBR5QFPKAQ6OZAU Joey

    okay so, let me get this straight…

    Adobe has had issues rolling out features, and it’s only NOW figuring out how to fix stuff. Perhaps I could help…

    1.) Patches, service packs, and the Adobe Updater that has existed since CS2. If there is new code to push down, service packs have been downloadable for nearly two decades.
    2.) If the issue is that Adobe needs to charge for these features, well then there’s this new-fangled technology called a Plug-In that’s existed for nearly 20 years. Companies such as AlienSkin, Panopticum, and Pixelan have been riding the gravy train of adding features to Adobe products for money as the foundation of their business model. Surely someone at Adobe could figure out to do that…

    Also, it’s not exactly creative CLOUD if it’s a locally installed application and can run in offline mode. No, that’s just a monthly activation DRM scheme. Call it what it is. If it’s not running in a browser or Remote Desktop session or similar, then there’s no difference between the ‘cloud’ version and the plastic disc version, except the cost and DRM involved.

    “you can sync 20GB of your data to the touch apps”
    …the iPad only ones? That do the same thing as either Dropbox or (ideally) a bog standard USB cable? “but no one wants to use cables” …no one wants to upload 20GB of data at the ~80kbytes/sec my home DSL pushes data out the door in, either.

    “you can show your pictures on your tablet”
    …just like the iPhoto/Gallery apps have enabled us to do since their release?

    Look, I’m not gonna lie, I’m probably going to end up buying the CS6 suite on a set of plastic discs, because I fear that this is the way that Adobe is headed and I want something newer than my CS4 plastic discs. But please, don’t patronize me. Be real: the only reason why this whole phony-cloud version is being released is for two reasons:

    1.) because Adobe wants recurring income from existing customers, rather than one-and-done purchases, since somewhere around CS2 or CS3, the products were basically feature complete.
    2.) the bean counters are hellbent on wiping every pirated copy of Adobe products of The Pirate Bay.

    Once our data is in Adobe proprietary formats, stored on their servers, requiring monthly subcription fees to access, they will have the business model they always dreamed of. There is NO benefit to existing Adobe customers that didn’t already exist in quite usable forms. No problems have been solved, no benefits have been given to customers, and I trust NOBODY at Adobe to rapidly roll out features to cloud customers after MAYBE the first year, because by then, all our data lives on Adobe servers as a “feature”.

    Look, I know it was a crippling blow that SOPA didn’t pass, but let me give two quick ideas as to how to raise a little more money without DRMing it into existence:

    1.) If two-versions-back is the upgrade window, then sell the third-version-back master suites without support or upgrades for $399. CS3 is still fully functional, requires not a dime from Adobe besides the plastic media, and at $399 for the kitchen sink edition, is pretty affordable.
    2.) offer in-app content like Digital Juice for sale. $20 for a coordinated lower third/transition/motion backdrop/title preset/background music, instantly downloadable, and instantly added to my timeline? it’s relatively cheap to make, and allows Adobe to monetize even the pirated copies of their suites.
    3.) too-good-to-pass-up crossgrades from FCPX. Apple users are seriously questioning Apple’s commitment to their demographic. Take their place.

    Look, I’m not against Adobe keeping the lights on, or paying for new versions. All I’m against is a ridiculous business model that’s being sold as a benefit to me, when not a single video yet has demonstrated there being an actual unique benefit.

    Joey

  • Chris

    What if I already bought one of the CS6 packages (or upgraded from an earlier edition)? Is there a discount planned for CS6 owners? And as a side question: there is an option to have only some of the services (for example I don’t publish for the iPad & comp, I already have my websites hosted elsewhere and the company I make projects for has it’s own online indexing/reviewing/publishing solution)?

  • jaco graaff

    Can I buy this directly through Adobe and not from a local reseller in Australia or South-Africa??? I have to pay up to 30% more for Adobe, Autodesk products with NO added benefit.

  • Brian Parker

    Is the product now fully multi-lingual? Can I subscribe to it on the Japanese store, and open the apps in both Japanese and English.

    Is it still possible for one user to use the software on 2 machines using 1 license?

    How often will updates be seeded in? Will it be like smaller companies that add new features on a weekly/ monthly basis, or closer to the current development cycle?

  • http://twitter.com/vterm Theodore Athanasiou

    Dear Paul,

    thank you very much for your article and useful videos!
    What i want to know is if Creative Cloud will be platform specific or platform agnostic (regarding Desktop software installations).
    For instance, if you have an AVL plan, you get serial numbers for both platforms (Win and Mac).
    Another thing is the activations. Do we still have 2 activations? (Desktop – Laptop)
    Thanks again.

  • DennisL

    I have had less than great success when installing new versions of the Suite on the forst day of release. Additionally O/S updates don’t always go smoothly with all applications in the suite. It has taught me not to be an early adopter. So, I prefer to upgrade when I see the “complaints” on the user groups drop off. That often takes 6 months. I would not like upgrades to happen automatically.

  • http://www.edenweb.ie Peter Knight

    Hi Paul
    Thanks for the updates. I have a Mac and PC here and use both equally for creative projects. Is a Creative Cloud subscription bound to a particular platform or can I have a subscription and use that on both PC Desktop and Mac laptop?

    Also, do you have any info on the European pricing and launch dates?

  • Klausjp

    we don’t want it, upgrading at will,

  • Peter

    Friday 13th coming up. Could it be???

  • BuckyThreadkiller

    If one key feature is the continual updating of features, what does that do to backwards compatibility? As a freelancer I deal with several clients who work with CS apps but they are currently on everything from CS5.5 to CS4. Corporate budget constraints and cycles almost never allow timely updating to the latest greatest.

    Backwards compatibility has always been a problem with Flash, and now InDesign isn’t terribly easy. If the Cloud gets us into issues of a colleague with the box version needing the CS6.25 mid-June Update version plug-in to have certain features or even open the file, you are courting disaster.

    Does Adobe have a plan for those of us in the real world trying to make a living with this product, or is it as it has always seemed, and we’re left to our own devices to get something a printer, client or colleague can work with?

    • Tom Kolodotschko

      With regards to the freelance part of your post, I really think this will benefit the type of cash-flow that freelancers have. If they are VAT registered (which I always have been as a freelancer) then it’s just 38 pcm, a much more achievable number to work to with smaller job prices.

      This is definitely something I could convince people who I work with and for to adopt, rather than the huge lump sums previously.

  • http://myspace.wihe.net/ Webespacio

    Interesting proposal, would have to try to give my first findings.

    regards

  • Pingback: Adobe Creative Cloud — preguntas frecuentes… y sus respuestas | Blog oficial de video2brain

  • Faiz1964

    good

  • Pingback: Qué es Adobe Creative Cloud | Blog oficial de video2brain

  • Twjdeane

    Creative Cloud seems very aimed towards ‘design’ you mention posting your designs for people to comment, share and publish… what is in Creative Cloud for Pro Video users using Premiere Pro and After Effects, any cool cloud features for us?

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