A new Apple Creator Studio subscription bundles six major professional creative applications into a single monthly or yearly plan. The new bundle, announced Tuesday by Apple, includes access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor and MainStage, plus premium artificial intelligence features in other Apple apps.
“There’s never been a more flexible and accessible way to get started with such a powerful collection of creative apps for professionals, emerging artists, entrepreneurs, students and educators to do their best work and explore their creative interests from start to finish,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, in a press release.
Apple Creator Studio bundles 6 apps for low price
Photo: Apple
An Apple Creator Studio bundle subscription allows a user to access big-time creative apps — Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro on both Mac and iPad, along with Motion, Compressor and MainStage on Mac. In addition, subscribers get premium artificial intelligence features inside free Apple apps Keynote, Pages and Numbers (with Freeform coming later).
The service launches January 28 at a cost of $12.99 per month or $129 per year, Apple said. College students and educators pay $2.99 monthly or $29.99 annually. New subscribers can try the service free for one month, while buyers of new Macs or qualifying iPads receive three months free.
All six major creative apps will remain available as one-time purchases, Apple said.
Video editing gets AI-powered upgrades in Final Cut Pro
Photo: Apple
In time for the bundle, Final Cut Pro receives several new intelligent features designed to speed up editing workflows. Transcript Search allows users to find specific moments in footage by typing phrases into a search bar, making it easier to locate soundbites in hours of recorded material. Visual Search complements this by letting users search for specific objects or actions across their footage.
Final Cut Pro Beat Detection represents another significant addition, analyzing music tracks using AI models from Logic Pro to display a Beat Grid in the timeline. This makes it simpler for editors to align cuts with musical rhythms when creating fast-paced content.
On iPad, Final Cut Pro introduces Montage Maker, which uses AI to automatically analyze footage and create dynamic videos based on the best visual moments. The feature can adjust pacing, sync to music tracks, and use Auto Crop to intelligently reframe horizontal videos for vertical social media formats.
Music production expands with new AI tools in Logic Pro
Photo: Apple
Logic Pro gains new capabilities aimed at both professional musicians and content creators producing original music. Synth Player joins the existing AI Session Player lineup, offering electronic music performances with various chordal and synth bass parts. Developed by Apple’s sound design team, Synth Player can work with Logic Pro’s built-in synthesizers, third-party Audio Units plugins, or external hardware synthesizers.
Chord ID uses AI to analyze audio or MIDI recordings and convert them into usable chord progressions, eliminating manual transcription work. The feature can identify complex harmonic content from recordings and automatically populate Logic Pro’s chord track, which drives all AI Session Player performances.
Logic Pro for Mac also receives a new Sound Library with Apple-designed packs and Producer Packs containing royalty-free loops, samples, instrument patches, and drum sounds. The iPad version gains Quick Swipe Comping from the Mac version, plus Music Understanding features that enable natural language search in the Sound Browser.
Pixelmator Pro comes to iPad
Photo: Apple
For the first time, Pixelmator Pro is available on iPad with a touch-optimized interface designed specifically for the platform. The iPad version includes full Apple Pencil support with features like hover, squeeze and double-tap capabilities on compatible devices.
The app offers smart selection tools, advanced bitmap and vector masks. And AI-powered features include Super Resolution for upscaling photos and Deband for removing compression artifacts. Apple Creator Studio subscribers on both Mac and iPad get access to a new Warp tool. It manipulates layers and a collection of Warp-powered product mockups.
Productivity apps Keynote, Pages and Numbers get premium AI upgrades
Photo: Apple
Subscribers gain access to enhanced features in Keynote, Pages and Numbers. These productivity apps remain free for all users for basic creation, editing and collaboration. The subscription unlocks premium features and content.
The new Content Hub provides curated photos, graphics and illustrations. And premium templates and themes become available across all three applications.
Advanced image creation tools utilizing generative models from OpenAI allow users to create or transform images from text. Keynote subscribers can generate presentation drafts from text outlines or create presenter notes from existing slides. Numbers gains formula generation and Magic Fill for pattern-based table completion.
Users who prefer traditional software licensing can still purchase individual apps as one-time purchases on the Mac App Store: Final Cut Pro ($299.99), Logic Pro ($199.99), Pixelmator Pro ($49.99), Motion ($49.99), Compressor ($49.99) and MainStage ($29.99). Up to six family members can share Apple Creator Studio access through Family Sharing.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
