WAVES Brought back the perpetual license.
The internet is a wonderful thing. A few days ago the internet literally exploded as if it was struck by the Death Star. WAVES announced that they would be discontinuing their perpetual license for their plugins. An absolute volcanic eruption took place. YouTubers and Bloggers alike took to the internet to voice their frustration and even anger.
Today, on Wednesday March 29th 2023, CTO and Co-Founder, Meir Shashoua made this post on social media:
Dear Waves community,
My name is Meir Shashoua, and I’m the CTO and Co-Founder of Waves Audio.
Over the past few days, many of you have expressed concerns about our decision to discontinue perpetual plugin licenses and our move to an exclusive plugin subscription model. I would like to start by apologizing for the frustration we have caused many of you, our loyal customers. We understand that our move was sudden and disruptive, and did not sufficiently take into consideration your needs, wishes, and preferences. We are genuinely sorry for the distress it has caused.
After respectfully listening to your concerns, I want to share with you that we are bringing back the perpetual plugin license model, side-by-side with the new subscriptions. You will again be able to get plugins as perpetual licenses, just as before.
In addition, those of you who already own perpetual licenses will once again be able to update your plugins and receive a second license via the Waves Update Plan—again, just as before. This option, too, will be available alongside and independently of the subscription program.
We are currently putting all our efforts into making perpetual licenses available to you again, as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you can keep up-to-date on this news page: https://www.waves.com/news/perpetual-waves-licenses-are-back where we will post the latest updates on perpetual license availability.
I would like you to know that we are committed to you, our users. We listened to your feedback, and we will continue to listen to you. Waves is a company filled with users and creators, just like you, and we are all as passionate about the products as you are. With this in mind, we will strive to find the way to make things right by you, and hopefully regain your trust.
Thank you for your feedback and continued support—I wish you all the best,
Meir Shashoua
CTO and Co-Founder
Waves
I’m Just Glad They Listen
It’s worth mentioning and applauding the fact that WAVES listened to their client base and brought the perpetual license back. Many companies don’t listen to clients and eventually fail. The thing that companies need to realize is that someone else is out they're creating and grinding to make something as-good-as or even better than their product, this applies to every industry. Someone is always ready to take your clients if you run them off. The only few companies I can think of that can actually “get away” with telling their client base that they don’t matter is Apple, Disney, Meta, Google, and Starbucks. It’s unfortunate but they’ve become irreplaceable and they know it. Those companies are the exception to the rule. If they were replaceable, the game would be so much different.
Where’s the Trust?
Time will only tell if WAVES back-stepping this policy will make a difference in the long term. A good deal of other engineers have already written them off for their decisions, even though they have walked them back now. Personally, I’ll likely keep looking for alternatives. Until then, I’ll just use the plugins I’ve paid for. This turn of events just goes to show that customers hate recurring purchases. WAVES is a great system for getting a lot of bang out of a single manufacture, but truth is that there is an alternative to everything that they offer. Companies like iZotope and Slate Digital are great examples of companies that offer great varieties of plugins at great price points.
