LOGIN / REGISTER

Blog > Freebies and special offers for creatives/Apple users during the Coronavirus pandemic

Blog post by Graham Needham (BH) on 27th March 2020

The coronavirus (COVID-2019) pandemic has caused a lot of grief for some creative people so I'm maintaining this blog listing via MacStrategy. I will keep updating it as often as I can. If you have any contributions/corrections/updates don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

First up are some useful information links:

• European Commission - Coronavirus Response
• Lots of useful Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) information
• Coronavirus Pandemic - How To Stay In Touch Via The Internet
• Corona advice for musicians (UK)
• PPL UK Music Industry Coronavirus Advice
• Creative Scotland Resource Directory for Covid-19 (UK)

Here is the list of freebies and special offers:

Electronic music artists/record labels directly affected

Our own company's CyberNoise web site is offering special fundraising page listings for those artists/labels directly affected:

• Coronavirus Cancelled Concerts - Please Support These Artists
• Coronavirus - Please Support These Labels

Funds and Grants

• Help Musicians Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund (UK)
• The Musicians Union Coronavirus Hardship Fund (UK resident MU members of 12 months standing)
• PRS Emergency Relief Fund (PRS members only)
• List of UK community funds (UK)
• Serif Affinity - 100 Days. 100 Commissions.

Apple

• Final Cut Pro X free trial version - extended to 90 days
• Logic Pro X free trial version - 90 day free trial now available

Serif Affinity

• 90 day free trials
• 50% off macOS and iOS/iPadOS software applications

Adobe

• Connect web conferencing software free to everyone until 1st July 2020
• Creative Cloud free to students and teachers until the 31st May 2020

Creative Cloud 2 free months/payment holiday for individual users

Follow these steps carefully:

1. Go to the Adobe web site
2. Sign into your account
3. Go to your account area (top right)
4. Go to the "Plan" page / click "Manage Plan"
5. Click "cancel your plan"
6. Choose "Too expensive" as the reason
7. Click "Continue" - this takes you to a "Details" page
8. The Details page might be scary but you should see a timeline at the top and the next stage should be "Offers"
9. Click "Continue" until you get to the "Offers" page
10. Look for the "2 months free" offer
11. Select it and confirm
12. You should get a confirmation screen (take a screen shot) and you should also receive an email
13. Logout of your account

NOTE: This offer may not be available to everyone, everywhere. Most likely only for those with an all apps, 1 year subscription, paid monthly.

KORG

Offering iKaossilator for iOS and Kaossilator for Android for free for a limited time (iOS version : through 31st March 2020. Android version : from 13th March 2020 to 20th March 2020).

Roland

Offering full version of Zenbeats for free.

Ableton

• Reduced the price on all editions of Live by 30%
• Their book "Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers", is temporarily free to download in .pdf, .mobi, and .epub format
• The Live 10 trial period has been temporarily increased to 90 days
• The Spectral Textures Pack is now free

Toon Boom

Free 30-day home use licenses to studios and schools (offer valid 13th March 2020 to 1st June 2020).

TypeWiser

The full version of the TypeWiser editor can be used for free during the whole emergency period.

Microsoft

• Microsoft Teams free for six months
• Skype are offering Easy video meetings with no sign ups or downloads

Google

Has made Meet, its Zoom and Skype competitor, free for everyone, with availability rolling out over the coming weeks.

LogMeIn

Free Emergency Remote Work Kits.

Cisco (Webex)

Free enhanced Webex licenses.

Enfocus

Offering temporary, second PitStop Pro licenses and e-learnings for those working from home and no access to PitStop on their work computer (offer valid to those with a valid licence already - see their recent email for the link).

Avid

Offering temporary 90-day licenses of creative tools (offer valid 16th March 2020 to 17th April 2020). PDF download of instructions.
NOTE: The temporary licenses will only be provided to a user whose company or educational institution owns the same product being requested, and the product is either on an active subscription or under an active upgrade and support contract. A maximum of one license will be provided per one owned, and the license will be provided for 90 days.

SoundCloud

Offering a direct support button for your profile - instructions by Peter Kirn here.

Spotify

On the 22nd April they introduced a fundraising section feature for artists' bios.

Blog post author = Graham Needham (BH)
Blog post created on = 27th March 2020
Blog post last revised = 3rd June 2020 15:30
Link to this blog post = https://www.wwrdb.com/blog_post.php?41 (how to link to this web site - details)

This blog post is representative of the blog author's individual opinions and as such any opinions that may be expressed here may not necessarily reflect the views of everyone at World Wide Release DataBase or the holding company Burning Helix sro.

See all other blog postings

---