So, after all the sturm und drang about subscription vs. perpetual licenses, revised price schemes, and deadline extensions, Avid has once again dropped the price of an upgrade for users of Sibelius 7.5 or earlier who have missed the 1-year window to upgrade. The price for those users is now $199 USD, available from Avid’s online store.
When the new license plan was announced last year, the price of a perpetual license for existing users upgrading or renewing after more than one year’s time was implied to be the same as for new users — originally set at $689 and then reduced to a still-hefty $599. More recently, Avid announced a reduction in that price to $299 and set a deadline of June 30, 2016 to upgrade, and then extended the deadline by a week to July 6.
Now, to get back on board with a perpetual license, it will only cost $199, quite a reasonable price, considering that it happens to be the same price as a crossgrade from a competing product such as Finale, Notion, Encore, or Mosaic. (Which, of course, is what we’ve been saying all along — but we’re happy to forego any credit here!)
The $199 price includes a perpetual license — that is, the right to use Sibelius in perpetuity, just as before — along with one year of upgrades and support. A deal for a perpetual license and three years of support is also available for $299. The price for users who renew their upgrade and support plan within one year is $89.
Avid has confirmed that the $199 price will be good through the end of this year. So then, here’s a summary of the pricing schemes for perpetual licenses:
- You own a perpetual license to Sibelius 8 and renew your upgrade and support plan within one year of when you purchased it: $89 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support)
- You own a perpetual license to Sibelius 8 and renew your upgrade and support plan after more than one year of when you purchased it: $199 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support); $299 (includes 3 years of upgrades and support)
- You own Sibelius 1-7.5 and haven’t yet upgraded to Sibelius 8: $199 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support); $299 (includes 3 years of upgrades and support)
- You own any version of Sibelius and qualify for educational pricing: $89 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support)
- You own a competing product: $199 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support)
- You are completely new to Sibelius: $599 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support)
- You are completely new to Sibelius and qualify for educational pricing: $299 (includes 1 year of upgrades and support)
It’s summer, so no quizzes, we promise!
All prices quoted above are from the Avid store. You might find lower prices at resellers such as Amazon’s US store or Amazon’s UK store (these are affiliate links and purchases made through them will support this blog through a commission fee).
itzhak yaron
When AVID drops price to match added value of Logic X upgrades we will know they care about us and not use upgrades to resell what we already own….
Andrei
Not so much about price, as it is about perceived value of benefits and confidence in a sustainable future for Avid’s Sibelius, of course.
There’s a great “road map” of requested improvements on IdeaScale, some notable ones that have been implemented recently. Looking forward to more such tweaks/improvements and added functionality, as I’m guardedly optimistic.
I’m pretty happy with 8.4, but certainly keeping 7.1.3 on a couple of machines, just in case…
Thanks for the pricing clarification, Philip, as well as the summer reading list!
David MacDonald
Still waiting for $199 worth of value to upgrade from 7.5 on Mac.
Bob Morabito
It should be CLEARLY pointed out that the ONLY people being forced to pay a penalty fee ($689, then $599, then $299, now $199 til the end of Dec) to get back on board the subscription bandwagon are the long time loyal users..educational users can jump on and off at will for $89 bucks.
Itzhak Yaron
Unreal indeed
Terrible
Management not hearing how plainly we see their tricks.
Desperate for profit
Bob Zawalich
Thanks for nicely summing up the options, Philip. Good to have this info in one place.
Philip Rothman
I’ve closed commenting on this post because of inappropriate comments (not published) from several readers.