Waves Speculation

TheMaartian
My only problem with that is the fact that, of all of the Waves plugins I own, not one has been updated within the first year of my purchase. Not one. So I let the Waves update program lapse for each as they reach one year.
 
Even if they do go subscription, I just don't see the benefits (like the ones Cakewalk delivers monthly).

BassDaddy
I upgraded from Native Power Pack and a few others to Gold last Black Friday for $86.00. I am just kinda done. I like what I have and nothing else gets me hot to trot. Lots of people don't like the WUP and I can't see a subscription winning any of them back.

• You pay a minimal monthly fee for all the plug-ins. $14.99/mo, let's say. Everyone in the industry can afford that, as it's only beaten out by free or extremely cheap plug-ins. BUT! And here's the catch.
• You can only "check-out" a finite (say, 10) different plug-ins you need for any session. A simple, online or Waves Licensing Center change, one sync and you're set. When you're done, check them back in. You would "install" all of them as you can now, so there's no downloads necessary unless you upgrade them. 
• If you want to add to the number of checked-out plugins, you can up your plan (or lower your plan if you want fewer). Each additional 10 plug-ins would cost $9.99/mo on top of your basic plan.  That's about $1 per plug-in. "buck plugs!" That sounds bad...
• If you want unlimited access, you pay $99/mo. and can check out any plug-ins, anytime, and as many as you want. You can check out every single one, if you want. 
• For $299/mo. professional studios can check out all plug-ins and share them inside their own license checker software, supplied by Waves. This allows the studio to use as much as they want and set up their own internal licensing server. With that said, it will only allow 5 users to check-out specific plug-ins at a time.
• No WUP, no cumbersome and expensive rental process
• Free upgrades
• Stop/start/pause your plan when you need to
• Tech-support, always 

brconflict
I think a subscription-based model for Waves would be awesome, actually. It would simplify things for them, me thinks. However, they sort of already do this with WUP and their own rental program. Those programs just lack modernization.
 
What I think they should do is offer the plug-ins like Netflix. It goes like this:
 

• You pay a minimal monthly fee for all the plug-ins. $14.99/mo, let's say. Everyone in the industry can afford that, as it's only beaten out by free or extremely cheap plug-ins. BUT! And here's the catch.
• You can only "check-out" a finite (say, 10) different plug-ins you need for any session. A simple, online or Waves Licensing Center change, one sync and you're set. When you're done, check them back in. You would "install" all of them as you can now, so there's no downloads necessary unless you upgrade them. 
• If you want to add to the number of checked-out plugins, you can up your plan (or lower your plan if you want fewer). Each additional 10 plug-ins would cost $9.99/mo on top of your basic plan.  That's about $1 per plug-in. "buck plugs!" That sounds bad...
• If you want unlimited access, you pay $99/mo. and can check out any plug-ins, anytime, and as many as you want. You can check out every single one, if you want. 
• For $299/mo. professional studios can check out all plug-ins and share them inside their own license checker software, supplied by Waves. This allows the studio to use as much as they want and set up their own internal licensing server. With that said, it will only allow 5 users to check-out specific plug-ins at a time.
• No WUP, no cumbersome and expensive rental process
• Free upgrades
• Stop/start/pause your plan when you need to
• Tech-support, always 

 
 
 
 
 
 

bapu
John,
 
I would love to keep buying plugins but funds ahve become more limited these days.

bapu

brconflict
I think a subscription-based model for Waves would be awesome, actually. It would simplify things for them, me thinks. However, they sort of already do this with WUP and their own rental program. Those programs just lack modernization.
 
What I think they should do is offer the plug-ins like Netflix. It goes like this:
 

• You pay a minimal monthly fee for all the plug-ins. $14.99/mo, let's say. Everyone in the industry can afford that, as it's only beaten out by free or extremely cheap plug-ins. BUT! And here's the catch.
• You can only "check-out" a finite (say, 10) different plug-ins you need for any session. A simple, online or Waves Licensing Center change, one sync and you're set. When you're done, check them back in. You would "install" all of them as you can now, so there's no downloads necessary unless you upgrade them. 
• If you want to add to the number of checked-out plugins, you can up your plan (or lower your plan if you want fewer). Each additional 10 plug-ins would cost $9.99/mo on top of your basic plan.  That's about $1 per plug-in. "buck plugs!" That sounds bad...
• If you want unlimited access, you pay $99/mo. and can check out any plug-ins, anytime, and as many as you want. You can check out every single one, if you want. 
• For $299/mo. professional studios can check out all plug-ins and share them inside their own license checker software, supplied by Waves. This allows the studio to use as much as they want and set up their own internal licensing server. With that said, it will only allow 5 users to check-out specific plug-ins at a time.
• No WUP, no cumbersome and expensive rental process
• Free upgrades
• Stop/start/pause your plan when you need to
• Tech-support, always 

You pay nothing until your WUP runs out. Once your WUP runs out, you can choose to subscribe to a 75% discount (hypothetical) for $3.75/mo. for a prescribed length of time, then it goes up. Perhaps, 10 years? The idea is that if you bought Mercury, and found one day you only use 10 plug-ins, you're not out the $7K or whatever you paid for it plus WUP and WUP renewals. You'd essentially get WUP for 10 years at a monthly rate of $3.75/mo. and who can't afford that? If you bought Mercury, you'd already have unlimited access and unlimited check-outs included. That brings the $99/mo. down to $3.75/mo. since you've already paid Waves the initial investment.  
 
Solutions can be worked in if they decided to go such a route.  

What is the incentive for the present day Mercury/SSL/Abbey Road owner? I already have all of those "checked out".