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Mix Live Blog: The Audio Community Has Spoken

Steve La Cerra takes a look at Waves' much-discussed move into subscriptions and what that might mean for users and the company going forward.

PHOTO: Shalom Jacobovitz/Brocken Inaglory – Cc-by-sa-2.0; Waves Audio

Way back in 2012, Adobe announced that it would be changing its software delivery model from license-for-purchase to subscription-based. At the time, users of Adobe products were stunned and not particularly happy. Anticipating this reaction, the company offered its subscription model alongside the traditional ‘software for purchase’ model for almost five years, until they ceased to offer the latter option in 2017. The company was transparent about the move, going so far as to publish an open letter to users informing them of the upcoming changes in an effort to make the transition as painless as possible.

This past week, Waves Audio took a similar path — albeit not the one they were planning. On March 26, the company announced that they’d move immediately and exclusively to a subscription-based model called Waves Creative Access. The Waves user base went ballistic, posting negative comments on social media. Having heard these collective voices screaming outrage, Waves retreated, announcing only three days later that they would again offer the subscription-based model alongside the original license-for purchase model.

What better way to resurrect the hot debate of licensed- versus subscription-based software? If you missed that hot debate, here’s a synopsis:

Subscription-Based: Customers pay a monthly or yearly fee in exchange for access to an entire suite of software (in this case, the catalog of Waves plug-ins). Updates are “free” and tech support is included. If you stop paying the fee, you lose access to the software. This arrangement is also referred to as SaaS (Software as a Service).

License-Based Software: A user pays an upfront price for the software, and in theory, has access to the software forever (thus the term ‘perpetual license’). They must, however, pay for updates and possibly for support.

Those who opt for Waves Creative Access will be offered two tiers: Waves Essential ($14.99/month or $149.99/year) and Waves Ultimate ($24.99/month or $249.99/year). Essential will include 110 plug-ins and will add select new plug-ins as they become available. Ultimate includes more than 220 plug-ins and will incorporate all new plug-ins. Both include free updates and support, as well as StudioVerse and SpliceSounds+.

The Pros

Waves Creative Access provides users with access to a heckova lot of plug-ins for a reasonable fee—probably way more than most people could afford if they had to purchase a perpetual license for each plug-in. And, since the subscription includes updates and support, you no longer have to deal with the Waves Update Plan. Waves Creative Access promises a streamlined process when compared to the old model.

The Cons

Many Waves users voiced the feeling that a subscription-based model forces them to pay for software they don’t need. To some extent, I agree with them: Am I really ever going to use a “one-knob” plug-in? I doubt it, so why should I have to pay for it? Waves offers many plug-ins for a price of around thirty or forty bucks each, which is very reasonable. In my opinion, the company has found the “no-brainer-sweet-spot” for the license price: It’s affordable enough that you don’t have to think very much before pulling the trigger. And there are always sales offering ‘buy two and get one free,’ or some similar sort of perk.

The roster for the Essential plan includes a lot of popular and useful plug-ins, and of course the Ultimate plan even more—but many users will find that the Essential plan is a non-starter. A lot of the plug-ins I use frequently (API, SSL, etc.) aren’t available in Essential, so I’d be more inclined to stick with my license-based plug-ins over the Ultimate package. At $249 annually, it’s not exorbitant, but some users will argue that they don’t budget that amount for new plug-ins each year, opting instead to retain their license-based ’plugs.

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Also, there will always be users for whom Essential has everything they need except <insert name of one plug-in you absolutely must have that’s only available in Ultimate>; they now have the option of adding a license for that single plug-in. But I suppose that buying up to Ultimate will surely yield more plug-ins which eventually make the “can’t live without” list.

Response to news of Waves Creative Access on social media and Gearspace has been fierce, ranging from audio pros who feel this is less confusing than dealing with the current update plan, to those who are fuming mad and promise never again to patronize the company again, regardless of how they market their software. Yikes. As of right now, there are more than 70 pages of comments on Gearspace and thousands of comments on the Waves FB page, the vast majority from people who were disappointed with the decision and angered by the manner in which it was handled.

Observations

The subscription model is a more efficient one for touring engineers and sound companies, who can now “rent” plug-ins for the length of a tour and avoid paying for perpetual licenses when they are not needed. Creative Access will allow Waves users to upgrade and downgrade between Essential and Ultimate as needed—so if you’re doing a big project, you can step up to Ultimate for the duration of the project and then step down to Essential again when it’s over. Professional engineers and studios might simply view a subscription as the cost of doing business, while hobbyists who only wanted a few select plug-ins will probably stick with the license-based model. Whether Waves will continue to offer both models deep into the future remains to be seen.

Judging from the reaction of the Waves user base, Adobe may have been onto something when they planned their move from license-based to SaaS over a period of years. The transition helped ease the shock to the user base, which is something that Waves apparently neglected to consider. The retraction of the original announcement has quelled some of the fury, but I can’t help wonder if Waves hasn’t irreparably damaged its relationship with their users.

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