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Waves Discontinues Perpetual Licenses (UPDATE: They have gone Subscription Only)


Martin H.

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32 minutes ago, John1984 said:

Either way, my plugins will continue to function. And I will not buy into a subscription plan -- as someone else mentioned, I want to be able to open a session years from now and all of the plugins function as when I saved the project.

Respectfully, that is what we all want but is not a guarantee.  I've had WAVES plugins break across more than 1 computer and more than one time which meant that without WUP getting support to fix, was not possible.  Just becuase the VST3 standard doesn't change - WAVES is still capable of breaking things unless you never update your computer, launch waves central, etc.

Unlike other companies, WAVES actually has a track record of occasionally breaking something.

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1 hour ago, Brian Walton said:

Respectfully, that is what we all want but is not a guarantee.  I've had WAVES plugins break across more than 1 computer and more than one time which meant that without WUP getting support to fix, was not possible.  Just becuase the VST3 standard doesn't change - WAVES is still capable of breaking things unless you never update your computer, launch waves central, etc.

Unlike other companies, WAVES actually has a track record of occasionally breaking something.

I have personally experienced a full breakdown caused by waves. Somewhere around V3. It was a disaster. A few years later, I went back. It has been good for years till now! I will not pay yearly. I have no subscriptions of any kind. (Excluding the water and electric lol) is 

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From the FAQ:

Is Waves Creative Access the only way to get Waves plugins now?

“Yes, as of March 26, 2023, Waves Creative Access subscriptions are the only way to get Waves plugins. Of course, if you purchased Waves plugins previously, you continue to own them (at the latest version you had prior to the launch of Waves Creative Access).“

Edited by Lionel
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Unfortunately, end users are still the fools to pay countless times for the same software, hopefully one day they will implement some kind of law that prohibits this, until then we will have to put up with these companies that continue taking advantage of their commercial reputation to continue legally defrauding innocent customers.

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Well, many threads and posts later, we have our answers. My guess is that Waves move to subscription only will be short lived, and hopefully,  before our plugins stop working,  they'll switch back to subscription and perpetual licenses.  Until then, there are plenty of great alternatives to Waves and those are the developers I'll continue to support and even if Waves goes back to perpetual licenses before the end of the year, after this, I won't be buying from Waves again. 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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Now that’s what you call a deal-breaker.

Luckily for us, there are TONS of plugin alternatives.

It really sucks that I heavily invested in Waves during the last BF/CM sale

Adios, Waves! You put your own nail in your coffin.

Edited by Lionel
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Of course the other victim in all this is the poor Waves employee who did all the weekly stupid sales deal marketing stuff and got laid off.

Unless they start doing sales on subscription prices!

Not enough value for my needs in those annual rates. 

 

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For me, the worst part about this whole thing is I had been working on a video about how I actually like the WUP now (no joke - I have my reasons lol!) but I was too slow to make it and now it's gone.

Edited by Luc
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Their new Studio Verse seems interesting. An AI will scan your track and recommend a chain of mixing among those available from pros and users in their community. Just not worth subscribing for this.

At least, since I’m on Windows, all my Waves perpetual plugins should continue to work in their current state in the future.

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57 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

Well, many threads and posts later, we have our answers. My guess is that Waves move to subscription only will be short lived, and hopefully,  before our plugins stop working,  they'll switch back to subscription and perpetual licenses.  Until then, there are plenty of great alternatives to Waves and those are the developers I'll continue to support and even if Waves goes back to perpetual licenses before the end of the year, after this, I won't be buying from Waves again. 

Yes, I hope they reverse track on this decision and bring back the perpetual license option.

A good example of the subscription model not working is Reason+.  Reason Studios tries to get users to jump on the Reason+ subscriptions, but customers adamantly refuse.  They only want perpetual licenses.  And that's why you see Reason Studios heavily discounting R+ every few months to $1 for a month.  And that's why RS continues to have perpetual licenses.

So, stay the course and DON'T SUBSCRIBE to WCA, folks.  

They'll start to feel the pinch in their wallets and hopefully bring back perpetual licenses.

Edited by Lionel
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6 minutes ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

At least, since I’m on Windows, all my Waves perpetual plugins should continue to work in their current state in the future.

As Brian rightfully pointed out, until they don't. Seeing the landscape around them, it's not surprising they went to multi-tiered subscription. What I do find unconscionable is the manner in which this was handled, and how updates will (apparently) be handled.

Frankly, the first thing that came to my mind was: the only way I can download, install, and activate my Waves plugins is the Waves Access app. As far as I can tell, I cannot download an archive of the installers, nor an authorization file. Given the way they handled this, I don't trust them to maintain access to perpetual licenses. Nothing good can come from this.

Edited by John1984
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