You can no longer BUY Adobe Photoshop

You did read the title correct, you no longer can purchase Adobe Photoshop. Adobe is the latest in a line of companies to move to a subscription only model. If you can’t purchase it how will you be able to get it? Well you will have to pay a monthly subscription to have access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud or individual programs. (You will still be able to purchase Adobe Lightroom, at least for now)

Why is Adobe doing this in the first place? One reason is they wanted to focus on making the best product possible which they call the creative cloud. Second they hope to cut back on the bootleg copies. Third, being able to update their software whenever a new feature is ready opposed to waiting 18 months for the next product cycle is important.

So what does it cost? If you do not currently own CS6 the cost for the entire creative cloud which includes 12 different programs is $49.99 a month (on yearly contract). That comes out to $600 a year to access every single software title Adobe makes available. Now this is great for the professional who makes a living using all of these titels who in the past would have to purchase the entire suite every time it was updated. Sure that is a lot of money a year but when this is your profession, it is the cost of doing business.

If you are like me who has no need for anything other than Photoshop $49.99 is way to steep. With that said Adobe has a solution for you as well. You can purchase any one of the titles in the creative cloud for $19.99 a month. Is that worth it, if your profession is built around touching up your images in Photoshop then yes. But if you are just someone who tinkers around here and there the $19.99 a month may not be worth it for you. The funny thing is that the people who are complaining the loudest are the people who have only used bootleg software to begin with.

Do I agree with going to a subscription only option, I don’t really mind it as so many other companies have started to go this direction. We saw that this week when YouTube rolled out Subscription based channels. I already subscribe to netflix, spotify and many others have sub options like Amazon Prime, Office 360 so on and so forth.

Now I do think that $19.99 is to much if you are looking to just use Photoshop. I think $10 a month for one program would have sufficed. This way the casual user could feel like their money was well spent. $240 a year is a lot more than most beginners can afford to spend on this software.

One of the issue is that in the past if you purchased the software it never expired, you could continue to use it even after the new version came out. In this case you are just renting the software and if you choose not to re-up you no longer have access to the programs.

You have to keep in mind that many photographers can not live without Photoshop. Adobe has create software that you can not live without, you can not replace it easily with something else. But like I said above, the people most up in arms are the ones who have never purchased the software.

I read some concerns that people had and I have since done some research to find the answers. One concern was can you use the software when you are not online. The answer to this is yes. From what I read you can go 99 days without being connected to the internet before your software locks you out.

Can you use the software on multiple computers. The answer to this is yes, all you have to do is log into your creative cloud account form any computer anywhere and all of your settings and shortcuts are right there for you to use. This is a really cool feature and something I think is well worth it.

If I cancel my subscription will I loose all my files. No, you will not loose your files, you may not be able to open them without the software but they are preserved and waiting for you when you are ready. This is one thing most people are upset the most about. Once you no longer pay for the service you no longer can open your files.

I have been hearing from a lot of people that Adobe is making a huge mistake here. I personally do not agree with that. They are adapting to the times and finding a solution that works best for them and their loyal paying costumers. See the full time pros use the majority of the Apps that creative cloud offers and the $50 a month is well worth it.

It is still early for Adobe in this new direction and I don’t think their numbers are locked in stone. I think you may see some pricing changes but nothing to drastic. Adobe understands that the people who would never buy their software in the first place probably still wont buy a subscription.

Only time will tell what will happen but in the long run I do not see this being a major issue for Adobe.

For those who are wondering if Lightroom will be going to a subscription service, as of now Adobe says no. But they did say that there may be some features in future releases that you can only access if you are part of the creative cloud. Lightroom is only $149 and sometimes less. Last year the software was twice that price so Adobe did us a solid by dropping the price for upgrading and new purchases.

Another thing I want to point out about the future of Lightroom is the fact that a lot of features that once were only found in Photoshop can now be found in lightroom. This is a good sign for those of you who rarely venture into Photoshop. Putting these Photoshop tools at your fingertips in Lightroom will save us time and money.