Apple launches Creator Studio
They all turn into subscriptions.
Apple today announced the new addition of a subscription into their lineup: Apple Creator Studio. This is a subscription that lumps Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, Compressor, Pixelmator Pro, and "premium" content for Keynote, Pages and Numbers. It all culminates in an Adobe Creative Cloud-esque app called "Content Hub," where users can see all of the media they have been creating across all of the Pro Apps.
Apple has been slow to move towards subscriptions for their Pro Apps, and while it is still true that you can buy and use the Pro Apps in their subscription standalone, it is clear that Apple is moving towards the subscription model. With every other category of service from Apple, it is a subscription, so it was inevitable. There have been rumors swirling for years that Apple would move to a subscription model, and it seems that it has officially happened.
Plus, with the announcement in 2023 that Final Cut for iPad would be a subscription-based model, suspicions of a subscription-based Mac version only heightened.
The subscription also includes "premium" content for Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. This includes some AI features like generating presenter notes and even slides automatically and AI image creation and slide clean up (correcting layout, typography, and alignment issues). The other biggest piece of content is the "high-quality" media library in Content Hub which provides better stock media and photos. This is all helpful, especially the stock media, but it all feels like it should not be paywalled and should just be in the release of macOS 27 in June.
Also, if Apple wants to sell AI to customers, paywalling it not only behind the hardware, but also behind the services to access them goes a little bit too far and is honestly un-Apple-like.
Another interesting addition is Pixelmator Pro. Apple acquired it recently and it appears that this is its official debut into Apple marketing. It is a very good and polished photo editor, and it is very similar to what Apple would have made, if they made a photo editor. It is important to note that Apple hasn't really had a photo editor like Photoshop or even Lightroom recently, so it is nice to see that it is at a lower cost with this subscription (even if it is only $49.99 standalone).
Apple also noted that all of the apps will be available standalone still, and the current licenses will not lose support. Keynote, Pages, and Numbers will all still be free. All of the licenses will still workable and still get updates. It also looks like the only features that are paywalled behind Creator Studio are AI features, which not everyone cares about, especially right now. It will be priced at $12.99 per month or $129 per year. For students, it will be priced at $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. These are very good price points and are much more attainable than other creative subscriptions like Adobe Creative Cloud. It will be available starting January 28th.
The Apple Creator Studio looks to be a good value, especially for first time buyers, but the AI advantages look okay at best. We will have to wait and see what Apple does soon.
