Just Announced: Photoshop and Lightroom Bundle for $9.99 a Month

Just Announced: Photoshop and Lightroom Bundle for $9.99 a Month

We have just heard that Adobe has listened to the cries of photographers since the Adobe MAX announcement of the new CC pricing and is giving a new bundle specific to their needs containing Photoshop and Lightroom for just $9.99 a month... if you sign up by December 31... and prove ownership of CS3 or later.

From the Adobe Blog:

"During today’s keynote at the Photoshop World conference in Las Vegas, Adobe is showcasing how photography workflows will evolve to take advantage of an increasingly connected world. This includes a tour of how easy it is today to use Creative Cloud to make your content and creations available anywhere, plus the power of Behance to showcase work. We also highlight some of the exciting new technologies that we’re working on for Photoshop CC and Lightroom; our roadmap for making our photography products even more connected; and a peek at how we’re planning to bring advanced Adobe digital imaging technology to mobile devices. You’ll see these products and services become available in the not too distant future.

If you missed the keynote, you can watch the replay here, which should be posted within about 24 hours. Throughout this week at Photoshop World, we’re demoing some great digital imaging innovation and I hope you’re as excited as we are about what’s available today and what’s coming soon, thanks to our talented teams of engineers.

Since introducing Photoshop CC, we’ve listened to feedback from a spectrum of our customers, from advanced professionals to casual enthusiasts. One common request was a solution specifically tailored for photographers. We listened, and at Photoshop World we’re announcing a special offer for our loyal Photoshop customers. Beginning today, customers who own Photoshop CS3 or higher are eligible for a special Creative Cloud membership offer that includes all of the following for just $9.99/month:

Photoshop CC
Lightroom 5
20 GB of online storage
Behance ProSite
Access to Creative Cloud Learn’s training resources
Ongoing upgrades and updates

To be clear, $9.99 is not an introductory price. It is the price for those of you who sign up by December 31, 2013.This offer will be available at the same time we introduce the new version of Lightroom 5.2 in a couple weeks. Visit the FAQ to learn more and follow Photoshop on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to find out when the offer goes live.

All of us on the Photoshop team look forward to continuing to build on our 20+ year relationship with our loyal community."

So it sounds like the concept is a limited offer, in both time and scope. From what I have gathered (and I Adobe has clarified it is indeed a limited time offer), if you don't sign up for this deal by the end of the year, there will be no option to do so in the future. You also have to prove ownership of an Adobe license from CS3 or later. Kind of a weird decision to make this not a continual deal going into the future if you ask me. I understand the CS3 requirement though.

To answer some additional questions about current CC members:

Existing Creative Cloud members who wish to transition to this offer must own a previous version of Photoshop or Photoshop Extended, version CS3 or later (CS3.x, CS4, CS5.x, or CS6).

If you meet this qualification, how you transition will depend on the type of membership you have:

Photoshop CC single-app members will be automatically transitioned to this new program, with its additional benefits and lower ongoing price.

Creative Cloud complete members should contact Adobe Customer Service to discuss transitioning to this new offer.

Jaron Schneider's picture

Jaron Schneider is an Fstoppers Contributor and an internationally published writer and cinematographer from San Francisco, California. His clients include Maurice Lacroix, HD Supply, SmugMug, the USAF Thunderbirds and a host of industry professionals.

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118 Comments

So if you don't own a CS3 version (or higher) of Photoshop you can't use this offer?

Yes, it would appear that way.

Yea, and I think this rule sucks. I wanted to get the original photoshop before, but it was just too expensive for me as I'm still starting out, and now that it's a good deal and it's easy to afford, I can't really get it. Meh.

Until they start raising the prices. The high cost is why it is pirated.

If anyone whines about this, I am revoking their ability to call themselves a photographer or artist. What a smokin' deal.

hahaha

The only thing I'm going to whine about is I just spent the $79 to upgrade to LR5 TWO dang days ago!! LOL

Until they raise the price and then we will see if you are still singing their praises.

I have a student license of CS3 but I can't update to CC

Don't they have student pricing on CC?

So you can't get this deal if you have a student license? Bummer.

Just get the pirated version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI

Awesome! I think this is a great price point for these two products and I have been waiting for a package like this.

Looks like Adobe isn't getting the subscriptions they were hoping for. Hitting them in the pocket book is the only way they will ever respond. "Limited time" sales offers are only gimmicks to force customers to act quickly. The longer customers hold out, the more Adobe will offer.

That's one interpretation. Another is that people want this combo but don't want to go from single app pricing to the full suite pricing, so this gives them what that want, in between. Except that it's lower priced than the single offering was. Sounds like a potentially good deal. Me, I'm sticking with the full suite.

And they might make much more money on it than before. Adobe software might be one of the most pirated software beside some Microsoft products. This deal is so cheap that hopefully much more people will be willed to pay for it, at least if the CS3 rule wouldn't exist.

Doesn't matter how cheap it is. You still need a fast or broadband connection to get it, a bank account to pay the rental fee. Why should I rent it when I already have the discs for the others. I have enough monthly bills without getting another one.

As of June of this year, there are more than 700,000 Adobe CC subscribers (paid). @ $50/mo that equates to almost 1/2 a billion dollars in revenue. That's counting the student pricing and the business pricing which are higher and lower than the general monthly subscription of $50/mo.

Those numbers could be good or they could be bad. All Wall Street cares about is whether they are beating their projections.

No link?!

Not yet available. coulpla weeks.

Zactly.

Ok, now this is a MUCH better deal.. Provided they don't jack up the price down the road.

Which, of course they will eventually.

Of course they will. Rent and fees are meant to generate money so yep, they will go up.

Blah, and I thought it would be "just like that", without stupid limitations (CS3?...)

Doesn't help pirates who want to go legit.

Once again, proving that Adobe have completely missed the point here.

Why not?

So what about us that signed up for the CC at $30/month, but would like to downgrade to the PS/LR bundle instead? Is this available to us?

Good question Ted. I don't know the answer to that.

Got more info. Post is updated.

My worry would be that if I decide later to drop my subscription, my developed photo library is held hostage. I would have to export everything or create sidecar files and then find another way to open them.

Do you mean your PSD files? Does other competing software not have the ability to read/convert? This is a real question as I don't know. If you had a perpetual license of CS4 for example and eventually you upgrade your O/S to one that CS4 doesn't work on, wouldn't you be as stuck? You'd have to stick to the old O/S as long as you could. Until the machine broke and the new machine didn't support it. A longer timeframe to be sure. But I would think competing software would be able to help you migrate your data/files.

I mean my rendered Lightroom files. LR takes your unaltered original files and applies the developments you make over the top of them. Then you export the developed photos as JPG, PSD, TIFF, or DNG.

If you lost the ability to open LR and render the developments you made on the original files, you've essentially lost your edited copies. You could export your entire library as edited photos, I suppose, but that seems excessive.

The only other option to get out of the lock-in would be to write all of your development metadata to sidecar files, which LR supports, then find another piece of software that can apply that metadata to originals.

But yes, as you point out, you would have the same problem if you stopped upgrading static versions too, though it would probably take years before you were in the situation, whereas with Adobe CC it's a month.

Would this help? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R4HgOZ3oBc

while your Lightroom license is still active.

Yes, that makes the most sense. If you were going to let your subscription lapse, exporting everything as DNG would be wise.

So I am a CC subscriber and only have Photoshop. Am I correct that when this goes live, I'll be transitioned to the new structure automatically and have LR as well for $9.99 a month (instead of the $20.00 a month I'm currently paying?

That's how I read it. Hope so.

AND you were a CS3 or higher version legal user. Right ? I hope I'm wrong, that would be « n'importe quoi »

I became a legal user when I subscribed to CS6 before it became CC.

And with CS6 you lost the psd/raw preview and the picture packages. I went back to CS5.

Is this just a promotional pricing for the first year, or will that price stay that low forever?

This sounds like some terms I could agree to, hold the fact that I have never owned PS.

Any way to get creative and buy CS3 for sincerely discounted price so I could qualify for this offer?

I have LR4, but not photoshop. So I am screwed out of it too? I wish they had a way to opt in at a discounted price, but I doubt they would. I'm not buying photoshop just to use the cloud at another monthly price. Too much money for my student income.

I just upgraded to LR5 last week too, I was kicking myself when I saw the headlines but came full circle when I realized you had to have purchased Cs3+ in the past. Whatevers. PSE 11 + LR5 really are all I need

Good point I always wondered why more people didn't just say you know PSE does it for me. I'm not familiar with the differences between them other than just photos and photos plus drawing stuff.

The one thing missing from PSE that I miss from PS is the Pen tool. If you want to make a custom shape, it is really tedious in PSE if you can even figure it out. Other than that, it is a pretty solid option for most people.

Thought it was a good deal... as a Lightroom user I have been looking at Photoshop CC to compliment my workflow with LR, but since you have to own CS3 or later to get the deal (and I don't), I will still end up buying Lightroom 5 (I own v.4) and spending the $20-30 per month for Photoshop... yikes.

How have they proved where their loyalties lie? By despite losing over a billion dollars annually to piracy, they still haven't done anything major to stop it? By despite an art community bitching and moaning about people stealing their work, they still allow people to steal their hard work in programming?

Again, show me where Adobe is this evil corporation that is out to destroy the lives of artists everywhere. Sadly, that world only exists in your head.

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