Disturbing news!

Here is more of what is in one of the articles:

The company is struggling with the current rise in interest rates – while at the same time dramatically declining sales. Magix definitely came under pressure from competitors such as Filmora or Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, some of which offer their editing programs free of charge. At the same time, Magix no longer had upgrade prices for existing customers last year, but tried to sell its programs to all customers at the same price. Customers apparently reacted immediately: sales fell from 32 million in 2021 to around 20 million. "At the same time, the cost structure was adjusted too hesitantly and the transformation of the company to efficient market cultivation with modern e-commerce methods was not pursued with sufficient priority," the company now says in a press release intended for the business press.

As a result of the report, we contacted Magix – because for our readers as users, the future product strategy is important in addition to the economic aspects: Magix will therefore retain all current products for the time being, but reduce complexity. In plain German: Instead of three or even four product versions, there will only be two in the future. The aim is to reduce duplicate development costs for editing programs. Parallels in the development of Vegas Pro and Magix Video Deluxe have already become clear in the last versions. Despite the different software architecture of the editing programs, new functions are now programmed as modules that can be used in both. In the meantime, the programming team of Vegas Video is larger than that of Magix Video Deluxe, because the professional Vegas Video is considered a "focus product". At the same time, they emphasized to us that they are not thinking about phasing out Magix Video Deluxe because of this. There is an exchange between the two teams and, if necessary, appropriate personnel support. It could be similar in the rather sprawling audio area with Sound Forge, Acid, Sequoia and Samplitude.

This is the kind of thing that happens when an investment company takes over a company whose survival depends on R&D and constant and consistent product improvement. The investors think that the company should just keep going without R&D, without maintenance, without replacing obsolete equipment, etc. I was involved in the sale of a company to potential investment groups and the questions that I had vividly demonstrated how they think. The investors have no skills in the industry, and their choice of leader is usually based on cost-cutting, not skill and innovation and growth. These companies were built by innovators but stagnate under investor-management.

In the case of Magix, they have suffered by some bad choices, seemingly lack of knowledge of their own products, and poor marketing.

At one time, they had a program called "MX" for Media eXchange and they promoted it. They have let this languish so users and potential purchasers don't see that if they buy X, they may also be interested in Y and Z because...

My second tutorial on Youtube was about going back and forth between Movie Edit Pro (Video Deluxe) and Music Maker. Although Magix has done a great job improving Music Maker, they removed the Share feature to be able to quickly and easily move back to the video editor (it's still in Magix Movie Studio MMX). Why? It worked fine and could be promoted as a feature. Market the two - easily score your videos and look at the wonderful material available! What did they do, they just bundled Music Maker with the video editing programs with no or little marketing information as to how these would work together. This is a wonderful but unexploited selling feature. As well, VPX has never had the Share feature in the top menu. I asked for this multiple times over the years.

MEP/MMS/VPX/PhotoStory and other Magix programs have Xara products embedded in them - PhotoDesigner (made by Xara), Magix 3D Maker (made by Xara), Xara Xtreme (for creating and printing for CD's and BR disks along with jewel cases. There is/was a great feature in the MEP/VPX to create animated and static overlays and masks using the Xara P&G Designer or Xara Designer Pro X. You could draw on your video! They messed this up royally (on my bug list for years). Magix and Xara have recently parted ways to our detriment. Thus, PhotoDesigner has been dropped from the current products and we can probably expect the others to follow. The link to an external editor is now MS Paint (check out Program Settings, Folder). Terrible! But, Magix never marketed these great features or even showed how to use them to one's benefit and now they are going or gone. So, why not replace this with at least 'Vegas' Image after making it work with VPX?

MEP/MMS/VPX have extensive audio features and come with an audio editor, Music Editor 3. Another feature that is undermarketed. Hidden away is an upgrade possibility to what was Audio Cleaning Lab, then called Audio Music Lab, and now the misappropriated named Sound Forge Audio Cleaning Lab. You could go from the audio in the video program, clean and master it in ME3 or SFACL and have the updated audio on the timeline. Wonderful, but undermarketed! Magix has upgraded SFACL to 4 and broken the link with the video editor such that the audio file doesn't open in SFACL4. Fix it! This program has other fantastic features, including its own spectral editor and SpectraLayers. The interface between SFACL and SpectraLayers is broken. If you want to sell this program, Fix it and Market it!

A little known feature is the panorama creator which can handle up to 6 photos. There is a note for "more possibilities" which eventually leads you to upgrade to Panorama Studio if you want to be able to use more photos. Great program but too expensive! However, if you had purchased Xara Designer Pro X, you would have had Panorama Studio included.

Even Travel Maps is undermarketed. It's not just for creating animated maps!

PhotoManager has been left to languish. Why? Does no one at Magix understand just how great that product is? I did a quick search for photo/video management programs. I found nothing that compares to PhotoManager. It has facial recognition features, a database, and handles multi-media, that is, photo, video and audio files, not just photos, and has a built-in viewer. The facial recognition comes from a third party - just update this and market it as AI! There is a feature that most users don't know about and that is Albums. Why would anyone care? Because an Album is actually a video project that can be opened in the video editors (except Vegas). So you can create video projects, Album, whilst browsing through your files. You can drag and drop from PhotoManager to MMS/VPX/PhotoStory. There is actually a lot more. If your photo has GPS location embedded in it, the program will open Google Maps and show the location on the map.

The Vegas team was looking to create Vegas Prepare, which, from what I read, would be something like PhotoManager but likely with less features. Why? Just upgrade PhotoManager and make it work with Vegas! And market it!

PhotoManager suffers from a fragile database, missing latest CODECs for videos, and an update from Travel Route Animation to Travel Maps (just change the link) is needed. That is about all. Fix it, make it work with Vegas and market it!

There are many more features whereby Magix could sell more of their products by just pointing out symbiotic relationships - and making sure that they work.

With the purchase of CreativeStudios, Magix should have immediately looked at integrating some products and features in Vegas. They could quickly add things like Travel Maps and SFACL with the default product. Most Vegas users even don't know what other Magix programs do, like Music Maker (they think that it's a toy) and Samplitude Audio Studio and Samplitude Pro X. Poor cross marketing!

Competition - yes, there are other programs that do the same thing, but it looks like 2 of them, VideoStudio and Pinnacle may disappear since Corel was purchased by Alludo. This is an opportunity for Magix. Market to Corel users!

I looked at a couple of competing products, some have features that we would like to have, but most are missing features that we take for granted, like multiple timelines and great audio editing features, like being able to use VST plugins. Magix does not market these differences. Why not?

Look at annual reviews of audio video products. Magix' products are almost never mentioned. Others with less features are promoted. Why? And when a Magix product is mentioned, as in this article in VideoMaker, they get it wrong. The Best enthusiast audio editing software for 2024 is Magix SOUND FORGE Audio Studio 15. But version 17 was already released. What is the matter with Magix' marketing department?

The Store - Magix probably makes a lot of money here, especially with Music Maker selling Soundpool and in the video editors selling Songs. However, there are also some products, like third party plugins selling for exorbitant prices - much more than the Magix product with which they were originally bundled. NB Total Effects Magix Edition - $699. No one is going to buy that. Vasco da Gama 11 HD Essential for $129. The current version is 17 selling at 149€ for the professional version, not essentials, or 89€ for an upgrade. Marketing people - look at these and lower the prices to actually be able to make some sales (marketing 101). Don't put up old products or any products at outrageous prices - work with the third parties to get reasonable prices. Under Additional products, there is only SF Audio Studio 12, which, it seems, is the only version that will open a file from MMS/VPX as the external audio editor. Why? The current version is 17. Make it work with the MMS/VPX and sell that. Why not add in SFACL (after making it work again with MMS/VPX)?

My cheap upgrade suggestions for VPX:

• Replace ME3 with SFACL (after fixing the bugs);
• Upgrade the Mixer with one from Samplitude;
• Add in VST3 capability, add capability to put VST effects on objects, not just tracks;
• Replace Soundtrack Maker Wizard with the relatively new Song Maker in Music Maker, and allow it to use any Soundpools that the user has with Music Maker or purchased separately.

Why has Magix not put the Store in Vegas - even just for Songs and Sound FX?

Lastly, market the symbiosis of the products. Make sure that those doing reviews of the best whatever software know of the features that Magix programs have that most reviewers don't know about and that the competitors don't have.

My 2 cents.

John CB

Losing a 3rd of your revenue in only 3 years is not good. When Alludo took over Corel, I knew what was going to happen. And it did. There were no "2024" model software released. One bug fix in a year (for Videostudio Pro), and Pinnacle Studio only had a bug fix. Paintshop Pro (which I use) had a real promising feature a couple of years ago, now, that too seems to have disappeared. Their user forums are gone. Reminds me how when Artlist took over FXHome, making all these grandiose promises of "wait until you see what is coming next!!!", and nothing came next. Ignite Pro gone. User forum, gone. Social Media, non-existent. Killed all the plugins that users bought for Hitfilm Express if you "upgrade" to the newest version. I have zero love for Artlist. Zero. That some lack of "love" I also have for Alludo. And I think this year will be a telling year for Magix and it's properties.

One thing that did happen between Videostudio Pro and Pinnacle was sharing some common "modules". The multicam editor, split screen editor, 3D text editor, and Scorefitter music, were all the same. Wondering what the author meant by saying this will happen with Vegas and Magix editing software. What could it possibly be. Infusion Engine to Vegas?

But what I did think that hurt Magix was the fiasco with naming MEP, Movie Studio, giving the Vegas Movie Studio the false impression that they were upgrading when they weren't. That was some real shady business and I am sure, turned off the Vegas Movie Studio people to not trust Magix again. I do understand VEGAS Creative stopping development of Vegas Movie Studio (VMS) to concentrate solely on Vegas Pro as a good move, since they had limited resources. If VMS were making a ton of money, I don't think that it would have happened.

I hope this year will be a year of hope and a bright future. But my past experience in situations like this, that has not happened. I hope to be proven wrong.

@browj2, I have Happy Otter Scripts where I can choose whatever audio or image editor I want. In Vegas, I can decide what to use to edit audio. HOS is a paid plugin. The cost is nominal, especially considering what it can do. I have Paintshop Pro as the photo editor and Soundforge Pro for the audio editing. It's seamless, sending back the edited asset either to replace the original or add it to another timeline.

But, Magix is for sale.

@Reyfox

Hi,

As you are aware, user-inspired Pinnacle and VideoStudio/PaintShop Pro forums have sprung up. BTW, I started with Pinnacle Studio and switched to MEP when the future of Pinnacle with Avid was in doubt. I still have Pinnacle Studio 23, just to be able to use Scorefitter and possibly some other content, but I could never edit again using it.

Perhaps Alludo will surprise the market, but I doubt it.

I have Happy Otter Scripts where I can choose whatever audio or image editor I want.

This has always been in Magix Movie Studio and VPX (with a caveat) - no scripting necessary. I have set mine to SF Audio Cleaning Lab 3 and PaintShop Pro (or sometimes Xara DPX in which I have PaintShop Pro as the bitmap editor). For the external audio editor, Magix has not fixed MMS/VPX so that they work with Sound Forge Pro, SF Audio Studio and now SFACL4 - 3 works. Samplitude Pro X Suite works with MMS/VPX. The problem is that the program is trying to open an HDP file instead of the wave file. Ridiculous that Magix has not fixed this as I put it on the bug list a few years ago. Just change the code to open the wav file instead. SF Audio Studio 12 works with MMS/VPX, but nothing since.

But what I did think that hurt Magix was the fiasco with naming MEP, Movie Studio, giving the Vegas Movie Studio the false impression that they were upgrading when they weren't.

Yes, an unmitigated disaster that easily could have been turned into a huge advantage, because moving to MEP from VMS was a huge upgrade, but came with compatibility and learning problems. Magix should have been honest, giving users a choice of either MEP with ability to read a vf timeline (with no effects) or Vegas Pro. They should have shown the features that consumers would gain by going to MEP and I have listed these many times in the forum. They should have shown the main differences and guided the users along the path to using MEP and its many features, including content. The problem is that Magix doesn't know how to market its products to take advantage of selling more to the same user. You, for example, don't see any use for Music Maker because you have no musical ability. It doesn't take much skill to use loops to add background music, transition jingles and the like to your videos. If you watch any of my tutorials, especially since the ones on Everything Audio, you'll hear some of my jingles when a new topic is started. I simply created these by using a few loops in Music Maker. And so on.

It seems that a lawyer has now been put in charge of Magix. That is a very bad sign. In my long history with lawyers, I have not met many who have good business sense or even the ability to understand the business in which they are involved. A lawyer who is put in charge of a company is a drain on corporate resource, contributing little to nothing, thus of negative value.

John CB

@browj2 Under German law the company is no longer allowed to access the company assets in any way after the insolvency process was opened by a court. This is done so that the creditors can get as much money as possible. The court orders a separate liquidator for this.

@SP.

Hi,

That is not what is described in the articles about this.

John CB

@browj2 It's the same for all insolvency processes. After the process started, a company no longer needs to fulfil its payment obligations (because it can't). Every creditor needs to contact the liquidator for the money that is owed. The liquidator tries to find ways to pay out the creditors. This can also be done by finding new investors who buy out the company.

I checked again, and since Magix is doing a self administered insolvency, they still have access to company assets like before but are under a watch of a separate administrator. That's different to what I've wrote before. Usually some weeks after the process was started, there will be meeting with the creditors where they can discuss and vote, whether they agree with the ways a company tries to solve the insolvency.

@SP.

Hi

. . . . insolvency process was opened by a court. This is done so that the creditors can get as much money as possible. The court orders a separate liquidator for this . . . .

Not quite - as I understand the German 'insolvency' system, it has 2 processes/routes for handling insolvency:

• 3rd party Administration
  
  and
   
• Self Administration where the company continues to operate under their own management and can seek investors or a buyer.

The latter is what was mentioned in the VideoAktiv article, quote:

'Magix filed for self-administration insolvency in December last year. Now on March 1, 2024, the Charlottenburg District Court opened the self-administration proceedings, clearing the way to restructuring and finding investors.'

John EB

@browj2, yes, I am aware of the Paintshop Pro/VideoStudio Pro and Pinnacle forums that have sprung up with the demise of the "official" forums. As for Scorefitter, never really used any of the music. Smartsound with Sonicfire Pro was my choice. Ever wonder why Pinnacle only released 3 albums? Pinnacle over a decade ago decided to remove Quicktracks from legacy Pinnacle and replace it with Scorefitter. SS took them to court and won, so no more Scorefitter songs. Then SS created at a cost for the user, the Smartsound plugin. I haven't looked back. Vegas Pro also supports Smartsound as a plugin.

As for Alludo surprising the market, they killed all hope of that by removing the user forums.

Vegas Pro can use any music editing software without a plugin with zero issues. No caveats. Adding Happy Otter Scripts adds the photo editing, which is seamless, and so many other features. You seem to under estimate the use of scripting and the power and automation it can bring.

The cross grade was a disaster for Vegas Movie Studio users. An utter disaster that turned off a lot of potential future customers. It was deceptive marketing. They could have been honest, showing the differences between the software, and played up the positives. Instead, they angered those that bought and thought they were getting an upgrade to VMS. This was all played out in the forums. Not good press.

As for Music Maker. It is not that I don't have any musical ability, or I don't see any use for Music Maker. I've never said that or insinuated anything of the sort. I don't see any use of Music Maker for "me" specifically. That's all. I've played classical violin and clarinet in orchestras and concert bands. I played at President Nixon's inauguration. So I have a good musical ability and know music since I actually played music. I also know how to use analog and digital mixers to mix singers and musicians for live, recording and streaming, since I've been doing that for years. But I have so much music available for me, why try and recreate the "wheel" so to speak. I have Smartsound and a ton of music I can score to any length for my videos with Sonicfire Pro that is a plugin for Vegas Pro. Then there is all the music I have access to from Vegas Post 365. And while I used Acid about 2 decades ago, I am quite familiar with loops and such. Again, I just don't want to be bothered with it. That's all. You like it, that's fine.

Magix should have run a very strong campaign and radically lowered prices, especially for version upgrades, and faced the harsh reality! If prices continue at these levels I don't see any chance! Hard and cruel truth because "Money doesn't take home insults"

Competition - yes, there are other programs that do the same thing, but it looks like 2 of them, VideoStudio and Pinnacle may disappear since Corel was purchased by Alludo.

@browj2 From what I've gleaned from the internet the change from Corel to Alludo was just a rebranding and not a change of ownership. Alludo's owners appear to be KKR who purchased Corel in July 2019. KKR are an American global investment company.

As for Alludo surprising the market, they killed all hope of that by removing the user forums

@Reyfox I assume this has only happened recently as I'm sure the forums were there a few weeks ago but tonight when I check both Corel Video Studio and Pinnacle my bookmarks take me to a support page. Interestingly they do provide a phone number.

@Roberto-Goncalves

Hi,

I received an offer of Movie Studio Suite 2024 for 30$ this morning but then another one for VPX15 Ultimate at £349.00, far too steep to attract anyone. Those third party effects are still too expensive.

@ericlnz

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the info about Alludo. Still, it seems surprising.

There are new forums for PaintShop Pro/VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio, both started by users. I can give you links if you want.

John CB

Hi,

I sent an email on 01/2024 to a manager at Alludo, asking if they were stopping new versions for Pinnacle Studio 26. I did this because the only editors I had tested before replacing Vegas Movie Studio 17 were MMS2023 and Pinnacle Studio 26 (I just didn't buy it because I noticed a movement of paralysis and ended up updating to MMS2023 thinking that Magix "WOULD" take advantage of the opportunity left by VMS).

Alludo's answer: 
Thank you for reaching out and for your question.
We've got this answer from our product management team: 
We do not currently have plans to release major new features and tools in 2024. 
There’s been a shift in corporate strategy to focus on performance and stability improvements in Pinnacle Studio in order to ensure that our customers are receiving the best possible experience from the product.

----

These days I received an offer from Pinnacle Studio for US$65. On this occasion, I believe that its Bundle version that incorporates "PaintShop Pro 2023" should cost around US$100. Today, if I were to upgrade to VPX15 I would have to pay US$150 which is the same price to return to Vegas Pro (21).

note: to be offered an offer at pinnacle studio, go to the website and request an offer via chat!

@ericlnz, you are correct. Alludo is the rebranding of Corel, not the buyout.

@Roberto-Goncalves don't hold your breath thinking that Alludo will do anything more for Pinnacle Studio, Videostudio Pro or Paintshop Pro. They've removed the user forums for a reason. They purposely got rid of all that free tech support that was given in the user forum (usually better than contacting Corel directly). The forum was a wealth of information and tips, like any user forum, including this one.

I've personally been using Pinnacle products since 2002 in it's various forms and software. I am privy to info that I can not share here, but I have zero love for Alludo. The same zero love for Artlist and what they did with Hitfilm Pro/Express, and it's other software. You can not expect one update a year to really do anything to inspire confidence in the software. While I still have PS26 and VS2023 installed, I don't expect any further development on the software. I would be pleasantly surprised if something did happen.

I got a popup offer from Magix to upgrade to X15 for $109. If I received an offer via email for MSS Suite for $30, I would have bought right away.

@Reyfox

After I migrated to MMS and got to know a little about its parent VPX, I saw benefits! Simple bugs that were not fixed caught my attention! The reason is now becoming (+) clear in light of this news. I don't collect software, even because I'm a developer and I try to optimize my work! Now something that worries me is the future ownership of the languages and software I use because operating systems are systematically updated. Today I don't see any point in upgrading to VPX15 or returning to Vegas for a simple reason: changes will come and from what I read this month I understand that since 2018 Magix has changed a lot of things, except the way it thinks and this has substantial consequences. The lack of transparency is a parameter that offers 100% insecurity! The question is Ms. Magix: how can your customers help you? We don't want to put our money that is right on something dubious!

@Roberto-Goncalves I've been editing since about 1990 using an Amiga (I had several) with the Video Toaster. I enjoy editing and am always curious as to what different software offer that might help me. For "me", there is no one software that does it all, at least the way I would like it. So I have several installed on the computer, including MMS and VPX. If Magix disappeared tomorrow (I hope not!), that will not affect the software that I have already. They will still work. But, I would want to invest in software that has a future. Right now, Pinnacle, Videostudio, and Hitfilm Pro have no future from what I can see.

Magix has "dropped the ball" in so many ways, it's almost like they want to lose income. Maybe that will change in the future.

If Magix disappeared tomorrow (I hope not!), that will not affect the software that I have already. They will still work.

@Reyfox Yes, but only until they need to be activated such as when you want to install on another or new computer. Then if this cannot be done because the server has long gone you are out of luck and your software won't work. It's worrying and applies to much software nowadays.

Hopefully Magix will find a new financial owner and move forward from its problem years with better management.

There are new forums for PaintShop Pro/VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio, both started by users. I can give you links if you want

@browj2 Yes please John. I don't have any Corel software but several video friends do and occasionally if they have problems I try to help them. My source of finding answers for them is usually to go to the forums. Personally I consider user forums essential. When considering new software I look at its forum to see the comments and problems occurring.

With Magix I find the forums great. Obviously I'm biased as I'm a moderator on the Vegas forum. Magix deserve credit for the effort they went to after acquiring Vegas in setting up the Vegas forum and incorporating most, if not all, of the posts from the old Sony Creative Software forum.

@ericlnz

Hi Eric,

I sent you a PM with the links.

Since Magix has parted ways with Xara, they have removed the photo editor from MMS/VPX, PhotoDesigner 7, and replaced it with a link to MS Paint, PaintShop Pro is likely the best alternative for users except those who have PhotoShop.

John CB

Magix deserve credit for the effort they went to after acquiring Vegas in setting up the Vegas forum and incorporating most, if not all, of the posts from the old Sony Creative Software forum.

This is definitely the most correct thing Magix did. 👍️

Magix should have run a very strong campaign and radically lowered prices, especially for version upgrades, and faced the harsh reality! If prices continue at these levels I don't see any chance! Hard and cruel truth because "Money doesn't take home insults"

Damage as been done. A lot of users left, and they aren’t going to come back to a product that can’t develop on pace with where they went, and likely doesn’t have the number or quality of features they’ve become accustomed to.

Getting back defectors is extremely hard, especially when they’re saving money elsewhere.

Strong campaign with what money? Most people on music production forums are likely running some type of AdBlock, anyways, since those places abuse you if you don’t have one (KVR, GearSpace, VI-Control… YouTube).

@ericlnz

Hi Eric,

I sent you a PM with the links.

Since Magix has parted ways with Xara, they have removed the photo editor from MMS/VPX, PhotoDesigner 7, and replaced it with a link to MS Paint, PaintShop Pro is likely the best alternative for users except those who have PhotoShop.

John CB

Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher? Also available on iPad with full Pencil support, BTW… A lot better than Corel or Xara’s software. Issue is that stuff isn’t developed at a pace to achieve and maintain competitiveness with other products it only has value as bundleware or Humble Bundle deals

if you could afford PSP or Xara, Affinity was cheaper - and better. There was no point.

Honestly, don’t waste money on Corel software. They are just like MAGIX, just with graphics design and office software instead of audio production software and plugins. Corel has been known as a software graveyard for years. It’s literally a meme…

None of this surprises me. I almost expected this to be the case due to how their pricing had worked out. They were clearly freefalling and trying to make up the gap by overcharging their current users at upgrade time while minimizing any investment in development.

MAGIX should have let that Sony software stay dead and invested those millions in improving their own product lines. Samplitude could have really improved a ton if they had done that. But it’s a bit too late. The opportunity cost has been paid, and you can’t get that lost time/investment back.

Xara’s software became worthless when Serif released Affinity Photo and Designer at those low price points. Same with PaintShop Pro and anything below CorelDraw Graphics Suite in specific market segments (same situation as WordPerfect).

Vegas Pro and Video Pro X are a hard sell against Resolve Studio, now that PCs have good GPUs even at the mid-range of the market. VEGAS still doesn’t have a decent video engine, and Video Pro X isn’t much better when you turn off the Auto Proxy view, while having way worse OFX compatibility and no VST3 Support (though MaGIX is historically bad with VST3, so that may not be a negative).

Ironically, SpectraLayers was the best product they acquired from them - and the one they got rid of. It wouldn’t be what it is today if MAGIX had kept it though. What Steinberg has done would have taken MAGIX two decades to pull off.

This company needs new leadership - someone who understands the creative software market and is willing to make hard decisions and disappoint a few niche fan bases.

I think the reputation of the company and their products is going to be difficult to overcome with higher end users, though. For most people, MAGIX is a “Hard No,” just like Corel.