The subsription price has been temporarily lowered so that everyone can get Photoshop CC with Lightroom for $9.99/month.

https://creative.adobe.com/plans/offer/photoshop+lightroom

[Mistlefoot]

When I called and asked about what they meant by that, I was told that they had no plans to raise the price after a year and would probably only adjust for inflation, if needed. I signed up for the promotion. If they raise it to 20 a month, I'll cancel. I was on Lightroom 4 and really wanted Lightroom 5. By the time my 12 months are up, Lightroom 6 will be out and I will have used that for 5-6 months. It made sense to me to pay 120 a year to be able to upgrade to two versions of Lightroom.

Which begets the question......will they have lightroom 6 for purchase or will it be released as a monthly fee as well. Photoshop can no longer be purchased.

[reivax]

Which begets the question......will they have lightroom 6 for purchase or will it be released as a monthly fee as well. Photoshop can no longer be purchased.

It would be a shame if Lightroom could no longer be purchased separately. If the price wasn't right, I'd probably move on to some other software. That's definitely not the option I would want, but if that's my only option, then that's what I'd do. I don't really like the CC system. It's too expensive right now. For casual folk like myself, it's hard to justify what they want us to pay. 10 bucks a month is very justifiable. 20 bucks a month? Not so much.

[rayallen]

According to that the price will likely go up at 12 months - why worry about 24 months?

"We will automatically renew your contract based on the current price of the offering. To me, that means at the 12 month mark, you will then be paying what the current price is at that time. $20? $25? $30?

Ah, yes. You are correct. I read it incorrectly. Maybe not such a good deal after all.

[Parallax]

After a year, the price DOES go back up. I'd advise anyone so skip this offer and let Adobe know that you don't appreciate the horrible attack on consumers that their new subscription-based plan represents.

+1

[mee]

It would be a shame if Lightroom could no longer be purchased separately. If the price wasn't right, I'd probably move on to some other software. That's definitely not the option I would want, but if that's my only option, then that's what I'd do. I don't really like the CC system. It's too expensive right now. For casual folk like myself, it's hard to justify what they want us to pay. 10 bucks a month is very justifiable. 20 bucks a month? Not so much.

10 USD / monthly is too much for Lightroom.

That is 120 USD before tax.

I buy the full version of Lightroom on BF each year for 80 USD. And it requires no internet connection to function. Actually, I suspect even if Adobe disappears, I could continue to use it as long as my operating system supports it (which will be many many years).

Renting access to software is nuts for hobbyists. ..unless the price is dirt cheap.. which it should be imo for the reasons outlined in my post.

Actually, I'd be wary of it as company if only because then you too are at the mercy of the vendor to maintain access to the software. You buy a boxed copy of Photoshop or Lightroom off of the shelf and it works for years on.. if Adobe decides it wants to manufacture can openers one day (or gets sued for identify theft from massive security breaches.. or massively hacked from all of the source code theft.. and goes bankrupt), you still can maintain your business workflow (at least for some period of time). One of the driving factors Adobe claimed when it released CC was (iirc) software piracy. However, even the CC software was apparently pirated weeks after CC was released. It is no more secure and you have no perpetual license. Bad for business... unless your business is Adobe.

If you end up using a plugin or add-on that only works in an older build of say Photoshop.. then you're up a creek because you only get the latest build on the cloud.

The real reason Adobe wants the CC option to work is because it extracts more money out of end user's wallets. If someone can buy a boxed copy and run it for years versus paying 20 USD (as example) monthly, Adobe is going to make money with CC in the long run.

Of course the likelihood of Adobe disappearing overnight is slim, it is a situation I'd soon avoid. And the current prices are not attractive to casual users or even hobbyists imo. ..at least this one right here. Esp with no perpetual licensing agreement. Boxed copies or nothing!

[rayallen]

"based on the current price" The current price became $9.99 at the time that that was posted. I hope that this is what they are referring to.

I am sure they meant the current price when your 12 month contract ends. Yes, the current price is $9.99 today but that is a special Black Friday deal which ends on Dec.2. What will the price be on Dec 3? I don't expect that Adobe will tell you the answer to that.

If they intended that the price would remain at $9.99, why have a cutoff date of Dec. 2? Am I being too cynical?

[Spodeworld]

Here is what Scott Kelby said about it (from the link I posted earlier):

"Q. I know Adobe says they’re going to try to keep the monthly price at this level, but they don’t guarantee it. What if it goes up?
A. My understanding is they are not planning to raise the monthly subscription rate. I imagine it’s because if they did after a year or so, they would lose a lot of customers, right? But nobody is “locked into” this thing — if they raise the price at some point down the road, you can always just not renew and go back to whatever the last version of Photoshop you owned is. That being said, just for fun let’s pretend that they decided to raise the monthly subscription by 10% at some point. That would mean you’d have to pay (wait for it….wait for it…) $12 more a year.

I seriously doubt even that will happen, but I would pose this: find me something whose price just never goes up: Gasoline? Milk? Bread? Electricity? Coffee? College Tuition? Eggs? Anything? "

Notice that at the beginning of the quote Scott said "this level." Also, I would think that they would work with the consumer based on the pricing that they got in on. Perhaps I'm naive.

[twitch]

10 USD / monthly is too much for Lightroom.

I agree, but the offer is for Lightroom & Photoshop, a program that in Australia was well over $1,000 to buy pre-CC, so to me this $10/mnth looks to be a bargain.

[RobA_Oz]

Here is what Scott Kelby said about it (from the link I posted earlier):

"Q. I know Adobe says they’re going to try to keep the monthly price at this level, but they don’t guarantee it. What if it goes up?
A. My understanding is they are not planning to raise the monthly subscription rate. I imagine it’s because if they did after a year or so, they would lose a lot of customers, right? But nobody is “locked into” this thing — if they raise the price at some point down the road, you can always just not renew and go back to whatever the last version of Photoshop you owned is. That being said, just for fun let’s pretend that they decided to raise the monthly subscription by 10% at some point. That would mean you’d have to pay (wait for it….wait for it…) $12 more a year.

I seriously doubt even that will happen, but I would pose this: find me something whose price just never goes up: Gasoline? Milk? Bread? Electricity? Coffee? College Tuition? Eggs? Anything? "

Notice that at the beginning of the quote Scott said "this level." Also, I would think that they would work with the consumer based on the pricing that they got in on. Perhaps I'm naive.

Scott Kelby makes a good living from selling books and conducting workshops about Photoshop. Do you really think he's giving you a disinterested viewpoint there? The more Photoshop users there are, the more books he sells etc. Having said that, his books are good, if a little much like watching a TV show in style, but that's where most people learn to talk these days, isn't it?

Of course Adobe aren't planning to drastically raise the subscription rate relative to the regular price, but you'll notice he's only making his calculations based on the special discounted price. I've got CS5: I don't think I either need or want this version.

[mee]

I agree, but the offer is for Lightroom & Photoshop, a program that in Australia was well over $1,000 to buy pre-CC, so to me this $10/mnth looks to be a bargain.

Actually, on the Adobe forums their representative is repeatedly claiming Adobe won't raise the subscription price for this deal after the year is up, but the price overall could rise due to tax increases... don't know what that means though.. I'm skeptical of adobe at this point..

So if you were in the market for the features in the full PS and also used LR and the 'monthly' fee doesn't deviate more than a few percent a year.. then yeah it isn't too shabby... esp if you were going to buying PS and LR anyways... then you are saving cash... in essence. As long as Adobe keeps the deal going for ~120 / year and you don't miss a payment and keep some form of internet access throughout. I think monthly fees stink.. esp when they are yearly fees masquerading as monthly fees.

However, I wonder how many could actually save money by looking at PS Elements with the Elements+ scripts and a perpetual license to LR? That is, those who aren't going to use the features in full PS vs PSE. These days PSE is rather powerful, especially when unlocked with the Elements+ scripts. It is a trade off on what you need vs paying more.

The bigger concern I have about this, however, is that this offer is the catalyst (and grand master plan) for Adobe taking Lightroom to the cloud and discontinuing boxed product format for it. I can see Adobe in the future saying something along the lines of 'our metrics indicate that a majority of Lightroom users are adobe cc users.. therefore, we're giving you what you want and moving it exclusively to the cloud!'

[twitch]

You might want to make sure the offer is available in your country, since license terms can vary

Yes it is as I took it out. $9.99/mnth AUD incl. tax, how good it that?