Let’s face it… we knew this was coming
Remember when you went into a Tower Records to buy cds…? Yea, me neither. That’s exactly what Napster caused, the destruction of the music industry as we know it because mp3s gave you the ability to get all the music you want for free. The same holds true for Computer programs. I don’t have the facts in front of me but I’m sure Photoshop is one of the most pirated programs out there. And it’s unfortunate because in the end it ends up being us loyal people that bought the shit the proper way that end up suffering.
There’s no question that web developers, web designers, and graphic designers are the best fields to be in right now and with the Freelancer BOOM that’s occurred over the past 3 – 5 years there’s been an unprecedented amount of copies of the programs like Photoshop and Illustrator that’s been pirated and pirated and pirated. Why pay when you can get it for free right? A lot of fault lies on Adobe, you make a group of programs like the Creative Suite over $1000 and guess what… people are going to figure out how to steal it. Mark the price down and maybe…just maybe people will purchase it legally.
But whatever the case those days are over now with the Creative Cloud. Adobe says they “believe the creative process can be better” … what they really mean is it can be more “profitable”. I mean damn what a deal for them?? Monthly subscribers vs Single one time payment? You got us caught on a leash for life that way! I saw the monthly option a while back on their site and I thought “Oh that’s a good idea for people that only want to use it for a little while.” Little did I know that it was a test to maneuver people away from the old cereal boxes of software cds to the up and coming cloud based world… sneaky bastards.
So in a nut shell what the Creative Cloud is you pay a monthly fee to access all of the latest and greatest design tools that we hold so near and dear [and count on for our livelihood in some cases] instead of going to the store and buying the programs. Then you can use it like you normally would execpt with a MUCH heftier price tag attached to it. And, oh boy, it can even connect to your Behance account to “find inspiration, showcase your work, get feedback, and gain global exposure for your portfolio”… yay.
The price tag for Students is currently $20/month for the first year… but you know that’s going to go up. SO the first year student can maybe afford it but fast forward to when they have to pay $30 or $40 the next year then you run into trouble.
For us none students we’re looking at $50/month…. good god. So now someone out of college who works from home will have to pay rent, cable, internet, electric, netflix, STUDENT LOANS, utilities (I’m, assuming), car payments or transportation fees, car insurance, cell phone, food/beer, maybe news subscriptions, and oh yea another $50 a month for ADOBE…. It’s as if society doesn’t want us under 30 people to live on our own…
For us already invested in this industry, hey it could be a good thing…
The upside I see to this is it could help weed out the new developers and graphic designers from entering the market in the future since there’d be a heavy price tag to pay to do it… I can’t see most college kids who can barely afford their own food and beer to be able to shell out $20/month for this. The computer room is going to get MIGHTY crowded…
In closing, I say to all my software designers out there now is the time to end the monopoly Adobe has and create an open source program like you did with Microsoft Office or even just a similar lower cost version for Creative Suite… Think about it. Your market possibilities just opened up TEN FOLD which means, if done right, you could be a millioniare.