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


Martin H.

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2 minutes ago, Luc said:

Yeah, I had hoped to at least get updates to V15 when that does come out on plugins with WUP.

Waves specifically say NO

on the FAQ

Quote

I still have Waves Update Plan coverage on my products. Will I continue to receive updates? What happens when the coverage expires?


You will continue to receive updates for V14 plugins for the duration of your current Waves Update Plan coverage.

seems to me any WUP is now basically useless - so anybody already on v14 who WUPed has basically been ripped of IMO - Bapu doubly so !

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Presumably, WUP still gives you an extra license, so not completely wasted for those that bought it for that.

Do they mention how many activations you get with the sub? I couldn't see any mention which I take as a bad sign.

The only upside is that you can still sell your licences which still have WUP.
I have a few , so after fees that might add up to a whopping $10, or a WUPing ten bucks. ;)

Edited by Technostica
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It's sort of weird because they mention that you'll have plugins up to the version when they launched the subscriptions so it seemed like it was over, with a Waves Update Plan or not.

But I just got an e-mail from them that also says:

 

What about plugin updates? 

Waves Creative Access keeps all your plugins updated, always. You will get all updates for the plugins in your subscription, at no extra cost: no need for the Waves Update Plan. However, If you still have a valid Waves Update Plan, you will continue to enjoy all its benefits until it expires.

 

So maybe there's hope for a V15 update on plugins with a current WUP?

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1 minute ago, Luc said:

So maybe there's hope for a V15 update on plugins with a current WUP?

Then again, given what Waves just did, there's incentive for them to hold-off the release of V15 until V14 WUP expires to induce us to subscribe to their new plan.

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3 minutes ago, Lionel said:

 

Soon we'll be flooded with ''Sponsorshipped Youtubers'' .......
Praising the hell out of this drake of a Subscription...... 
To tells us this is the future, how it's pushing the boundaries, and helps us all going  forward......

STEP UP YOUR GAME.... THIS IS THE FUTURE....THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE....
YOU CAN FINALLY BE THE MUSICIAN YOU'LL ALWAYS WANTED TO BE......   IT'S FINALLY HERE!  

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3 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

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.  

Non concur. In my almost 30 years as an IT professional, I have yet to see one company move to exclusive subscriptions, then move back to offer perpetual licenses.

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I have lots and lots of plugins (including Softube, UAD, Fabfilter, IK Mult...ewww).

Right now my favorite is....

OVERLOUD COMP LA

I use it on every single track, on every type of track.

Allows you to really hear what your track sounds like, so you can apply EQ if needed, and if needed, to do so properly.

(I own the UAD and IK Multi...ewww versions too). UAD version is kind of harsh, Overloud's has more knobs for more tone sculpting and AMAZING saturation, and IKM's is just a toy.

WAVES what?

Edited by Last Call
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The key question is - how big is the "Hobbyist market".

Yes, in this forum it is big but seriously, let's get our heads outside the few websites and forums we frequent and ask again - how big is the market?

It used to be the case that as a company you wanted to reach the hobbyist market because of their future influence on decision makers, but the young audio engineers of today have grown up subscribing to "services" like creative cloud, the various access service to college books, xbox, spotify, netflix. YES, I do get that netflix is different because I don't have "netflix projects" that may need to be revisited in the future but I'll I lose access to if I cancel. My point is that being used to subscriptions for whatever you do in your leisure time does lower the resistance to the idea of more subscriptions. And, let's be clear, if you're a kid who wants waves for mixing the music for your band, it's probably easier to convince your dad to pay for your $24 a month subscription than it is to get him to buy you a Mercury license.

Look at the video, it's all young people, they're the target.

The percentage of us who will subscribe is probably in the single-digit range. My guess is that killing the current hobbyist market is no big loss (for Waves)

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31 minutes ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

The key question is - how big is the "Hobbyist market".

Yes, in this forum it is big but seriously, let's get our heads outside the few websites and forums we frequent and ask again - how big is the market?

...

The percentage of us who will subscribe is probably in the single-digit range. My guess is that killing the current hobbyist market is no big loss (for Waves)

Interesting. I actually see this completely opposite as you do. I would say it's the hobbyist market that is driving most of this business these days. Real professionals -- not professionally-minded people, but people who earn their primary living in audio -- aren't likely to be the ones trying the 1,922nd version of an LA compressor. They'll settle on one, maybe two that satisfies their requirements for a particular sound and they learn that one or two like they would have a hardware piece of equipment; no time or appetite to bother with more than that.

There aren't enough professionals in this world to support vendors.

Hobbyists/collectors have different drivers to spend money. They will be happy acquiring the 1,922nd version. They won't typically pay $199, but a monthly subscription to PA (or, now, Waves) scratches the itch nicely. And there's nothing wrong with that! Were it not for the hobbyists/collectors, the market would not be as large as it is. The downside is vendors are quickly coming to the realization that in a world where people happily pay each month to sample Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. they'll also pay to belly up to the feeding trough of 200+ plugins on PA.

Edited by John1984
typos
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