Can I transfer my VST plugins to another person? Maybe!
I want to sell a bunch of old VST plugins and instruments I rarely use to justify getting some other music software or gear I might actually use (and wind up selling just like these). Part of this process is determining which VST plugin software developer businesses allow users to transfer licenses to other users, and what the license transfer fees there might be. Since I have to look all this up before I start posting the used software FOR SALE listings online, I figured I might as well share it, along with what some of my favorite plugins are or what some of my favorite opinions are to have about them.
Applied Acoustics Systems DVM Inc.
https://www.applied-acoustics.com
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: “The current license owner, the seller, must fill and submit this license transfer request form. Once we review and approve the license transfer request, the seller will receive a message containing a confirmation link; visiting the link will complete and finalize the transfer. That is, the seller's serial number will be disabled and the buyer will receive a message containing a new serial number and a link to the product's latest installers.”
https://www.applied-acoustics.com/transfer/
Why?: I started off as a fan of Lounge Lizard, but now I prefer the free alternatives from MDA and DeadDuck. I wish Chromaphone wasn’t such a CPU mutilator :[
Arturia Tous droits réservés
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: Arturia just redesigned their website, and old links about license transfers are giving 404 errors :[
Why?: I’m selling my other plugins to justify the current V Collection 8 crossgrade promo! I’m also a fan of pigments, but it seems like the GUI murders my CPU and/or GPU. Hiding the window seems to lessen the CPU usage quite a bit.
Audio Damage
Transfer licenses?: No
Gist: “We do not offer license transfers”
https://www.audiodamage.com/pages/support
Why?: I’ll probably keep these. I won a copy of Dubstation 1 at a Chicago laptop battle and have been a fan ever since :] Dubstation 2 is great. I still need to figure out their ENSO looper thing.
Audiority Srls
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free (mostly)
Gist: “You are allowed to resell your own license to a new owner. If you purchased the plugin first hand (from our site or from one of our dealers), the transfer will be free of charge.
A transfer fee of €10/$10 will be applied you purchased the plugin second hand from another user. Please get in touch with us with your order number and the details for the new owner.”
https://www.audiority.com/support/can-i-resell-my-purchased-plugins/
Why: I’ll keep Grainspace, which I like. It’s useful for creating new tonal samples from https://ironchefofmusic ingredients :]
BABY Audio
Transfer licenses?: I don’t think so.
Gist: No mention one way or the other on their support page.
Why?: I think I may only have one of their recent free/nerfed promos.
Cherry Audio, LLC
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Seller $10 ($0 for first transfer)
Gist: “Yes, Cherry Audio can transfer a license to another user for you. The first transfer from your account is complimentary. A service fee of $10 will be charged for all future transfers.”
https://cherryaudio.kayako.com/article/509-can-i-transfer-my-license
Why?: I think CA makes great plugins. I just don’t use virtual synths very often, mostly samples.
Freakshow Industries
https://freakshowindustries.com
Transfer licenses?: It would appear no.
Gist: “Freakshow Industries hereby grants you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to use the plugin software on your devices in accordance with the terms of this EULA agreement.”
https://freakshowindustries.com/eula
Why?: I’ll be keeping these. I’d likely use them to create samples during live recording or rendering, but not keep them in any chain in a DAW due to their unpredictibality.
Fruity Loops
Transfer licenses?: Of course not. It’s Image-Line Ltd. They will probably send you a nastygram from a lawyer just for asking.
Gist: “No”
Why?: Whatever.
Glitchmachines
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: “Subject to our written approval, product licenses purchased directly from our website may be sold/transferred to another user. The new user will then fully own the license to the respective product without any relevant restrictions, however, they will not be able to re-sell/transfer that same license again.”
https://glitchmachines.com/support/ under License Transfers
Why: I’ll keep all of these. I have all their effect plugins that I’d use similar to the Freakshow plugins.
Harvest Plugins
Transfer licenses?: Uncertain.
Gist: No mention to be found on their site.
Why?: It’s a MIDI composer/brainstorm/generator. I’m sure I’ll find some use for it.
HoRNet SRL
Transfer licenses?: Not sure.
Gist: Some hits on KVR state they’ll do it, but it looks like an unofficial/manual process. I suggest just keeping your licenses and asking buyers to get their own since HoRNet’s plugins are inexpensive and they appear to be a small team.
Why?: I think all if have is SongKey, which is a light and useful tool for getting note information out of obscure/unlabeled samples.
Inear Display
Transfer licenses?: I don’t think so.
Gist: No mention one way or the other on their support page.
Why?: I’ll keep these. I really like Ephemere, and I used to use it all the time, but I’ve only been creating percussion from https://ironchefofmusic ingredients this year. Maybe next year!
iZotope, Inc.
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: “You may not transfer any past versions of software after purchasing an upgrade while still retaining the latest version. If you wish to transfer your license to another user, only the present version of that product will be transferred, while past versions will be disabled.”
https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023999373-iZotope-s-License-Transfer-Policy
Why: I’ll probably be getting rid of everything but VocalSynth2 and maybe Ozone if I need to do any real mastering. A friend of mine says “Breaketweaker always sounds like breaktweaker”
MeldaProduction
https://www.meldaproduction.com
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Seller? “Licence can be transferred for a fee of 20% of the current full price.:”
Gist: “The licence files are registered to you as an individual, but you can still transfer them to another person directly from your user account.”
https://www.meldaproduction.com/about/licencing/general
Why: I’ll keep these. They’re a weird swiss army knife of tools I can easily install and use reliably.
Native Instruments GmbH
https://www.native-instruments.com
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: “If you wish to sell your Native Instruments product, you may remove it from your account and transfer its license to another user.”
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/my-account/license-transfer/
Why: Oddly, I was never ever into N, Reaktor, etcI. I like some of their newer products like Flair and some others, but using a separate portal app to keep a suite of hardly ever used plugins updated makes me feel gross, like I need to reformat my hard drive.
Plogue Art et Technologie, Inc.
Transfer licenses?: Yes, but their “ShareIt!” ordering system and image based authentication makes it a little complex.
Who pays?: Not sure.
Gist: https://www.plogue.com/license_transfer.html
Why?: I recently procured all their “chip” plugs. We’ll see.
Plugin Alliance LLC
https://www.plugin-alliance.com
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Buyer $20 per plugin :[
Gist: “You can transfer the plugins to other accounts after a period of 30 days after receiving your license. This period is to prevent fraudulent activities, so we ask for your understanding.”
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/support.html
Why?: I’ve acquired a bunch of their plugins at a discount over time. Bx_Subsynth can be useful. I haven’t tried BYOME or Sandman or some others yet.
Plugin Boutique Limited, Part of the Beatport Group LLC
https://www.pluginboutique.com
Transfer licenses?: NO
Gist: “As we are a third-party reseller we cannot authorise license transfers for products made by other manufacturers. You will need to directly contact the manufacturer of the plugin to request the license transfer, you can find a list of contact details for all our manufacturers here.”
My fav plugins?: Scaler 2, produced by PB, is neat.
Psychic Modulation
https://www.psychicmodulation.com
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: It seems like they’re a pretty small biz/team/indivirual, and it seems like the developer manually updates the license transfer for you. I suggest just keeping their plugins and convince any potential buyers just to buy PM’s plugins directly.
Why: I think all I have is Phonec 2, which is well rounded and I might use it sometimes if I just need something quick to test a new workspace with.
Sonic Charge
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Either.
Gist: “Yes, it is possible to transfer Sonic Charge plugin licenses to another person.Please contact us through our support form and we will handle transfers on a case by case basis. Licenses may not be transferred within the first 120 days. We charge a 10 USD (+VAT) fee per recipient once your transfer has been approved and it may be paid by either party. Upon completion, a new license will be issued to the recipient and the original license will be terminated.”
https://soniccharge.com/forum/topic/759-can-i-transfer-my-sonic-charge-plugin-license
Why?: Microtonic is amazing, which I’ll keep. I was actually asked to be one of the preset developers for the first release, but I accidently let the email from SC bypass my inbox :P
Sugar Bytes
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Seller $9 per plugin?
Gist: “You can transfer plug-ins on the page “My Products” in the the protected User Area. EDU & NFR versions are not for resale. A sold license automatically becomes an NFR version.”
https://sugar-bytes.de/support Under FAQ: “Can I sell the software”
Why: Turnado is nice for Zoom meetings.
TAL Software
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Seller? $10
Gist: “License transfers are possible. Please register and login here with the email address you have used for the payment (where you received the serial number). You can then transfer the license for a 10$ fee in your "My Account" section that shows up after login. Make sure you uninstall the plug-in after the license transfer.”
Why?: For all the great free plugins TAL releases, pick one of the non-free ones to purchase to support development!
Unfiltered Audio
https://www.unfilteredaudio.com
Transfer licenses?: Yes?
Who pays?: Seller?
Gist: I think it’s the same a Plugin Alliance
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/support.html
VALHALLA DSP, LLC.
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Seller $10 per plugin
Gist: “You can transfer your license to another person, directly from your user account. In order to do so, both of you need to have user accounts set up at Valhalla DSP. We have recently changed our transfer policy, and there is now a $5 fee for transferring a plugin for the first time. There is a $10 fee for selling a license that was purchased used (2nd hand) from another user.”
https://valhalladsp.com/faq/purchasing/
Why: Unless I have a rule to only use native effects for a project in Renoise of Ableton, one of the VD delay or reverb plugs will likely wind up in that project.
W. A. Production
https://www.waprodWA Productionuction.com
Transfer licenses?: NO
Gist: “We do not support license transfers at this time.”
Waves Audio Ltd.
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Seller
Gist: “Transfer fees are 5% of the full, regular list price of the products being transferred (minimum $10, maximum $150 per transfer request).”
https://www.waves.com/support/transfer-of-ownership
My fav?: I’m not really a fan of Waves’s products. Often they either feel/sound like they’re from the late 90s, or they have graphics/rendering/GPU issues with the GUI. It used to be that their multiband maximizer was the only maximizer in town, but that is no longer the case. (re: YOUWASHOCK!)
XLN Audio
Transfer licenses?: Yes
Who pays?: Free?
Gist: “License transfers are allowed for all products except for NFR (Not For Resale) and OEM licenses”
https://www.xlnaudio.com/support/i-want-to-sell-my-xln-audio-products-are-license-transfers-allowed
Why?: XO is great! I wish it supported different loop lengths and time signatures!