If you are not interested in subscribing to the new Apple Creator Studio bundle introduced today, you will officially start to miss out on some new features.
Apple said some "exciting new intelligent features and premium content" in Pixelmator Pro, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and Freeform will only be accessible with a Creator Studio subscription. In the U.S., a subscription costs $12.99 per month, or $129 per year, while college students can pay a lower $2.99 per month or $29 per year.
This means that if you bought Pixelmator Pro via one-time purchase, which will still be an option going forward, you will no longer have access to every new feature. However, Apple promises the app will continue to receive updates.
The one-time-purchase version of Final Cut Pro for Mac will also miss out on "premium content."
From the Final Cut Pro page on Apple's website:
A one-time purchase will still be available, but access to some of the premium content is available only to Apple Creator Studio subscribers. If you already own Final Cut Pro, it will continue to be updated.
Apple told CineD that Final Cut Pro's new "intelligent" features Visual Search, Transcript Search, and Beat Detection will be included in both the Creator Studio and one-time-purchase versions of the Mac app, but it is not entirely clear to us if Final Cut Pro for Mac will receive every additional "intelligent" feature that follows in the future.
Overall, both versions of Final Cut Pro for Mac will continue to receive updates.
Fortunately, Apple's website says Logic Pro and MainStage will have all the same features whether they are subscription or one-time-purchase versions.
As for Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and Freeform, those apps will remain free, but some new intelligent features and content will likewise require a Creator Studio subscription. This means these apps are now effectively "freemium."
Here are a few of the first new features coming to Creator Studio subscribers:
- Pixelmator Pro: A new Warp tool lets you twist and shape image layers.
- Keynote, Pages, and Numbers: A new Content Hub provides access to high-quality photos and graphics, and there are new premium templates and themes.
In summary, existing users of Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro never had to worry about paying extra to have every new feature or content pack, but that is no longer the case going forward. And while the Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and Freeform apps never cost money, some new features will now be locked behind a subscription. These changes will undoubtedly disappoint some Apple customers, while helping to boost the company's services revenue.
This article has been revised.