Ownership is a huge issue in the digital age.
And one area that hasn’t escaped this is software, such as Adobe’s program suite that allows some of us to make a living.
On top of it all, there’s the whole artificial intelligence and generative AI debate.
Essentially, the pace of technological development and the concept of ownership aren’t quite keeping pace and the old single license purchase model has morphed into ongoing subscription offerings. Sure, the cost upfront is typically much smaller, but the cost never goes away. For some people, subscribing to productivity software is just the name of the game.
But for more old-school people, watching a beloved product shift to this new paradigm always hurts.
Such is what has happened, finally, with Luminar Neo which will only be available via subscription going forward.
All isn’t lost, however, as PetaPixel notes that, after breaking this news, Skylum reached out to them to let them know that they were still going to offer support to legacy customers.
“For most of our customers, these changes likely won’t affect anything in how they use Luminar Neo. The main difference will be how they access the new Generative AI tools as well as the Extensions they have not purchased up until now — those will only be available in the Subscription, however, they are in no way obliged to switch [to subscription] if they don’t want to, and can continue using Luminar Neo as before. We honor the choice of our users when it comes to owning a perpetual license of their favorite editing app. The purchase of a Lifetime license for new customers will also still be available.”
It is helpful to note that, even with this clarification, things are still somewhat murky or, at least, complicated, as PetaPixel outlines. For our part, we clocked this as “inevitable” given the competitive landscape’s preference for the subscription business model.
What do you think of subscription business models? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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