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Adobe Lightroom Returns to the Mac App Store

Thursday June 20, 2019 6:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
At WWDC 2018, Apple introduced a redesigned Mac App Store alongside changes to sandboxing parameters on macOS Mojave. Since then, several well-known apps have launched on or returned to the Mac App Store, including the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft To-Do, BBEdit, Transmit, and others.


Next up is Adobe Lightroom CC, which is available on the Mac App Store as of today. The professional photo editing software is free to download, but requires a $9.99 monthly subscription via Apple's in-app purchase system after a one-week trial. 1TB of cloud storage is included with a subscription.

As noted by The Verge, Lightroom was previously available on the Mac App Store for a one-time purchase of $149.99 in 2012:
This isn't the first time that you've been able to get Lightroom in the Mac App Store. Back in 2012, when Adobe sold its apps as standalone purchases before starting to push Creative Cloud subscriptions, Lightroom 4 was available for $149.99. Lightroom 5 never came to Apple's store, however, and even Adobe itself doesn't sell standalone versions of Lightroom today.
This news is a win-win for Apple and Adobe. Apple has landed another major app on the Mac App Store, which faced years of criticism, and will generate revenue from its split of in-app purchases. Adobe, meanwhile, has made Lightroom available to a very broad audience of potential customers.

Lightroom CC remains available outside of the Mac App Store as well, with subscription pricing starting at the same $9.99 per month. One benefit of switching to the Mac App Store version is a more streamlined update process.

Tags: Adobe, Adobe Lightroom, Mac App Store
[ 83 comments ]


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Plutonius
4 weeks ago
I'm not interested in a subscription.

If they ever sold the newer version as stand alone, I would consider it.
Rating: 27 Votes
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ipedro
4 weeks ago
I’m switching to this model. I’d rather have updates come through the Mac App Store than through some adobe applet that’s always running in the background 24/7, doing god knows what.
Rating: 22 Votes
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Greenmeenie
4 weeks ago
I much prefer affinity photo for my ipad pro. One time $20 purchase. Such a fantastic program.
Rating: 11 Votes
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aaronhead14
4 weeks ago
Adobe really needs to provide a non-subscription based version of their software. People are fed up with this subscription nonsense.
Rating: 9 Votes
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macduke
4 weeks ago
Don't get too excited, folks. This is just Lightroom CC—not the real deal. Not Lightroom Classic.
Rating: 7 Votes
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BasicGreatGuy
4 weeks ago

I'm not interested in a subscription.

If they ever sold the newer version as stand alone, I would consider it.

I would be willing to spend $150 for a one time fee.
Rating: 7 Votes
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Traverse
4 weeks ago
While personally have no need for Lightroom (I don't use it enough to justify the cost), I'd much rather get Adobe software through the Mac App Store if possible to minimize the amount of custom cruft they install. When I used Lr a while ago they didn't even use the native Mac menubar.
Rating: 5 Votes
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BraiCrai
4 weeks ago
I've been the proud owner of a subscription to Adobe Lightroom on my iPad Pro. Really saddened by the fact that their subscription model doesn't cover both the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store versions of the application. I'm not going to pay €20/mo for 2 subscriptions for the same application on a different platform. I'm an amateur photographer who occasionally likes to get into Lightroom either on the go with my iPad or on the Mac when I'm at home. I thought this could be a great way to combine both workflows under a single subscription. Too bad it isn't turning out the way I hoped.
Rating: 5 Votes
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4jasontv
4 weeks ago

I'd love to take you back to when we paid $1500 every year for one Adobe app or $250 for Microsoft Word. I remember $10,000 for Maya. $2500 for Lightwave. $5000 for 3D Studio basic version. $129 for Mac OS. $250 for Windows.

If you factor in inflation those prices would be even more massive today, but instead you are paying MUCH less.

If you want lower prices you need subscriptions. It's the only way to beat piracy that hurts all paid users and avoid malware. If you're a pro user you chalk it up as expense. If you're not chalking it up as an expense you're not a pro user and you don't know anything about accounting. Go use something cheaper in that case.
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OH ok. So write your own software if you're not grateful for all the hard work people do for you.


I was there. We didn't pay $1500 every year for one app. Some bundles cost that much (and others more) but you could upgrade suites of core apps for about $500. Still, we skipped releases if the added features didn't translate to revenue. Cost of entry has gone down, but we are paying far more by maying monthly than we ever did. I could use a program like lightroom for 3 or 4 years without needing an update. That's $480 vs $150.

Windows still costs $200 retail. MacOS is "free" because the cost of updates is now baked into hardware. For what it's worth, MacOS and Windows were about the same cost, the difference was Apple had a habit of updating the OS yearly while Microsoft updated every two years.

Subscriptions increase the longe term costs of using the software.

Again, I am not going to be grateful for someone selling me something. Work should be hard. That's why it's called work. But the price increase due to subscriptions isn't a reflection of more work but rather more marketing.

Oh, and subscriptions don't go on clearance. You can't even wait for a new release and buy last years version. Another reason the subscription model hurts customers.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Padaung
4 weeks ago

What are some good alternatives?


https://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

https://skylum.com/luminar

https://www.captureone.com/en/products/pro

https://www.dxo.com/dxo-photolab/
('https://www.dxo.com/dxo-photolab/')
All have free trials. My favourite, after trialling them all, is Exposure X4. I am now using it full time for work and have not used LR since February. BTW, I'm not against the subscription model, I found it had benefits, but I never liked LR itself. I used Aperture before LR, and loved it. I only went to LR because of the demise of Aperture.


Edit: Also this one...
https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/ ('https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/')
Rating: 4 Votes

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