Allow Two Device Activations Per Waves License

1

I’d like to suggest that Waves introduce two permanent device activations for every purchased license under the same Waves account.

Many professionals work between a desktop and laptop or two personal workstations. Competitors such as Accentize and iZotope already offer more flexible multi-device licensing.

This small change would make Waves much more competitive and remove unnecessary friction for loyal customers.

2

You get that if WUP is up date/current.

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3

…Or if you have a subscription to their Creative Access.

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4

Obviously the request is to get two permanent activations without paying for the second one (and without moving a license USB between workstations, which is their usual suggestion).

It’s a legitimate request, but it’s also totally legitimate for Waves to refuse and say that the second license remains a privilege for subscribers.

Buying two licenses to use in two places simultaneously also works. And if you only want a few plugins and you time it well, it’ll be cheaper long-term than the other options (provided you don’t want updates).

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Obviously the request is to get two permanent activations without paying for the second one, and without shuffling a USB between machines.

But that’s the whole point. One person, two of their own workstations, not two users running at once. That isn’t a loophole, it’s just how a lot of people actually work. Tying it to a subscription or WUP turns a basic convenience into a recurring cost.

The world of tech has evolved, and it’s completely normal now for a creator to own two machines, a Mac and a PC, or a desktop and a laptop. The setup follows the work, not the other way around.

Other companies already allow this on a single perpetual license with no strings attached, so it clearly isn’t a technical problem. It’s a choice. And right now it’s the kind of friction that quietly pushes people to buy their next plugin somewhere else.

6

Yeah, and this is the case where they clearly and explicitly say to put the licenses on a USB (I’ve asked directly) or use Waves Central to reactivate them each time (uh, yeah, nobody’s doing that, but I don’t think they’re serious about that answer).

Since there’s no internet connection required to use the license, there’s no way to verify the “not two users at once” part. Other plugins do it that way, which is almost okay for in a DAW, but a terrible idea for live use.

In my case it’s four, because my mixing PC isn’t the same as my laptop which isn’t the same as my mixer which isn’t the same as my recording PC.[1] So I’d love to have four licenses for some plugins :smiley: But it’s also totally fair for them not to offer that as standard, especially since it is offered on the cheapest recurring subscription.

I’m sure one of the product managers has added an extra tick to this column, so if they start suspecting that people are preferring other plugins they’ll consider it. But in my experience unless there’s a visible change in sales numbers, prices won’t come down and nothing will be given for free. The business models just aren’t that flexible.

It might be interesting if they looked into how many of their customers would pay a bit extra for it - I’m imagining a $10-15 one-time cost to duplicate an existing perpetual license on the same account.[2] That’s the kind of thing that the PM team could actually investigate and might be able to justify doing. But giving the second licenses away for free would be an obvious “we have a serious problem” signal that they wouldn’t want to admit to if it even were true.

  1. It would be nice if you only needed one license for all machines on the same Soundgrid network, which would cover enough of my cases. ↩︎

  2. And based on how many Studiorack licenses I’ve somehow ended up with, it’s clearly supported by the backend already. ↩︎