NASDAQ Suspends Trading Of Avid, Maker Of Sibelius & Pro Tools

We all knew it was coming ... especially after the last round of reports from Avid saying "All our previous financial data is flawed, and um ... the dog ate our homework as well" No one is surprised that this didnt satisfy the NASDAQ. I'm stunned they got as much leniency as they did. Its sad really ... gross mismanagement of a digital audio pioneer.

Does this mean they aren't the "industry standard" any more?

I wonder how much pro tools 6 on an iMac g5 connected to an original mbox will be worth? I thought about selling it but might be collectible one day.

There are a couple of threads on this at the DUC and in the Moan Zone at GS.

That is a seriously silly claim, simply because it is non quantifiable, these companies sales figures are not all shared publicly, and if we go simply by web traffic/downloads then FLS would hold something in the region of 50-60% of the market hahahaha Also this whole idea that this issue over at Avid has anything to do with sales or performance is quite literally laughable, it is more likely that so much money was being made that somebody decided they could skim some here and there and nobody would notice, and even that is much less likely than the accountant simply making stupid mistakes with rule changes. This is being blown out of proportion right now (Be clear here, I am not saying they have financial or sales issues or not either way) Things have to play out before anything can be said about the situation.

Shocking! We all knew this was coming. The curious thing is that it sort of parallels the U.S., people won't even discuss a world without PT. As if it has some magical power to sustain itself with no innovation and a crazy price tag. I suggest Avid consider licensing the PT project file format, it's their last card. There are still some digital cork sniffers apparently, but people coming up are not going to have such a belief. Otherwise, if Justin & co. just stay the course....

True - but the business niche that Avid is operating in is indeed working towards more server-based solutions. The important thing is how does PT fit into their overall product line? It is only one component of an overall production software line - and that line is serving a niche market that is increasingly looking to cut costs more & more. Nothing is forever. As Avid is offered more serious competition in their core areas (by Adobe, for instance), if they can't keep up then they will end up marginalized (or even out of business) despite peoples' belief that they are "industry standard".

hahahaha.... I see it as a great opportunity for Cockos to buy AVID and fix it! ummmm ...ReaTooled? The new industry standard :D

When you consider Pro Tools' capabilities in comparison to other DAWs on the market, it has always been over-priced. While its marketing has primarily been to "high-end" and "pro" facilities, it never changed that fact (IMO). The only reason it was for so long the "industry standard" was simply because it was the one of the first and it offered software/hardware proprietary systems (unlike other early DAWs such as Cakewalk's first releases - eg. Pro Audio). That in no way made/makes it superior to any other, just more "elite". I have always preferred other DAWs to Pro Tools, even since the earlier years of software-based recording. Having used all major (and some not-so...) DAWs over the years in one form/situation or another, I find REAPER to be the most stable and user-friendly, still. The customization, compatability and workflow just isn't matched anywhere else in the industry. AVID has pushed so hard to make their products proprietary and incompatible with other like products, that it was really just a matter of time before they damaged their standing in the industry. Forcing companies that made VST and VSTi products to be compatible with their way of use...just a bad idea, I think. And they waited far too long to become "native friendly"...too little, too late. And, I have found Pro Tools far too temperamental and unstable over the years to be usable over long periods of time. I can't say I would be sorry to see it go...just saying.

And now I see that those figures I stated on GS were from memory and were wrong! They should have been - CuBase 22% Logic 18% Reaper 13% ProTools 11% Ableton Live 10% Studio One 8% Once again, that's just user base and not sales, downloads, MI sales, ebay sales or anything else. In-store MI sales for the EU have CuBase at about double PT, with Live at position three. With the launch of Bitwig, this is becoming an absurdly crowded market!