Waves abandon perpetual licenses and WUP

[revvy]

Or did I dream it?

Asking for a friend.

EDIT

Waves abandon selling licenses and WUP.

[plexuss]

On Feb 2, 2023, at 1:07 PM, Waves Audio <news@emails.waves-audio.com> wrote:

All Waves serial numbers must be registered by March 26, 2023

Hi,
Due to an upcoming change in our authorization & registration systems, Monday, March 26, 2023 will be the last day to register product serial codes that have not yet been registered.

This includes:
• Plugins, bundles, upgrades, and hardware/software combos purchased via Waves dealers but not yet registered.
• Free products given during special promotions.
• Any other case where you may have received a Waves product serial code but didn’t yet register it.


Waves serial numbers cannot be registered after March 26, 2023.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our sales team.

All the best,
The Waves Team

[muki]

oops...i didn't know that
and (again) don't get any waves newsletters anymore...

thanks for the reminder!

[revvy]

On Feb 2, 2023, at 1:07 PM, Waves Audio <news@emails.waves-audio.com> wrote:

All Waves serial numbers must be registered by March 26, 2023

Hi,
Due to an upcoming change in our authorization & registration systems, Monday, March 26, 2023 will be the last day to register product serial codes that have not yet been registered.

This includes:
• Plugins, bundles, upgrades, and hardware/software combos purchased via Waves dealers but not yet registered.
• Free products given during special promotions.
• Any other case where you may have received a Waves product serial code but didn’t yet register it.


Waves serial numbers cannot be registered after March 26, 2023.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our sales team.

All the best,
The Waves Team

Thanks!

Is there any consensus/idle gossip about what this all means, beyond, gulp, just believing Waves and accepting it as an IT update?

Was thinking about getting a couple of new things but if there’s something huge afoot either customer-friendly or not (only subscription moving forward…?) then maybe I wouldn’t.

[Shabdahbriah]

I missed this email (probably deleted it). Thanks for the heads-up.

[plexuss]

It could be related to security - something to do with unregistered codes not being able to migrate in their databases to their new system. I dont know enough about the details to speculate that far. But I have seen this kind of thing in the past and worked for companies where they had similar problems with migrating data from one system to another.

[Leo1999]

A new authorization and registration system could probably mean that Waves plugins won't run on my system Win 7 64 bit any more. So maybe goodbye Waves?

[plexuss]

A new authorization and registration system could probably mean that Waves plugins won't run on my system Win 7 64 bit any more. So maybe goodbye Waves?

Not necessarily the issue could be confined to their systems alone and have no other effect on customers. we just dont know.

[revvy]

Thanks everyone. Yes, we don’t know, was just wondering what folks thought. I cried off Waves for a few years but am super tempted to get a couple of their cut price vocal plugs. I guess with their bundle and WUP ecosystem in place, even if they do introduce subscriptions, they’re unlikely to get rid of the current options.

[Tj Shredder]

I wonder what kind of problem triggered that move. Usually its better to never change a winning team… After they changed their system to the current, I never had problems with it…

[Kalamata Kid]

In Waves Central the Waves plugins are Activated and Installed. Does that qualify them as being registered?

[NikkiA]

In Waves Central the Waves plugins are Activated and Installed. Does that qualify them as being registered?

Yes, by 'unregistered' codes they mean codes that have not been attached to an account. There are some reasons for grabbing waves codes and not attaching them to your account straight-away, eg it's cheaper to grab a plugin when it's on super-cheap sale, and hold onto the code until you need to bounce to a new version at some point after your WUP expires. I *think* this trick can also be pulled on the bundle packages.

I'd not be surprised if the change is WUP related, and would probably make this act, of holding onto unregistered codes until need of a version upgrade, pointless anyway.

[Kalamata Kid]

Thanks. So, I suppose here, activated and registered are synonymous.

[NikkiA]

Not quite, but the difference between an unregistered and a registered plugin, or between an unregistered plugin and an activated plugin are the bigger issue.

An unregistered plugin has a 1 year WUP support, that does not start until the code is registered.
A registered plugin has that clock running, but the plugin is not usable until it is activated on a machine.

Now, those of us that see evil among waves' actions would say 'they're trying to get the pool of unregistered plugins gone so that they can change the rules on WUP and no-one will have grandfathered support.

The more tolerant might point out that if they're about to change something in WUP in favour of the users, then having hundreds of people want a refund on unregistered/unactivated codes might be something to avoid.

(The tolerant group would probably, rightly, be told that since Waves aren't offering a 'turn in your code for a refund' option, it is fairly obvious they're not doing it for our own good)

[revvy]

Interesting discussion.

Time will tell!

I nabbed Ovox which is so much fun I currently forgive Waves in advance for any changes they make.

Maybe. Not really.