For years, Avid - the creators of ProTools - have used iLok dongles and cloud management software to manage, distribute, and authenticate valid subscriptions and licenses for use with ProTools. However, considering recent issues and a lack of stability with iLok's cloud servers that host licenses, it is time for Avid to restructure its license management system.

I am a professional recording, mix, and front of house engineer, college professor, and entrepreneur. I am familiar with a wide range of professional production software, and none of them manage licenses the way Avid/iLok does.

In order to open ProTools software, it has to be able to identify and verify an active subscription license. This can be stored on a physical iLok (proprietary) dongle, or stored in their cloud. If you don't have internet, of iLok's servers crash (which has happened multiple times this year), you 1. can't open ProTools and 2. you will be asked to save and quit a session, even if you are in the middle of recording. This is because ProTools continually looks to verify the license even after opening the software.

If you decide to play it safe and not store your license in the cloud, then you MUST put it on an iLok brand USB drive. This means you have to remember to take it everywhere with you, likely use up a USB port on your machine with an adapter for the dongle itself, and if you lose your iLok dongle, you're stuck unless you PAY for Zero Downtime (license recovery).

I had an experience this year where I got back from a two-day on-location recording for a massive concert/video project with several hundred people involved. Audio was finished and the video shoot started the next day (lip-syncing to the audio we had recorded). I had 12 hours to get 15 rough mixes to the client for the next day, but when I went to open ProTools, it would not open. Why? Because iLok's servers were down. I only figured that out after a series of frantic emails to iLok. Heaven forbid you try and contact a human at either iLok or Avid...with Avid you have to pay for service credits ($40 to speak with a human). So there I was, stuck, unable to work because ProTools wasn't able to reach the iLok servers to identify my license.

I've heard from several friends who were in the middle of recording for clients and iLok servers went down which caused ProTools to prompt them with a "save" or "quit" option – in the middle of work. This is not acceptable for either iLok or Avid.

No other software is so difficult and frustrating to use regarding license management. Most software programs use system IDs and initial license activation to verify products (iZotope, FabFilter, Spectrasonics, Adobe, etc, etc, etc). Why Avid, as the distributors of the most industry standard Digital Audio Workstation insist upon such an antiquated licensing scheme is a question that boggles the mind.

I am calling on Avid to ditch iLok's license management system and come up with their own. It needs to be one that doesn't rely on an internet connection for EVERY SINGLE authentication of the software, even intermittently after launch. It also needs to be one that isn't married to a proprietary physical dongle. This is 2020. To expect that we either have to carry a specific license key/dongle or have constant internet access, just to open the software we pay for, is unreasonable and a poor business model.

Please sign and SHARE this petition to anyone you know who uses Avid and iLok products! I'd love to be able to gather a few thousand signatures and then send this to Avid and also present it to them at NAMM.