Whatever Happened to FCP.co?
Good, question, hopefully this short blog will answer a few queries about the life and eventual closure of the best Final Cut Pro website.
The site ran for over 12 years, it started before Final Cut Pro X was released and surfed the wave of creation, innovation and finally in the latter years, frustration.
First of all, it is very hard to run a news site about a product when there isn't any news! Although there are some very active individuals in the FCP ecosystem who make a lot of noise, there isn't much happening these days.
That might be because there are hundreds of thousands of happy FCP editors out there that just get on and edit. It might be because everyone has bought every FCP product they need. Or have the majority of editors shifted over to Premiere and Resolve?
Secondly, it is the old problem of the cost and effort of running a site compared to the return. Although we had a few great advertisers who worked with us for a long time, there were a lot of companies who wanted a lot for nothing. That doesn't pay the bills. We were in fact quite shocked by the rudeness of a few individuals when asked for help after promoting their products/services for free for a number of years.
Over the last 18 months our hosting became a problem. What started off as a brilliant home for the site, lost all of its peripheral services and scheduled maintenance that made the site tick over. So it was either move the site to a new host that had better customer care, or close.
So, why is the explanation of the closure on this website? Because, for the majority of its life, Idustrial Revolution's sales have underwritten the cost. We were in discussion with a few parties about taking over the site, but they all eventually fizzled out.
It breaks my heart to close the site, I still believe FCP is the fastest and most creative NLE out there, but the industry doesn't share the same opinion. At one point Apple had a massive share of the NLE market with FCP7. FCPX never really recovered from the disastrous launch and Premiere (as bad as it was/still is) filled the vacuum.
Finally, chapeu to a few of the people that made the site the success it was. Thank you to David R, Sam, Ronnie, Roger, Philip & Gregg, Iain, Oliver and of course Karsten who without his daily help, the Forum would have died under a mountain of spam.
All is not lost though, I will add content to the blog section on this site. So please come back, you might even like one of our plugins!
Peter
Feel free to contact me through here or the normal editor@ email address from before
8 Responses
Joshin Yamada
I just loaded up Final Cut Pro after a break, saw the “Latest changes in Final Cut Pro” announcement, and thought, I want to run over to FCP.co to get more cogent analysis about what the new features really do and how worthwhile they are. I was confused when I couldn’t find the site, until I finally found this blog post. I completely understand your reasoning for closing the site, and empathize that you found so many companies )and even visitors) had come to rely on your service being offered for free, which does not pay the bills. I just wanted to take a minute to write my appreciation for what a great resource you provided. Your coverage of the different versions of FCPX and the announcements at NAB over the years was the best. You made the FCPX community feel more vibrant and engaging. I wish you the best in your future endeavors and will be checking out all these plugins which I had not been aware enough about.
Derek
Any way of showing archives of the forums? There are so many answers to questions on there that show up in Google searches that just can’t be found elsewhere.
Stig
Thanks for all your efforts, Peter. And thanks to all the sites contributors.
In an apple FCP vacuum, FCP.CO gave me some wonderful tips, ideas, and even solved a few problems.
Cheers,
Stig
Randall
Sad to hear this news. Enjoyed the website. A site I use to visit every day about 5 years ago, but after 2018 I fell off of it. Like you said, not much to talk about because Apple takes it’s time to update. It would have been awesome if Apple showcased FCPX being used in it’s own TV shows…but nope…there was no requirement for that. I am honestly curious if any Apple TV series is cut on FCPX. That kind of just shows you were the love for this program exists. Mainly with just YouTubers and some indie filmmakers. I love it, but damn if I am not on the outskirts.
Greg
Hi Peter,
Want to thank you for all the tremendous work you and all the volunteers have put into fcp.co over all these years. Thank You Thank You All!
Sorry to see the site close down. Felt like fcp.co brought people together from around the world. The quality of the site drew lots of quality people willing to help others.
Trolls and Spam were well managed and made the site a great daily read. Learned so much.
Wish there was a way to keep the info available and wish that we had a way of saying goodbye. Guess this is it.
Thank You Peter and best wishes and happiness in the future.
Happy Editing/Creating,
vidgreg
Taz Goldstein
Very sad to witness the closure of the web’s greatest FCP resource, but delighted that we had it for as long as we did. Thank you for all of it!
Larry Jordan
Peter:
This is SUCH sad news. And I totally understand your point of view.
What is most frustrating is that, unlike adobe or avid or Blackmagic, Apple never thought we were important enough to support.
This was short-sighted because it cost them support when the tides of editing changed.
You and your team have done outstanding work. You are an invaluable resource and your website will be missed.
You have my respect.
Larry
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