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


Martin H.

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FWIW here's my initial thoughts on the matter.

Waves will have totally expected this reaction - hence the secrecy about the changes.  

They have pretty much exhausted the perpetual plugin sales, with their constant $29 sales - and most users have everything they need. 

They don't release much new product so I expect they are seeing a greatly declining revenue........SO......they feel it's worth the gamble.  Do the 'reset' and start again with a subscription only service to protect or at least hopefully secure (?) future revenue.

Terrible for existing customers, but hey, they've got our money.   Why be anchored by all those 'legacy' users.   Just start again with a new user base.

Immoral (IMO) but probably good business sense.

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4 minutes ago, simon said:

seriously ?!? - where does it say that ?

it's almost funny 

Look up "Klaus Schwab".  He's the "Leader" of the WEF (World Economic Forum).  He has a book called "The Great Reset"
and in it is stated the "You'll own NOTHING...and you'll be happy" motto.  Their GOAL is to
RESET the World Economy under which you will own NO PERSONAL PROPERTY WHATSOEVER! 
It's not funny in the least, and they are DEAD SERIOUS!

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4 minutes ago, cclarry said:

Look up "Klaus Schwab".  He's the "Leader" of the WEF (World Economic Forum).  He has a book called "The Great Reset"
and in it is stated the "You'll own NOTHING...and you'll be happy" motto.  Their GOAL is to
RESET the World Economy under which you will own NO PERSONAL PROPERTY WHATSOEVER! 
It's not funny in the least, and they are DEAD SERIOUS!

You see, nowadays leaders do not differ to the despots of the history! It's no joke, it's also dead serious!

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At the very least, the respectable (and smart) thing would have been to be transparent and forthright concerning perpetual plugin owners advising them to update (WUP) to the latest versions (v14) rather than just registering non-registered plugins.  This would have at least generated some revenue for them in the transition.  Not sure, but I would have seriously considered at least updating my Mercury/Classics bundle currently at v13 giving me another year of updates.

Owners of perpetual plugins should be fine either way (for the near future) at their current status per instructions for v9-13 & 14 versions in the Support pages.  However, remaining at the current Sub status, is the beginning of the end for me.

Information from FAQ:

 

 

WavesPerp.JPG

Waves13.JPG

Edited by Fwrend
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25 minutes ago, simon said:

FWIW here's my initial thoughts on the matter.

Waves will have totally expected this reaction - hence the secrecy about the changes.  

They have pretty much exhausted the perpetual plugin sales, with their constant $29 sales - and most users have everything they need. 

They don't release much new product so I expect they are seeing a greatly declining revenue........SO......they feel it's worth the gamble.  Do the 'reset' and start again with a subscription only service to protect or at least hopefully secure (?) future revenue.

Terrible for existing customers, but hey, they've got our money.   Why be anchored by all those 'legacy' users.   Just start again with a new user base.

Immoral (IMO) but probably good business sense.

I was just thinking along these lines as well. They introduced HUGE price drops over the last few years to squeeze every last penny out of the hobbyist market. And now that revenue source has mostly dried up in a much more mature plugin market. So they have gotten what they can from us (hobbyists). 

Now, Waves has licensing deals with auto and PC manufactures. ($$)  The perpetual licensing is just additional overhead - keeping up with the different versions, customer support, etc. So it is probably costing them money at this point - or their margins are just too tight to make it worthwhile.

I have no doubt, pros and  studios will sign on to the Waves subscription service as a cost of doing business. In return, they get top notch customer service and always the latest version of the software and a more stable code set. So Waves is really a subscription to an audio-processing service.  A well established one.  And for them, they only need to support the latest couple of versions. ANY support call will beging with "are you on the latest version?". They can lock in the recurring revenue with subscriptions instead of the unpredictable WUP.   It actually seems like a predictable and smart business move. 

 

Edited by mibby
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I feel for every single Waves customer at this very moment :(

In the same time I feel lucky that I never purchased a single plugin from Waves. I preferred plugins and audio software that could be activated with a simple key or static key file (FF, DMG, Valhalla, u-He, Xfer, TDR, Acon, SIR, Tone Projects, Kazrog, Wavesfactory) instead and now I can see what could have happened if I had loads of this $29 per plugin crap.

In future I will be even more careful to only get new plugins that offer offline key activation and nothing else.

Waves are probably adapting to the new economic really and it’s already obvious that WUP didn’t work well for them. Instead of throwing WUP under the bus they doubled down.  A stupid move IMO.

Don’t jump the Waves sub train, Waves looks to be an unreliable developer!

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6 minutes ago, smallstonefan said:

I have Waves Mercury and Abbey Road Collection and I used WUP.

 

I have no regrets.

Ditto (as well I gave the SSL collection).

For me as of today, this is not painful in the least.image.png.dd7a81c4402b1821184e3b9bafdebe44.png
I am WUP'd until 25, Jan 2025 so I have 22 months to decide if I freeze where I am of sub up.

Also, for me being sub'd  is about the same price I paid annually for WUP. 

I know, I know, if I stop the sub the plugs won't work.

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They should have more subscription packages. I have everything and then some from the essential package. If I want to explore anything I don't have I would have to subscribe to the ultimate package and I would be paying for access to plugs that I already purchased. The sub is not a bad deal if you're new to Waves but I don't do subs. I've been plugging away wup free for a long time with what I have. No regrets here either.

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4 minutes ago, Bapu said:

For me as of today, this is not painful in the least.I am WUP'd until 25, Jan 2025 so I have 22 months to decide if I freeze where I am of sub up.

Unless I'm missing something, how will WUP help in this case? I'm regretting my WUPping because they specifically mention we won't be getting new versions of the plugins past V14 (and it's always been that we get updates within the same version number whether we're WUPped or not.

This text seems to mean the time remaining on the Waves Update Plan is... useless?

image.png.fc94d3fc33771a73b77ad63e1a939d0b.png

 

Though maybe I missed something.

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1 minute ago, Luc said:

it's always been that we get updates within the same version number whether we're WUPped or not.

yes, you're right and I think there are some new V14 patches released today - I'm too scared to look

I think Bapu's WUP is only useful to get technical support - and zero use for anything else - maybe a couple of months free sub ?

basically a scam IMO !

 

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12 minutes ago, simon said:

yes, you're right and I think there are some new V14 patches released today - I'm too scared to look

I just noticed the V14 plugin updates after updating Waves Central.

I usually just apply all updates without worrying but now wonder if this will convert my perpertual licences to subscriptions.

I was going to just update StudioRack (which I got for free), but when I selected that one for update, all the others with available updates were selected as well.

Edited by locrian
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