Waves announced that as of March 26th, 2023, customers could only get new plugins through one of two subscription services, with access to all Waves plugins (220) coming in at $24.99 USD per month and a smaller subset of Waves plugins (110) available for $14.99 USD per month. The plugins in the Essentials option at the lower priced are set, you don’t get to pick which 110 and if you want one not in the list, well then you have to buy into Ultimate. Which for many recordists, mixers and producers, sucks and blows simultaneously.

Each subscription works on ONE machine only. Waves customers may recall that in addition to the Waves Update Plan, when you bought any plugin or bundle, you also got activation on a second machine for a year. That’s gone. You will be able to install the plugins on more than one machine but will have to sign out and sign in as you move between machines. Even the kings of subscription, Adobe, allow a customer to be signed in on two personal machines simultaneously. Waves needs to address this rectal cranial injection issue before the angry hordes (and man are they angry) get their torches and pitchforks out.

If you have an active Waves update plan or 2nd licenses, they will continue to work until expiration. Any plugins that you bought, remain yours as they stand as of March 26, 2023, which basically tells you that your update plan is pretty much worthless right now. Another kick to the customer genitals. Waves, feel free to correct me if I have misunderstood any of this.

Having spent almost all my working life in Information Technology and Information Security, subscriptions are not new. With the exception of Logic Pro, all the serious DAWs are already on subscription. In photography, design and video, everything Adobe does is a subscription. Most all Microsoft software is a subscription. As a videographer, I am grateful that Blackmagic Design continues to provide upgrades for life on DaVinci Resolve for those who bought the Studio license.

While subscriptions seem simple, it means that end users now have to manage subscriptions that auto-renew unless you cancel, and when you do cancel, the software ceases to operate. The theory is that you save money. That is determined by each individual, although in this particular case, if you are a heavy user of Waves products it will be better for you over time, provided the subscription price doesn’t get jacked consistently, like all the other ones do.

If anyone recently bought one of the expensive Waves bundles, they are likely undergoing apoplexy. Imagine having recently spent $2500 on the Mercury bundle only to find that while you own the products, updates are going to be slim on the ground and after your Update Plan expires, you are stuck with the versions that you have which may not even work with as yet unreleased versions of operating systems. Adobe customers have already experience this particular special service and Adobe has demonstrated absolutely no concern with angry customers. Waves has a chance to get in front of this oncoming train and protect those who made the company successful, or not, and risk a reputation crater followed by innumerable slams and slagging on antisocial media.

Only you can decide if the subscription is worth your while. Many DAWs come with really excellent plugins and while the quantity may not be the same, how many plugins do you actually use? Universal Audio offers both buy or subscribe options and to be blunt it’s still a bit of a kludge, although plugin owners continue to get updates and get the plugins that work under the Spark subscription at no cost if they own the purchased version.

My advice to Waves is to make the Ultimate subscription work on two machines on as many installs as desired but only a maximum of two machines can be active at one time. Look at how Adobe has done this. They’ve figured it out, no need to reinvent the wheel. Also be damn sure that anyone with an existing Update Plan gets maximum value from it until it would naturally expire.

I’m getting regular notices about this new great service from Waves and given my expiry dates, I have no good business reason to sign up for a subscription at this point. I don’t use all the plugins that I got in my Horizon bundle as it is, so what am I going to do with more, other than slow down the launch of my DAWs and get a serious case of option paralysis. I think that Waves is under the impression that folks will just buy in without issue, but the current flashback on the decision on YouTube is pretty consistently full on hate. I don’t know that I will sign up for the subscription at this point, and all the incentives (one month free) expire pretty darn soon.

That bullet wound in the head is going to hurt a lot.

UPDATE : MARCH 29, 2023

An email blast went out to Waves customers today under the byline of the CTO. It apologizes for the sudden and unexpected transition with no notice to subscription only and committed to offer customers their choice of subscription or to allow the purchase of perpetual licenses and updates. So customers will now have a choice of the old way, or the new way. A good solution. Waves’ email does state that getting the online store back to selling perpetual licenses and update plans will take a bit of time. The only conclusion that I can draw is that the subscription online store is a completely different code base and the company now has to figure out how to offer either option in the same online store. I for one am glad of the correction, although I remain stunned that any company would pull such a stunt without consultation with existing paying customers first and if they did, what kind of dingbats with no business sense were consulted.