Apple Creator Studio takes a swing at Adobe Creative Cloud
Apple wants to lure creators to use its apps by introducing a new subscription service
💻 Apple has introduced Creator Studio, a new subscription service for creatives
🎬 It bundles apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmater Pro into one monthly fee
🎞️ Apple is also debuting an iPad version of Pixelmater Pro and adding new features to Final Cut and Logic Pro
📄 Keynote, Pages, and Numbers are also included, and getting new features
💰 The service costs $12.99/month or $129/year
📆 It launches on January 28
Apple has introduced a new subscription service called Creator Studio, which bundles a bunch of its creator tools together for one monthly price. It’s a direct shot at other creator-focused productivity suites like Adobe Creative Cloud, except it’s cheaper and focuses solely on the Apple ecosystem.
For $12.99 per month or $129 per year, you get access to the following apps in Apple’s catalog:
Final Cut Pro on Mac and iPad
Logic Pro on Mac and iPad
Pixelmater Pro on Mac and iPad
New AI features in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers
New Motion, Compressor, and MainStage features on Mac
Freeform on iPhone, iPad, and Mac (coming soon)
Many of these apps have never been as accessible as they are now. For $12.99 per month, I wouldn’t mind if I just got Final Cut Pro, but the fact that you get so much more bundled in makes this one of the best values out of all of Apple’s subscriptions.
One of the biggest additions to Creator Studio is Pixelmater Pro, which is not only getting new features on the Mac, but is launching for the first time ever on iPad. Apple has created a new version of the popular image editor with a touch-friendly interface that also works well with Apple Pencil. You’ll get virtually all the same features as the Mac version including Layers, smart selection, Deband, Auto Crop, and Super Resolution. There’s also a new Warp tool for twisting and shaping different layers however you want.
With a subscription to Apple Creator Studio, you get access to new AI intelligent features in Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. In Final Cut Pro, there’s Transcript Search for finding soundbites in hours of footage using keyword searches, Visual Search for finding moments in clips, and Beat Detection for lining up your videos to the rhythm of a song using a Logic Pro AI algorithm. There’s also a new Montage Maker for generating dynamic edits of your videos.
In Logic Pro, Apple is adding a new Synth Player for generating electronic music performances using AI synthesizers. Chord ID can take any audio or MIDI recording and transform it into a custom chord progression, Sound Library provides hundreds of royalty-free sound samples, and Sound Browser lets you use natural language to search for loops or similar loops to tracks you have in a project.
You also get access to new apps called Motion, Compressor, and MainStage. The former two work with Final Cut Pro to generate graphics and special effects, and new ways to export your projects with custom settings. Meanwhile, the latter turns your Mac into an instrument, voice processor, or guitar rig so you can share exactly what you hear with your audience.
Keynote, Pages, and Numbers are also getting updated with new Liquid Glass interfaces, a new Content Hub for finding high-quality photos, graphics, and illustrations for your projects, and integration with OpenAI models for generating new content on the fly. You can also use text prompts to edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You’ll need Creator Studio to access all of these; the normal versions of the three apps will remain free for everyone else.
Apple says Creator Studio will launch on January 28. All users will get a free one month trial to the service. Qualifying Mac or iPad buyers will also get a free three-month trial. For college students and educators, the price drops from $12.99 per month to just $2.99 per month, or $29.99 per year. You’ll also be able to share your Creator Studio subscription with up to six family members.
Max Buondonno is Editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.