I just was notified the Adobe.com website has gone live with the CS6, here's a quick overview for those asking previously on when to order, pricing, etc. We don't normally dig in to pricing, etc on the forums, but we on the team wanted to make sure you all got the same information and figured I could save some questions...
Tomorrow @10am PST, there will be a press conference officially launching the Creative Cloud and Subscriptions. Before you dismiss, I would encourage you to check it out namely because it, at the heart, is a different method of using Adobe's software. For some it will make perfect sense and be the right fit for how you work, what you can afford, etc. For others, perpetual license (like how we've always sold Audition and other products) is just fine and then you can stick with that.
It's important to be crystal clear on this "cloud" stuff: getting Audition (or any other Adobe application) via subscription/Creative Cloud does not mean it's running OVER the Internet or is web browser based, it means you get a subscription authorization using your Adobe ID login and just download your software from our site ( as if you bought it per normal) and then the install process will authorize your login against your subscription. It's that simple. There has been some confusion and concern where folks were thinking you're running the application "in the cloud" (i.e. connected at all times to the web) and that's not the case.
Availability and "Try before Buy":
Pre-orders have started, but I do not have an official ship date or date when trials will be available (typically the same as ship date). Stay tuned for this part...
If you have doubts about Audition CS6...PLEASE *TRY BEFORE YOU BUY*, we have 30-day trial versions available as always from the product website on Adobe.com. Please download (when it becomes availible) and try it first before clicking buy if you have any doubts in your mind. Getting a refund is a pain and we just want you to be a happy user. We have been trying to get out as much info as early as we can on this forum, our blog, twitter, etc. about what is in the release and what's not.
If you read the blog or some of our posts such as this one: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/988645 and you're good to go, then by all means pre-order away!
Creative Cloud Membership:
- Get ALL Adobe's desktop products including Audition CS6 and a few other interesting things like online storage, etc for $49.95/mo (yes, that's basically Master Collection + more for $50/mo). And I believe there's an introductory price of $30/mo (for the life of the account) good until end of Auguest For some this is huge, if you use nothing but Audition, we get it, go ahead and head to the next item, but if you want to do other things like use Premiere Pro, After Effects and/or Photoshop Extended too, this is worth looking at...
- Go here for more info: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html
Audition CS6 Perpetual:
- Full = $349.00 USD
- Upgrade Audition CS5.5 to Audition CS6 = $75.00 USD
- Upgrade Audition 1.5, 2.0, 3.0 to Audition CS6 = $149.00 USD
- Upgrade Soundbooth CS3, CS4, CS5 to Audition CS6 = $149.00 USD
Audition CS6 Only Subscription (i.e. not Createive Cloud or Suite):
- Month to Month Audition CS6 = $29.95/mo USD
- Yearly Audition CS6 = $19.95/mo USD
Students/Education:
- Some of you noticed Audition's educational pricing went away this past year (along with that pricing on many other products), Well there will be a Creative Cloud Subscription plan for you which will give basically EVERYTHING we make. Check out the Creative Cloud link below...I think it's like almost 1/2 the price of normal Creative Cloud subscription.
IMPORTANT CHANGES IN UPGRADE POLICY YOU SHOULD KNOW:
Adobe's new policy (announced last year sometime, I don't have a link handy) is to only allow perpetual upgrades from 1 WHOLE version back and one 1/2 version back instead of the "3 version back rule". While the product team does not set any pricing or upgrade policy (thats done by corporate so please don't yell at us ;-), we can certainly make a case for our customers and in this case we noticed the 3 version back upgrade policy was off the table for Audition (i.e. the proposal we saw was to only allow upgrade from CS5.5 and 3.0). We know and respect that many folks did not take this upgrade in CS5.5 who are still on version 1.5 or 2.0, so we on the product team fought hard to get a special exception for Audition. There is a caveat...Next release, we have to give up the exception, so be aware if you're on v1.5 and you want to upgrade, do it this release. If you absolutely love v1.5 or v3.0 (or Soundbooth) and will never change no matter what we do going forward...then we're fine with that too (really, we on the team know some of you just love 1.5) but we wanted to be clear the upgrade window is closing for you this release.
Reference Links:
More info on Creative Cloud Here: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html
Audition Product Page: http://www.adobe.com/products/audition
**** NOTE: I have to say this to avoid setting any wrong expectations...but any pricing I put above is subject to change and it's based on what I grabbed from the store price sheets on 4/22/2012, please verify for yourself at adobe.com or via your retailer.