Waves already backtracking

[jamcat]

Everything is subscription only until they bring back the perpetual licenses shortly (guess tomorrow?). Only WUP has been reinstantiated for now.

Perpetual purchases are already up. $29.99 is back.

Are they back at 3rd party retailers?

[jens]

It’s hard for me to fathom, but maybe some forum warriors were wrong.

[dlandis]

Everything is subscription only until they bring back the perpetual licenses shortly (guess tomorrow?). Only WUP has been reinstantiated for now.

Perpetual purchases are already up. $29.99 is back.

Well done Waves. A supplier who actually listened to the masses

Odd - so many people confidently said the sales prices would never return.

It’s hard for me to fathom, but maybe some forum warriors were wrong.

Glad that it's done; it went by so quickly, I barely had time to blink.

I'm glad that Waves straightened it out and I hope no one's head has rolled. (I do hope that whoever thought the whole thing up has, rather, learned something.)

And I hope that we don't see any similar marketing strategies again anytime soon.

[jens]

[VitaminD]

Looks like StudioRack doesn’t have a price yet. Wonder if it went subscription only!

Pretty sure it’s a freebie

Yeah, it was. Unfortunately, StudioRack is an exception in perpetual purchases and cannot be purchased separately, it's subscription only.

I assume you could still WUP an existing older StudioRack license.

Lucky to have it. Guess most of would have it.

I don't see it listed in my WUP list along with the other plugins. I hope that's just an oversight and will be corrected in the future..

But color me surprised to see the 30 dollar sales back. I was almost certain they'd try to make the subscriptions look 'better' by making the individuals cost a lot more.

[ghettosynth]

It’s hard for me to fathom, but maybe some forum warriors were wrong.

Waves made a tactical error, that doesn't change their intent which was clearly conveyed. You can't base anything on what they are doing right now. They are trying to save face. Wait a year or two to see if the $29 sales are as frequent or aggressive as they've been in the past. This whole thing is a moving target that will fluctuate, however, if you can't see the direction that companies want it to go, then you have your head in the sand. Waves thought that they could be Avid, they found out that they weren't there yet. Frankly, had they been just a tiny bit more open about it and let users continue to buy WUP but not permanent licenses, I'm not convinced that the backlash would have been as strong. I think that they could have even gotten away with a sunsetting of WUP in say 2025/2026 or so.

[VitaminD]

Have the bundles not normally become affected by what you already own from them? I own 5 out of 8 plugins in one and see the price is the same whether I'm logged in or not.

[ghettosynth]

Have the bundles not normally become affected by what you already own from them? I own 5 out of 8 plugins in one and see the price is the same whether I'm logged in or not.

I didn't notice, but, either way wouldn't surprise me. Maybe they just haven't implemented that yet, maybe they don't want to implement it?

[noiseboyuk]

Waves made a tactical error, that doesn't change their intent which was clearly conveyed. You can't base anything on what they are doing right now. They are trying to save face. Wait a year or two to see if the $29 sales are as frequent or aggressive as they've been in the past. This whole thing is a moving target that will fluctuate, however, if you can't see the direction that companies want it to go, then you have your head in the sand. Waves thought that they could be Avid, they found out that they weren't there yet.

Or...

Waves tried something unthinkable. Maybe buoyed by the constant refrain on forums like KVR, they actually appeared to believe the hype that the world was all moving towards subs-only, despite no major audio company having successfully done it since Adobe 12 years ago. Not even Avid have been able to make the break from perpetual, before long they were offering deals to get perpetual licenses up to date.

But no matter, Waves was a big beast so they went for it. Suck it up everyone, subs is the future!

The future lasted 3 days.

A full reverse has been in operation ever since. We are now back exactly where we were, only the consumer's hand is considerably strengthened.

But keen to argue defeat from the jaws of victory, some told us "the sales will never come back". After 4 days the sales came back. The same people are now saying "well, the sales may become progressively more infrequent over medium-term timescales". Not as pithy. I look forward to the addition "I meant long-term timescales" in a year or two.

Look, if anyone wants to stay mad at Waves, good for you. Waves did something unconscionable, monumentally dumb, I don't blame you at all. They were never the most popular company round here in the first place, so you're in good company. But those of us who are pragmatists, we will quietly carry on doing exactly what we we were doing before.

As for upgrading bundles - let's see. Things are coming back in stages, I'd expect upgrades will be next. If I'm wrong and they have gone for good, then I guess people won't be upgrading any more.

[vurt]

It’s hard for me to fathom, but maybe some forum warriors were wrong.

well i didn't expect it, but im happy i was wrong

[Scotty]

Well I am going to pick up Harmony and likely update the plugins with WUP tax , so I can use them on the M1 Macbook Pro; assuming that they are all running natively?

[jamcat]

All Waves plugins are M1 native and have been since V13 in 2021.

[noiseboyuk]

All Waves plugins are M1 native and have been since V13 in 2021.

This is true, though not the AAXs. They appeared to become fully silicon-compatible somewhere in the life of v14, but no-one seems to know the exact version number (and Waves’ website to this day incorrectly claims they are Rosetta-only).

[gaggle of hermits]

A full reverse has been in operation ever since. We are now back exactly where we were, only the consumer's hand is considerably strengthened.

the thing with waves is they have a history of shifting goalposts and not in a good way.

in the beginning, WUP wasn't a thing. and its pricing has been all over the place though it's better now in relative terms than it was when it started.

and in those days, they made WUP look a bit better by adding plugins to their biggest bundles...until they didn't. first it was diamond. then that stopped and then mercury was the one they'd never cheat you on...until they didn't (and quite quickly as it turned out with ssl and abbey road).

they shitcanned their short-lived APA thing without warning and gave aax-dsp the heave-ho despite charging customers through the nose for the earlier tdm stuff.

in short, as they say in detective shows, waves has got form.

the good news is they've decided to reinstate the former status quo by the looks of it. the bad news is that the status quo wasn't exactly great. I've no problem with the concept of WUP but relative to the street prices of their stuff, it's way over-priced now but they don't seem to want to budge on that. and with the sub in place, my guess is that they won't - but will instead use it to make the sub look more attractive. and you can trust waves to find innovative ways to disappoint in the future much as they have done in the past.

on the plus side, you can use a short-term sub as an extended demo and cherrypick the key plugins you really want. from my perspective, Silver (maybe Gold) + a few on top is a cracking deal but is complicated by the WUP pricing. without changes, you'd probably wind up being better off buying it all again after a few years instead of WUPing the existing bundle (you tend to hit the $240 WUP ceiling at about 18-19 plugins). i can't see it holding to be honest but stranger things have happened.

[LoveEnigma18]

Looks like bundle upgrades are gone now (can't see the option in my account), which is strange.

Yes, same here. It may yet re-appear of course as things are coming back in stages.

I hope so too, but it seems that they might not come back. In the meantime, I will ask Waves support and update if I get more information.

FWIW, there was an opportunity around last Black Friday or so to upgrade my Horizon + Studio Classics Collection + Single plugins to Mercury + Studio Classics Collection for $300. It was a great price considering you also get one year of free WUP, but I couldn't afford it that time. The reason I am mentioning this is because this was the last upgrade path I could/would have taken. So, if upgrades don't come back, WUP is the only way to stay updated.

Also, looks like Waves plugins won't be available at resellers again in the future.

I wish they brought back WUP with at least a 25% off discount. It would have helped a little bit. Only time will tell what they are up to with respect to regular sales like buy two get one free, discounts, etc.