Most of the professional community uses Pro Tools as their main DAW but that hasn't exactly led to happy customers for Avid. The company is at a pivotal time as the once behemoth is starting to have some serious doubters about its long-term future.

1. Pro Tools is always playing catch-up. Features that other DAWs have had for 10 years are only now showing up in PT 11 and 12 (like off-line bouncing and track freeze). While others DAWS are innovating, PT is way behind and moving like a glacier to catch up.

2. PT 12 isn't worth it. You don't get many new useful features and it's not as stable as previous versions. In fact, many users wish they would have stuck with Version 10, which was very solid (myself included). You'd be surprised at the number of famous mixers that are still on Version 8!

3. Avid is staking a lot of Marketplace. That's where the resources are going, but most users could care less, and let's not even get into the subscription model its now using, which I went over at length in a previous newsletter.

4. Avid's stock took a dive. It's been down with all the other tech stocks over the last week or so, but it was heading that way even before that. Why? Avid is a public company and Wall Street doesn't trust it because it makes big promises and never keeps them. It's stock began falling after its last earnings statement came up short again.

5. Not enough customers are buying. One analyst called the quarter results "ugly" and the company is having a tough time explaining why not enough people are signing up for subscriptions. (Hint: It's a bad deal and users are suspicious of the company).

Major PT users and facilities are already looking around for the next alternative should they need to convert and so should you.

All it's going to take is one big hit record, one huge movie or television show and you'll start to see the floodgates open.

If you're happy with PT then none of this matters, but many of us changed to Pro Tools from another DAW because that's what most of the market was using. That situation could very well happen again.

If you've read through to the end, you now know a little more about our Music 4.0 world than the majority of people in the music business today. Aren't you glad you subscribed to my list?