So I'm the only one???
I'm not a creative professional. I run a small industry analyst firm and put up a fair amount of stuff here in El Register. You may have seen some of my videos covering the student cluster competitions and a few webcasts in my Reg HPC Blog.
When I stated doing more audio and video work in 2010, I realized that I needed some serious tools if I wanted my stuff to look and sound better. Looking at what I was doing, I figured I needed a good video editing suite, photo editing, audio processing, and even something I could use to cobble together the odd logo or two. I tried GIMP, Audacity, and some other free tools, but wasn't wild about them. I had a hard time using them, which is mainly a function of me not having enough time to devote to getting up the learning curve.
I then took a hard look at various Adobe offerings, but getting full versions of Premiere, Photoshop, Audition (which was called something else back then), plus Illustrator or maybe AfterEffects, was going to cost me anywhere from $2,000 -$3,000, plus a few hundred bucks every couple of years for updates.
That was a big enough number that I just couldn't justify it. Then CC came along and gave me all of this stuff for $50 a month. Now I have full versions that are always up to date, and I can use them on my desktop, laptop, and on big server - as long as I only run one instance at a time.
Speaking for myself, I've found CC to be one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. I haven't had any problems with the apps or with CC verification - even when I'm on extended business trips. I did have a problem once when my credit card expired, but CC gave me 30 days of use before pulling the plug. I called Adobe customer support, and it was taken care of in about 5 minutes.
Financially, I think it's about a wash in my case. I'm a guy who typically purchases updates when they're available, and I'm really glad to see that there's so much educational material out there. If I'm stuck trying to do something, I seem to always be able to find a Youtube video or tutorial that shows me the way.
I'm using these apps more than I thought I would, primarily Audition and Premiere, with a fair amount of AfterEffects and Photoshop, and a smidgen of Illustrator, Prelude, and Speedgrade.
As much as I like bitching about things in general, CC has been great for me. I think they did it right, and I think this is would be a great delivery model for other ISVs to emulate.