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

[John1984]

2 minutes ago, Lemar Sain said:

WARNING!...Not sure if this has been posted yet but be careful testing out the sub or trial. Sub licenses will REPLACE your perpetual licenses .

That simply states that, as a consequence of either getting an update during the first year or in subsequent years as a result of paying for WUP, when you move from v13 to v14, you won't have two licenses -- one for v13 and one for v14 -- you maintain one license for the latest version. It's no different than when you take advantage of an upgrade offer; often the previous version cannot be sold. That seems fair to me.

[locrian]

9 minutes ago, Lemar Sain said:

WARNING!...Not sure if this has been posted yet but be careful testing out the sub or trial. Sub licenses will REPLACE your perpetual licenses .

If it's true that updating from now on converts your perpetual license to a subscription, they need to give us a clear warning in Waves Central as opposed to burying this fact in legalease.

I think I may just uninstall Waves Central to prevent any unfortunate accidents.

Edited March 26, 2023 by locrian

[Fleer]

And a VU meter

E122FF54757B46B99A7CD6E6912EBE39

[LittleStudios]

For me, I'm not sure I really care.  I have a bunch of Waves plugins (a bunch I got for free), honestly, I hardly use any of them.  For the people who are big fans of Waves and get a lot of use out of their plugins, this may be a good option.  I think subscription models work great if you are really embedded in the world of a particular developer.  Myself, I'm all over the place, plugins from different developers, if they all switched to a subscription, I'd be hosed.

[Fleer]

LoFi Space

D7159ECBE752496DAE22453452762BFF 
4454C1302B194BE58771F1697B174315 

[mcmd]

1 minute ago, Fleer said:

And a VU meter

E122FF54757B46B99A7CD6E6912EBE39

Thanks ...just grabbed that one.

[Fleer]

Berzerk distortion

DF244A10800F4E33885A2C16D4C449B0
6156710BD7D84C7094509D60E1101774
8FEE048594C447359E38F325141315C4

[lawajava]

Bummer overall.  I'll just sit and continue to use what I have.  When they stop working I'll stop using them, alternatives to many also in hand or available with perpetual liceneses.

[mcmd]

CLA EchoSphere

7FA2DF4A183C4E7C90719A1C5D301BE3

[Fleer]

Sibilance

B2014C1F611E49EB95D96B4CAC00E51C

[chris.r]

11 minutes ago, mcmd said:

CLA EchoSphere

7FA2DF4A183C4E7C90719A1C5D301BE3

Dang! Someone has used the code while my Waves website wouldn't open  

Anyone else with unused Echosphere code? And RVox if anything  

[MusicMan]

And this is why you shouldn't ask AI to write your business plan Waves ?

Sometimes I wonder if Waves is a money laundering company and with legitimate customers buying plugins there's too much additional money for them to wash so they need to deter us!

Either way, epic (but not surprising for them) fail on Waves part.. I'll never subscribe with them so they will never see any money from me in future...

[Barrie]

2 hours ago, husker said:

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.

Actually AVID did this in the last year or so, when then said no more new perpetual licenses or upgrades, then reversed that.

[husker]

12 minutes ago, Barrie said:

Actually AVID did this in the last year or so, when then said no more new perpetual licenses or upgrades, then reversed that.

Wow.  Cool.   Hopeful Waves will do the same thing. 

[dubdisciple]

I don't hate this, but I definitely don't love it. Waves does have the product line to be the one stop source for plugins( excluding instruments) if you are running a profitable studio.   I think the big gamble Waves is taking is that they don't have the unique position that Adobe had. Photoshop has enjoyed the advantage of not having had a serious competitor since the 90's.  The same is true for After Effects to a lesser degree ( more powerful compositing software exists, but AE occupies a unique lane that happens to work well with their other software). It took me awhile to move on from Adobe( Resolve is better than Premier in multiple areas and Affinity photo is a notch below but usable for my purposes), but finally have a combo that works for me.  With Waves it is very different. I could never use a Waves product again starting now and not miss a step. I am sure this is true for many of us even if we love certain products ( Rvox is on most of my vocal chains ). In fact, I am willing to say most of us have individual plugins as good as or superior to every equivalent waves plugin. Most of us wouldn't be lose sleep if we were "stuck" using Fabfilter Pro L, Sonible Smart Limiter or even Newfangled Elevate instead of L2 the same way as an image processing professional would struggle if Photoshop got yanked overnight. 

I get the theory behind subscriptions. It forces upgrades when customers would be content to skip version or wait, and thus making income more predictable. In this case, it may blowup. I simply don't need Waves and I am sure I have at least 5 years with my current versions. More than enough time to replace Waves with plugins I likely already have. I started playing with Bassmint more today.

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, husker said:

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.

How corporations IT departments buy is very different from how consumers buy, especially when it comes to subscriptions. 

[Barrie]

Waves collected a lot of money from the $29 plugins I'd assume, giving them a bit of cash while they wait for subscriptions to pick up. They could re-enable WUP for a short time now, and get more cash in a short time I would think (if there are others like me, who would have, if I had know they would stop WUP).

[Lionel]

How to ruin an audio plugin business

1. Waves Execs see all the profits companies like Adobe are making with subscriptions.  They want a piece of that pie.  
2. Without any consumer surveys or feedback, they decide to do away with perpetual licenses(and WUP) and go all in on a subscription-only business
3. Inform 3rd party vendors know they won't be needed anymore
4. Send an email to current customers stating they need to register their plugins by a short deadline.  No need to give them a good amount of time to adjust.  
5. Keep the email vague as possible without much detail, but make sure it sounds really important.  Just say some BS like, "Due to an upcoming change in our authorization & registration systems. Sunday, March 26, 2023 will be the last day to register dealer-purchased product serial codes that have not yet been registered."  If they have any questions, just put our contact info
6. Inform the support staff that something BIG is going to happen soon, but keep them in the dark.  If customers inquire about what's going on... just have the support team reply with vague replies
7. Make sure the main website has "ZERO" information about the deadline to register and the new authorization system. Actually, make sure they can't find info anywhere on the website including: search, store and FAQ
8. It's business as usual... Keep selling plugins on Waves.com  (Try get as many people(aka "suckers") to purchase plugins before the deadline)
9. The day has come.  Announce new Waves Creative Access on main website and all social media.  No more WUP, no more perpetual licenses.  Basically, Waves gives customers the middle finger
10. Uproar ensues.  Consumer outrage falls on deaf ears.  Waves lose majority of customer base.  All the while, Waves competitors like Universal Audio, Plugin Alliance, Melda and IK Multimedia are enjoying the show with popcorn ?

Edited March 27, 2023 by Lionel

[LittleStudios]

I would hate to work in customer service at Waves right now.

[Brian Walton]

42 minutes ago, dubdisciple said:

I don't hate this, but I definitely don't love it. Waves does have the product line to be the one stop source for plugins( excluding instruments) if you are running a profitable studio.   I think the big gamble Waves is taking is that they don't have the unique position that Adobe had. Photoshop has enjoyed the advantage of not having had a serious competitor since the 90's.  The same is true for After Effects to a lesser degree ( more powerful compositing software exists, but AE occupies a unique lane that happens to work well with their other software). It took me awhile to move on from Adobe( Resolve is better than Premier in multiple areas and Affinity photo is a notch below but usable for my purposes), but finally have a combo that works for me.  With Waves it is very different. I could never use a Waves product again starting now and not miss a step. I am sure this is true for many of us even if we love certain products ( Rvox is on most of my vocal chains ). In fact, I am willing to say most of us have individual plugins as good as or superior to every equivalent waves plugin. Most of us wouldn't be lose sleep if we were "stuck" using Fabfilter Pro L, Sonible Smart Limiter or even Newfangled Elevate instead of L2 the same way as an image processing professional would struggle if Photoshop got yanked overnight. 

I get the theory behind subscriptions. It forces upgrades when customers would be content to skip version or wait, and thus making income more predictable. In this case, it may blowup. I simply don't need Waves and I am sure I have at least 5 years with my current versions. More than enough time to replace Waves with plugins I likely already have. I started playing with Bassmint more today.

A profitable studio is what...  .01% of the vst market?

I understand why they made this move but it certainly wasn't for good will towards customers.  Thankfully there is only one Waves plugin that I haven't found a replacement for.  Glad I started the transition away years ago.