video editors aren't happy with Final Cut Pro.
And I'm going to share with you
four big reasons why and how Apple can fix this issue.
I've noticed a trend lately in the world of video editing that is a bit concerning.
And that trend is that not nearly as many video editors are talking
as positively about Final Cut Pro as they once were.
And when they are talking about it,
they're more complaining than sharing things they love about the program.
A couple of years ago, this wasn't the case.
If I posted a YouTube video about Premiere Pro,
I would consistently find several comments asking why I'm not using Final Cut Pro
and in the Facebook groups I'm a part of, I would constantly see filmmakers
arguing about why Final Cut was superior, either from a lack of crashing
standpoint or a speed standpoint because it was faster, etc..
Lately, though, that hasn't been happening and it's got me wondering.
Our video editor is not as excited about Final Cut Pro as they once were.
So I started asking my friends to use Final Cut
and I think that this word unexcited really sums things up well.
To be clear, video editors that use Final Cut don't hate the program.
No. In fact, many of them have told me that they still love it.
But just like how you can love someone through good times and bad,
this feels like more of a bad time.
And in this video, we're going to talk about why.
Reason one Editors aren't happy with Final Cut Pro.
It's because of the secrecy around the program's updates.
Apple is a secretive company.
We all know that they do not like
revealing any of their hardware or software until it is ready.
But in the world of professional software, keeping everything
secret can be a bad thing because professionals need to know
that updates are coming for the tools that they are using.
Because Apple is so secretive about the development of Final Cut Pro.
Every couple of years, rumors start to circulate
that Apple is going to abandon the program and stop updating it
like they did with their photo editing software.
Aperture.
This culture of secrecy at Apple
really makes editors that use Final Cut Pro nervous.
they don't need to know Apple's entire roadmap.
They just need to know that the editing software that they use
is being actively developed and not abandoned.
And they need to be told this ideally several times per year.
This lack of updates about the future of final cut pro
software is made all the more apparent whenever you look at Apple's competition
in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
Both Adobe and Blackmagic have very healthy beta programs
where they not only tell editors early
on that they're releasing updates to their software,
they even let them download
these beta versions of the software to experience the updates for themselves
and give feedback about how to better improve the software.
Adobe in particular has been advertising their beta program
very heavily recently, where when you open up premiere Pro
it presents you with a banner at the bottom of the screen
talking about how many new features
are coming to the program and how you can download the beta to try them today.
Heck, they even hired me to make some sponsored Instagram
reels for them promoting the features of their new beta.
They're being very aggressive, talking about their updates
to their software right now.
And above all, this reassures video editors that both Da Vinci Resolve
and Premiere Pro are being very actively developed
and you can expect at least one big update per year, if not multiple,
because these companies
want to constantly improve their software and add more features.
So Apple is secretive about their updates to Final Cut Pro,
but they're also inconsistent in their updates as well.
And this is the second reason that video editors aren't happy with Final Cut
C Editors on Premiere Pro and of Interest have grown very accustomed to there
being new app updates every single year for their software.
Typically, Adobe will introduce bigger updates in April or May around the NAB
conference and again
toward the end of the year, sometime around November or December.
With Black Magic, they release updates throughout the year, even more frequently.
And in 2023, nearly every month, there was a new upgrade
or tweak of some sort that improves the program.
By my rough count, it was like nine or ten updates.
I lost count.
Editors have grown accustomed to this year after year,
and as someone that uses both Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve,
I find it very reassuring that I'm consistently seeing updates.
And if Adobe were to suddenly announce, Hey, we're not going to be doing updates
as often, or Blackmagic said, Hey, we're going to skip a year and not release
anything new for DaVinci, I would start to be nervous about the platform.
so whenever you look at Apple with an incredibly secretive culture
where they do not announce updates, they do not have a beta program
where editors can test the software ahead of time.
They do not have a regular update cadence
that you can expect, like their competition.
Well, if DaVinci had seven or more updates in 2023, how many did Apple have?
according to Apple's release notes,
they had five updates last year, which doesn't sound bad.
But then when you look closer, only three of these updates
added new features, while the others were smaller bug fixes.
And in addition, Apple had a big gap where they didn't release
any updates at all between October 22 and May 2023.
But really, if you look at that October 22 update,
it was really more of a speed and stability update,
which means you have to go all the way back to April 20, 22 to find an update
that had a lot of substantial new features added.
This is over a year between big feature updates.
And so while Final Cut is still getting
multiple updates per year, many of these are stability and bug fixes.
Not so much big feature updates.
And this is another red flag that makes it understandable as to why
final cut pro editors are not as happy and really excited with the program.
it's hard to be excited about a program as a professional if you don't know
what's coming and the updates that you are getting aren't substantial.
This lack of substance really leads into the third reason
that video editors are not happy with Final Cut Pro,
and that is the overall lack of big feature rich attention grabbing updates.
Look, we are living in an era of video editing where
we're seeing a ton of innovation in the worlds of A.I.
and machine learning that will hopefully make our jobs a lot easier.
And Apple's main competition, Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve,
have both been extremely good at shouting the benefits
of their enhanced tools from the rooftops.
It feels like every time
that Premiere Pro has an update, Adobe is talking about some sort of A.I.
feature that they're just adding to or improving in Premiere Pro,
It feels like every time that Premiere Pro has an update, Adobe
is talking about some sort of AI feature that they're adding or improving
Premiere Pro just added AI voice enhancement to the program
and Adobe showed off at their MAX conference in 2023
that they're working on object removal for a video and a generator
that can add objects like a tie on to a person while they're
walking in mixed lighting using just a text prompt.
It's really cool stuff and it makes me as a video
editor as was many other video editors that use Premiere Pro.
Excited about what Adobe is doing.
And. Whereas for a while
it felt like everyone was complaining about the bugs in Premiere Pro.
Now there's a significant portion of the userbase talking about AI,
which is definitely more positive Likewise, let's look at DaVinci resolve.
Black magic has not been lacking in introducing A.I.
features there as well, with a feature called A.I.
Voice Isolation that will use A.I.
to remove background noise from someone who's speaking
and making significantly easier to hear them.
Most editors that I've talked to know about these new tools
in DaVinci and Premiere, and I've heard many stories
about how these tools have saved a video with audio
that would have been previously unrecoverable.
But then you have Apple, and their updates aren't nearly as
flashy and attention grabbing in comparison.
They have added AI features to final cut.
Don't get me wrong,
but I don't see anyone raving about them or really about any of final cut's
new features.
When I spoke to many of my editor friends that use Final Cut Pro
to recurring themes kept coming up.
The first thing was that final cut is still by far the fastest way
to edit a video, and they absolutely love the speed of the software.
But as positive as the first thing was, the second theme was just as negative
because all of these editors consistently said that to make the software work
as fast as they wanted it
to, they needed to go out and purchase multiple plug ins to fill in the gaps
where the program was lacking.
Features.
In short,
Apple hasn't been adding the features that video editors are clamoring for
and need.
and to make things
worse, Apple has been ignoring where their competitors software is heading.
See an overall shift that we have been witnessing in the wider
world of video editing software sphere is the rise of the all.
In one program, Video editors are seeing Adobe Add more and more
editing features to Premiere Pro that they have pulled from after Effects
in Adobe Audition into Premiere to make the editing process quicker.
And heck, look at DaVinci Resolve.
It's the definition of an all
in one program that can handle editing and graphics work and color grading
and sound mixing all in a few clicks with my editor friends and final Cut Pro.
They told me how they consistently had to download external plug
ins that they really wish would be in the program natively,
especially for color grading tools like you would find in DaVinci Resolves
Color Page.
This has led to a decent amount
of final cut pro editors choosing to edit their videos in final Cut,
but then handle all of their color grading and Da Vinci resolve,
resulting in a significantly more convoluted workflow that does work.
Don't get me wrong, but whenever you combine needing to use DaVinci Resolve
for color grading with all of the positive word of mouth around DaVinci Resolve
and everyone telling you
that it's a great editor, it's no wonder that a decent amount of editors
are considering switching to DaVinci Resolve to be able to edit and color
grade all in one and not use both final cut and DaVinci.
In addition, in early 2024, I released a full featured course
called Wedding Film Framework that shows editors
how to quickly and easily edit wedding films into venture as all
and as people have signed up, I've discovered
that there is a decent number of final cut Pro users that have joined
because they're tired of waiting for these features
and they're ready to learn DaVinci Resolve.
Incidentally, I will link to my resolve course
down the description if you want to check it out too.
So with this lack of feature, Rich updates that professional video
editors are looking for and final Cut and Apple ignoring this
all in one editing software trend that their competition is moving towards.
That begs the question where has Apple been spending their time
if they're not releasing super compelling updates for Final Cut
Pro, what have they been working on?
Well, that is the fourth reason that video editors
aren't happy with what Apple is doing with Final Cut Pro.
It's no secret that Apple's main driver of income
for their entire business is the iPhone and iPad, iOS and to a lesser degree
iPad OS is the main way that they as a company make money
and where they have been focusing much
of their development efforts across their company for years.
And what was easily the largest software development
for video editors that Apple announced in 2023.
Yes, a version of Final Cut Pro for the iPad.
Look.
Software development takes a lot of time and Apple has a lot of money,
but they do not have unlimited software engineers.
And considering that the desktop version of Final cut Pro
is probably not a massive revenue driver for Apple,
I would bet that their finance guys looked at how many users
they have for Final Cut
Pro on desktop versus how many millions upon millions of people on an iPad.
And they said, Hey, if we can create a version
of final cut for iPad that is built from the ground up for touch,
I'm betting that we can get a lot of these iPad users to use the software.
And then to add to this, these same finance people said,
look at how little money we're making with final cut video editors buy it.
Once for 300 bucks and we never make money from them again.
Let's take a page from Adobe's book and start charging a subscription of $5
per month
to use the iPad version of Final Cut Pro so we can make recurring revenue.
So why have Final Cut editors on desktop not been seeing as many updates
for their software?
Isn't it obvious because Apple isn't as focused on them?
Many of their engineers are working on the iPad version
of their software now because that's where the money is.
Look, I'm not saying that development on the desktop version of Final Cut Pro
is going to stop altogether.
But considering that Apple is a company that wants to make money
and they're especially focused on service based revenue,
the potential income they can make from final cut editors on
desktop is very small, and I don't necessarily see that changing
unless they were to start charging for updates or more likely to start
charging a subscription fee for the desktop version of final cut.
and don't get mad at me about this, okay?
I hate subscriptions just as much as you do, but this isn't coming from me.
Apple is the one that is already charging for a subscription for their iPad version
of Final Cut.
It's not a big jump at all for them to say, Hey, we should do that
for the desktop version as well, regardless of whether they do that or not.
The fact doesn't change that.
Their attention is now
split between the iPad and desktop versions of Final Cut Pro.
They are now going to be updating and improving two versions of their software,
one of which needs to work as a completely touch interface.
traditional video editors on desktops and laptops are probably not going
to be thrilled about this because up until now it has meant longer development.
Time for updates to their version of the software,
and I'm not sure that I see it changing, But who knows?
Maybe Apple is getting ready to fix
all of these issues that video editors have with Final Cut.
Maybe they're about to announce a new public beta program.
They're going to start sharing their roadmap for future updates,
roll out
bigger feature updates that will grab hype and attention from video editors
and overall shore up any of their other deficiencies
that have editors looking towards other software.
Or maybe they'll continue to rest easy knowing that they're still
one of the fastest way to edit video out there, even with their shortcomings.
If so, then it's not surprising why video editors aren't happy
with the program anymore.
Can I tell you something that you will be happy with, though?
My free guy called edit videos like a pro.
This guy is going to show you the most important things
I've learned after years of editing videos.
And I'm so happy to tell you that the things that I teach in it will apply
regardless of which video editing software you use, including Final Cut.
You can download this guide for free at the link down below,
and while you're down there, I would love to hear your comments on this.
Do you use Final Cut? Are you happy with the program?
Are you unhappy with it?
a lot of people that I talked
to said that they loved the program, but they weren't excited about it.
They used it and they were familiar with it.
But at the same time, a lot of editors are hearing
all the hype and excitement around programs like DaVinci Resolve,
and they're thinking,
That's cool.
But I don't know if it's yourself is pretty neat
is that you let me know in the comments below.
Let me know what you think Apple can do to fix this.
It's really interesting stuff.
Also, if you want to do a deeper dive
about how video editors that use Premiere Pro feel about it,
there's another video that I would highly recommend watching from Eric Linz,
and it's called Cutting Edge Moving Slow, The final cut Broken Drum.
And it's really well done and interviews a ton of editors
about why they're not excited about Final Cut and what it's lacking.
I'll link to his video down in the description as well.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.
video.
Editors aren't happy with Final Cut Pro.
Here's four big reasons why and how Apple can fix this issue.