So waves had decided to move to subscription model on a case by case/per plugin basis.
After some lash from the community (hello…ofcourse!) the management decided to bring the perps back. If anyone is interested in this drama, here is some more info:
1 Like
I was interested to watch it, considering I have a fairly large Waves plug-in collection myself.
My immediate response was to sigh and shrug and say “Here we go again”… I’ve been caught out at least twice already with plugins / plug-in systems going obsolete for different reasons after me paying out considerable sums.
For example, way back in 2006 I bought a bundle of great plugins from Kjaerhus Audio called the Golden bundle, along with a newly released limiter, the name of which escapes me now. Now these are NOT the freeware suite that is currently available (that is also very good). The bundle cost me somewhere in the vicinity of $700+.
As it turned out, the developer was a one man show, and apparently, sadly, his health took a steep downward turn and he got out of the plugin game. Cakewalk took over some of the code for some plugins in the bundle, but eventually all the ones I owned became unsupported.
I got into the UAD ecosystem a little later around 2010 with a Solo PCI card. The card cost an eye-watering amount of money (I think it may have even been AU$1000+!)… and then if you wanted more than just the basic few that came with the card, the plugins cost more on top of that ($150-$350 per plugin!). I still have the card, and it still works in my old computer, but I can’t use it with my Mac M1… so now I have my UAD interface, which does work with my M1… & then UAD goes native anyway! Not burned as badly in this case, as the plugins that I own still work, and I still own them…. Just sayin’ that… well… these things happen!
So, prior to Waves’ backflip on the Subscription thing, here’s a (rather philosophical) post I made on an AMC thread on the subject:
“I think Waves are going the Avid/Pro-Tools route with their marketing. Initially they were pretty much the exclusive domain of professionals with “professional” price tags. (Remember their prices in the mid 2000s?)
Once digital recording became broadly democratised, they realised they were missing out on the vast and seemingly lucrative enthusiast/hobbyist market, so for years now they have tried to compete for both the enthusiast/hobbyist dollar (with $30 plugins and bundle specials) as well as the professional market (with WUP). For a long while the tactic of flattering amateurs by putting “professional” tools within their reach seemed to work…
…but as all of us have realised, there comes a point when you have all the tools you could possibly want (and then some), and unless you want to invest more creativity-sapping brain-power on learning new tools, you eventually stop buying, even though they are oh-so-enticingly priced.
My guess is that the hobbyist market reached saturation (pun intended) point with Waves, and despite the Tsunami of marketing, their profits started to suffer accordingly. Once that happens, it begins to be difficult to service your existing customer base… and when the pros (who are always likely to pay their WUP fee to get top-tier service) get dissatisfied and start leaving, then a company like Waves is really sunk… They need the constant drip-feed of money - it dried up from the hobbyists buying $30 plugins every month, so now they have to find another way to extract it…. Watch this space, I guess!”
Well, we’ve watched, and it certainly was interesting, to say the least!
2 Likes