Mike Thornton has a selection of Waves bundles and plugins that he has acquired over the years, and until now, he has chosen to keep his Waves Upgrade Plan up to date. But with the change in Waves Audio’s business model, he now needs to decide what to do as his WUP expires in May 2023. Read on to see what he decides to do…

Since Waves announced their move to a subscription-only option, I have been considering what I will do. Here are my thoughts and plans on what to do with my Waves plugins.

My History With Waves

Back in the days of TDM, I was a big fan of Waves, and you would find them in all my templates and sessions. But when Waves made the decision only to support AAX Native and not support AAX DSP, I had to find alternatives so I could continue to work with DSP plugins.

However, like others in my position, several plugins were harder to do without, as we covered in our article Waves Plugins Post Production Users Struggle To Live Without.

My choice until now has been to keep my WUP going. It's not a huge amount a year to pay to keep all the Waves stuff I own up to date; I have been paying $240 per annum. That way, I can be confident to be able to open legacy sessions with Waves plugins and not worry.

So What Now? 

Reading the information available, it became clear that the only way to continue to keep my Waves plugins up to date would be to move to a new Waves subscription. But would that be more expensive than my annual WUP costs me?

With Creative Access, there are two options…

1. Waves Ultimate gives you access to every Waves plugin for $24.99 per month or $249.99 per annum.

2. Waves Essential gives you access to 110 Waves plugins for $14.99 per month or $149.99 per annum.

Waves Essential Not Enough

The first thing I did was check which plugins are included in the Essential Creative Access option. I found several plugins not included that I would like to continue to have access to, including the IR1 and the 360 bundle. To continue to have up-to-date access to these plugins, I would need to go for the Waves Ultimate option. But the cost isn’t that much more. I have been paying $240 per annum to keep my existing Waves perpetual license up-to-date. For $10 more (if I pay for Waves Creative Access Ultimate annually), I could have access to all the Waves plugins, not just the ones I own, as long as I continue to pay the Waves subscription.

However, It’s Not That Simple

Because I run a studio and a laptop-based system, I tend to have a secondary set of plugins on my laptop, so I can do quite a lot when I am on the road without moving licenses around. Regarding Waves plugins, I have two Waves bundles, Platinum for my laptop and Diamond for my studio system. 

It would appear that if I went for Waves Creative Access, I would lose that duplication. I checked the Creative Access FAQs, and there is a question about moving Waves Creative Access licenses between computers. The answer says…

“A Waves Creative Access license will authorize one system at a time. Moving between multiple systems is easy: find the instructions here. If you want to run Waves Creative Access plugins on two (or more) computers simultaneously, additional subscriptions can be purchased.”

This means that I wanted the same arrangement, then I would need two Creative Access licenses, but I could probably work with Essentials on the laptop and Ultimate on my studio system. This would increase the annual cost from $240 to $400.

Perhaps There is An Alternative?

Turning to the Creative Access FAQs, there is a question covering what happens to the plugin or bundle licenses I already own. The answer says…

“You continue to own them, at the latest version you bought or updated to prior to the launch of Waves Creative Access. You can continue to use your plugin/bundle licenses and software, on all systems and host applications that are compatible with the versions you own.”

There is also a question about what happens when my WUP expires. The answer says…

“You will continue to receive updates for V14 plugins for the duration of your current Waves Update Plan coverage. Once the coverage expires, it will not be possible to renew, but you can continue to use your plugin/bundle licenses on all systems and host applications that are compatible with the versions you own. Future plugin updates will be available exclusively with Waves Creative Access.”

So I could choose to do nothing. My WUP will not renew, saving me $240 per year; my perpetual license Waves plugins will continue to work and based on Waves’ track record, their plugins continue to work on current DAWs for a long time, so I stand a good chance of continuing to be able to use my Waves plugins for some time yet without spending any money. 

The downside is I will not get any updates, and I won’t get access to any new Waves plugins, or will I?

How about this as an option? In the future, if I ever needed the latest version of a Waves plugin or wanted to use a Waves plugin I don’t currently own, I could sign up for one of the Waves subscription plans for a month or so, do the job and then drop off. I will still have all my perpetual licenses available to me until they are no longer supported, and at that point, I can choose to continue to drop in and out of a Creative Access plan as I need it or sign up for an annual plan.

Checking the Creative Access FAQs again, there is a question about whether you can pause your subscription or not. The answer says…

“If you wish to pause, simply cancel your subscription and then re-subscribe when you wish to resume.”

So that part is OK, but what about having perpetual and subscription licenses running simultaneously? This time the answer is in our article Waves New Subscription Only Plans - Everything You Need To Know, which asks what happens to my perpetual licenses if I install Waves Creative Access. The answer says…

“Waves users who have purchased perpetually licenced plugins are still theirs to use indefinitely. Users who want to continue using perpetual licences for purchased products should consult with Waves support pages before upgrading to Waves Creative Access.”

So this would suggest that I could continue to use my Waves perpetual licenses and enable and disable a new Waves subscription plan as required. Reading the Waves support pages, it appears that when I want to switch to a subscription plan, I need to put my perpetual licenses back in the cloud and enable the subscription licensing. Then when I stop the subscription plan, re-enable my perpetual licenses.

What Will I Do?

If I was still a freelancer editing and mixing projects every day for my clients, its a no-brainer. I would change my studio system to Waves Creative Access Ultimate.Yes, it’s $10 a year more, but for that, I would get access to all the Waves plugins, including Clarity X Pro, which I currently don’t have. Then depending on how much I need my laptop, I would pay the extra for a Waves Creative Essential subscription for that system or move my perpetual license to my laptop.

However, I am retired, so my investment return is a different calculation. So I will not be moving to a Waves Creative Access plan; I will depend on continuing to be able to use my perpetual licenses, and on the rare occasion I need more, take out a short-term subscription plan.

What I Would Prefer To Be Able To Do

From my perspective, it's a shame that Waves didn’t provide existing customers with a current Waves Upgrade Plan to continue with it, and so keep existing Waves plugins up to date for the same annual fee.

Yes, by all means, close perpetual licensing to all new customers. If an existing customer allows their WUP to lapse, then the only way back in is via subscription, but why didn’t Waves give their existing loyal customers the option to say with their perpetual licenses and be able to keep them up to date? It’s an opportunity missed, in my opinion.

Let’s hope Waves reconsider this.

Update

As of 15:45 BST on Wednesday, March 29th 2023, Waves has announced the reinstatement of perpetual licenses and Waves upgrade plans alongside their Creative Access Subscription Plans.