Vegas Pro rescued – again. What will this mean for users?

I have been involved with Vegas Pro since version 0.9, when it was still in beta and in the process of metamorphosing from a very, very good audio program.

I was introduced to Vegas via a well-known person in the industry, Douglas Spotted Eagle, and the local Aussie distribs at that time were Melbourne based New Magic.

In its early days, Vegas was known for its ease of use allied with great flexibility and functionality, but these attributes gradually slipped away for various reasons over the ensuing years.  In my opinion, not enough attention was paid to the core engine, with too much emphasis on cramming newer and newer features into the base package thus causing instability.

Over the years, Vegas has had a, well, chequered history, and been sort of handed around a bit like a pinball, pinging from one owner to another. Sony bought it in the early 2000’s, for example. I am not sure quite why, even to the point I asked the head of Sony when he was on a trip to Australia, what the company intended to do with the program. And he was seemingly a bit confused, and didn’t appear to even know the company owned the program! At the same time, Sony was developing its own suite of (since discarded) video and compositing applications, so it was a strange acquisition.

The latest owner was Germany based MAGIX, buying the whole Vegas line including Vegas Pro, Sound Forge and others, but retaining the development team in the US. All sounded very rosy, but looking from the outside, as MAGIX already had a suite of video editing applications, despite promises, development to bring Vegas pro up to date was slow, and to be frank, the program was constantly bug ridden.

Then in 2024 MAGIX announced that it had entered into a voluntary restructuring process and the end of Vegas Pro seemed sealed.

But today, it has been announced that Vegas Pro and MAGIX has been acquired by RM Equity Partners, a leading European investor in digital businesses. Alongside the acquisition, Robert Rutkowski has been appointed as the CEO of MAGIX, and the press release says it is “ushering in a new era of innovation and growth for the company”.

It goes on to say, “Over the past few years, the team at VEGAS Creative Software has sharpened its focus on the burgeoning creator economy which includes independent content creators, professional video producers, social media influencers, and corporate video teams. These creators need flexible tools that not only support their creativity but empower them to explore it even further. This acquisition fuels the effort to deliver powerful yet intuitive video and audio tools and lead MAGIX into a new era of success and growth”.

Gary Rebholz, who I interviewed back in 2020, and is the Chief Product Officer for the MAGIX video product line, said: “Content creators demand speed, flexibility, and professional-grade tools that enhance—not hinder—their creative process. VEGAS Pro is built for exactly that. The software offers an intuitive and high-performance editing experience that allows creators to focus on storytelling, not technical roadblocks.”

Now at version 22, Vegas Pro is described as being accessible to creators of all skill levels, and provides comprehensive editing, colour grading, VFX, and audio production tools—all in a streamlined, user-friendly package.

Pricing starts at USD$19.99 / month or USD$95.88 / annum for a subscription licence or USD$199 for a perpetual licence with a further USD$149 for upgrades.

There is also a premium package including Mocha VEGAS, SOUND FORGE Pro, ACID Pro, the Wizard FX Suite of audio plug-ins, a content pack full of transitions, LUTs, song collections and sound effects, plus expanded cloud storage and unlimited royalty-free content downloads for  USD$24.99/month or USD $119.88/year, or USD$249 perpetual license and USD$199 for upgrades.

How this will affect users in Australia is yet to be seen, with no known local distributor at this point I am aware of, and certainly no local support.

I am in touch with the company via their PR representative (who advised me of these developments earlier this evening) and will attempt to keep you up to date.

Traditionally, Australia was a strong market for Vegas Pro, and hopefully the new regime will see this and give this market the attention it deserves.

For full details or to purchase VEGAS Pro 22, visit www.vegascreativesoftware.com.