Standalone Lightroom seems to be dead...

[Mario]

Just read.

Expected (and probably feared) by many, Adobe seems to stop selling Lr as a stand-alone product. Cloud and subscription only in the future. Fits into their plans.

See https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/5431017013/rip-lightroom-6-death-by-subscription-mode

That Adobe would move all their products into the cloud and to subscription-based payment models was to be expected. The level of control this gives them over their users and the customer retention potential (lock-in) was just to good.

Several users wrote me today about this, and the discussions this has caused at web sites like dpreview.  And that this would be a good chance for me to promote IMatch.

Unfortunately I cannot just toot my horn and write posts about IMatch. This would be bad sport and probably get me banned (I was already banned once because I linked to photools.com in my signature). And I cannot pay the advertisement fees at dpreview - they are designed for large companies, not for small low-budget ISPs like me.

If an IMatch user writes about this/her experience with IMatch, IMatch Anywhere and my service - now that's a different thing.

https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/5431017013/rip-lightroom-6-death-by-subscription-model#comments

PhotoSupreme has been mentioned in that tread, ACDSee as well. Probably no IMatch user as read it yet, or not caring...

[DigPeter]

I think that this has been the case for sometime.  I will continue with the last stand-alone version.  It does all I want for file conversion and editing, until I need it for a raw format that it does not cover.   I never used it for DAM - IMatch is better   

I will look at dpreview.

[heicron]

+1 to that

[Mario]

Unfortunately, while probably any other software product available has now be mentioned in this thread at dpreview. not a single mention of IMatch.
IMatch users seem to either not follow dpreview or nobody bothers to let others know that there is an alternative... sad

I cannot stress how important it is that IMatch is mentioned or recommended as often as possible.
Adobe has a 150 million US dollar marketing budget..

[DigPeter]

I have now made a few posts extolling IMatch on dpreview

[Mario]

I have now made a few posts extolling IMatch on dpreview

Thank you! Much appreciated.
My marketing is "word of mouth" exclusively, and if a user tells others honestly about his/her experiences with IMatch, that's worth a lot.

I often hear "I did not know that IMatch exists. If I had known it earlier".

Unfortunately, things like Google Ads or Facebook ads or giving Amazon money for running ads on dpreview is out of my budget.

To give you an idea how much money is spent for things like Google Adwords, Facebok or Bing:

+ Giant retailers can spend up to $50 million per year on paid search in AdWords.
+ The average small business using AdWords spends between $9,000 and $10,000 per month on their Google paid search campaigns.

Since IMatch is in the same market as vendors like Adobe, Corel etc. ad words like DAM or "digital asset management" are so expensive, even a single click can cost me several dollars.

[Carlo Didier]

+ Giant retailers can spend up to $50 million per year on paid search in AdWords.
+ The average small business using AdWords spends between $9,000 and $10,000 per month on their Google paid search campaigns.

Just wondering how much of that effort is just dumped by adblockers and other tools 

[Mario]

Just wondering how much of that effort is just dumped by adblockers and other tools 

Lots, probably. Although Google ads are presented alongside the search results, which makes them hard to block.
And since the money the companies pay to Google, Facebook etc. comes from our pocket in the end, they'll just raise the product prices and throw more money into advertising.

Common estimates tax between 5% and 20% of the product price we pay to be spend for marketing.
If we buy something for 100US$, we actually pay 5$ to 30$ for the advertisement we had to endure...

All that money is required so people buy sport shoes for 150$ which cost 12$ to make. I once read that Nike is spending 3 times as much for marketing than for production! Weird times.

[Jingo]

I always drop Imatch whenever I can over at dpreview... TBH though - I typically don't post at dpreview all that much because there are too many "vile" posts and atttacks... sad because it really could be a great resource.

I am so glad I made the jump to C1 last year.... its a different type of program but really amazing for RAW editing once you get the hang of it.  Left LR in the rear-view and haven't looked back!

[Mario]

I always drop Imatch whenever I can over at dpreview... TBH though - I typically don't post at dpreview all that much because there are too many "vile" posts and atttacks... sad because it really could be a great resource.

I am so glad I made the jump to C1 last year.... its a different type of program but really amazing for RAW editing once you get the hang of it.  Left LR in the rear-view and haven't looked back!

Even mentioning somewhere "I use photools.com IMatch and I like it" is great.
Google finds these mentions, maps them to my web site and this gives me a better ranking.

I do Facebook and Twitter only for Google. Most IMatch users are not interested in photools.com on Facebook and Twiiter, so it's only for the search engine. Like so lot on Facebook these days...

[jch2103]

I made a point of mentioning IMatch on a couple of comments at https://photographylife.com/lightroom-classic-and-lightroom-cc-announced-subscription-only. Got at least one apparent nibble in response.

[Mario]

Thanks! Every mention counts.

IMatch users are now, like "So, Lr might not be for me anymore. No problem, I'll just pick up another RAW editor. All my organization and categorization DAM work is safe in IMatch."

[Menace]

I already mention IMatch some time in dforum.de (german canon-fan-forum) and 3dcenter.org (Hardware-stuff). 

[Mario]

[Dayle]

Yes, Adobe did it again, closing or changing websites and software! I am too tired of it and researching alternatives to Lightroom. Meanwhile, I will use LR Classic until they drop that or come up with more ideas to squeeze more money out of their customers. Whichever comes first.

By the way Mario, I have been promoting IMatch to people I know since version 3. The problem is that big names have better advertising so everyone jumps on their bandwagon and that trickles down to what services, apps, software etc become available and often leaves out anyone who does not have big name gear.

My question here is, before I download LR Classic, does IMatch work with LR Classic?

Thanks,
Jutta

[Mario]

IMatch works fine with all Lr versions. Or Capture One. Or SilkyPix. Or On1. Or Affinity products. Or Photoshop. Or whatever software you choose.

The problem is that big names have better advertising

Not better. Just more money. Adobe alone spends over 150 million US$ per year on marketing and 'endorsements'.
There were many "Alternatives to Lr" threads at dpreview.com lately. You might want to check them out to learn about alternatives. And yes, there are better RAW processors than Lr - depending on your camera and requirements.

[Dayle]

Thank you, Mario, for you quick reply. I will check out dpreview.

Jutta

[jelvers]

Just mentioned my year long very positive IMatch experience in the respective dpreview forum. A very recent more in depth experience with LR hardened my conviction that IMatch is simply the much better alternative, be it workflow, ease of use and variability. As I work my pics with PS , I do not need LR's build-in processing capabilities anyway.

Regards, Juergen

[Mario]

Thanks for spreading the word.

[Mees Dekker]

So did I on DPReview

[Mario]

Thank you as well!
And all other users who mention IMatch or tell others about there experience.

Every bit counts. Not only may this help the people you communicate with in that moment, but it also generates more back-links to the photools.com web site and mentions of IMatch. This improves the super-important search engine ranking. I don't have the resources of the big software hours to generate 'buzz' to improve search engine ranking.