Apple’s professional creative apps have been slower to jump on the subscription bandwagon than those from Adobe or some of its other competitors, but the company is taking a step in that direction today. Starting on January 28, Apple will start offering an Apple Creator Studio subscription for $12.99 a month, or $129.99 a year. Subscribers will get access to the Mac and (where applicable) iPad versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage, as well as “intelligent features and premium content” for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone versions of Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and Freeform.
Apple says it will also offer a one-month free trial for the subscription and a discounted version for students that will run just $2.99 a month, or $29.99 a year.
Most of the apps also seem to be getting small feature updates to go along with the Creator Studio announcement. Final Cut will get a new Transcript Search feature that will allow you to dig through video footage by searching for specific dialogue, and a new Montage Maker feature “will analyze and edit together a dynamic video based on the best visual moments within the footage.” An updated Logic Pro “helps creators deliver original music for their video content” and adds a synth player to the app’s lineup of “AI Session Players.”
The biggest update is probably an all-new version of Pixelmator Pro for the iPad, designed around the Apple Pencil accessory. When Apple announced it was acquiring Pixelmator in late 2024, the image and vector editing app was only available for the Mac.
As for Keynote, Pages, and Numbers—in another lifetime, the apps formerly known as “iWork"—the core apps remain free, but the Creator Studio subscription adds “premium templates and themes” for the apps, as well as access to a Content Hub that provides “curated, high-quality photos, graphics, and illustrations” for the apps. Apple is also offering a handful of OpenAI-powered generative features, including upscaling and transformation for existing images, the ability to generate images from text, and a Keynote feature that will create a slide deck from a text outline.
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