Worst Music Investment Ever: WAVES Plugins Waves has essentially turned into an extortion business with their so-called "Waves Update Plan." Here’s how it works: 1 Forced Upgrades: Waves forces users to repurchase plugins yearly under their Update Plan. Without this, your DAW (e.g., Pro Tools) may stop working with the plugins, leaving you no choice but to upgrade—or completely uninstall unsupported plugins. 2 Major Security Risks: If you don't update your operating system to avoid Waves issues, you risk compromising your system’s security. 3 Plugins Held Hostage: Your older plugins become useless without the Update Plan. Even if they worked fine before, Waves locks you into their scheme. 4 No Reselling or Sharing: You can’t sell, trade, or gift your plugins. Waves’ Update Plan essentially holds your old plugins hostage. 5 Incompatibility Issues: Most plugins I’ve owned for over 5-10 years and they all still work on the latest operating systems—except Waves. They’re the only ones that fail without constant buying upgrades after you own the Wavs perpetual licenses already. after buying your plugin you are force to pay to keep using it. 6 Pushed Toward Subscriptions: Waves seems to push users into their subscription model, implying that’s the only way to avoid these problems. 7 Misleading Perpetual Licenses: Waves’ "perpetual" licenses aren’t truly perpetual. After a year, if you don’t renew the Update Plan, the plugins may no longer work and will even disrupt your DAW from loading. This is my honest experience, and I hope it helps others avoid wasting their money like I did. I wish someone had explained how Waves' perpetual licenses actually work before I started purchasing. To anyone considering Waves perpetual products: think twice.