The Cyber Monday plugin deals haven't arrived just yet, so if you've found yourself here, head over to our Black Friday plugin deals page for all the latest deals on software. It's not long to go til Cyber Monday, with the main event happening on December 2nd, and in my experience, many of these deals will carry on into the week after so you should still have a chance to do some last-minute shopping.
If you want the best plugin deals right now, head over to Plugin Boutique where you can grab some incredible discounts of up to 92% off. They have pretty much every manufacturer covered too, from Universal Audio and Arturia to more boutique brands like Baby Audio and Aberrant DSP. It's my favorite place to shop for plugin deals, and I've already picked up FabFilter Pro-Q 3 with a fantastic 25% discount there.
Another deal available right now, one that no doubt a lot of engineers and producers have been waiting for is a discount on Oeksound Soothe 2. If you head over to Sweetwater they've got it with a hefty $70 discount, and trust me, it's just the thing to stick on your mix and master busses to really smooth out your overall mix.
When Cyber Monday does arrive I'll be keeping this page updated with all the latest deals and as I've been covering Cyber Weekend for many years now, I know exactly where all the best deals are going to be. Until then, happy hunting.
⚡ Cyber Monday plugin deals: Quick links
Cyber Monday isn't here just yet, but here are all the Black Friday sales you can shop right now:
- Antares: 50% off annual
- Avid: Save 33% on annual
- Guitar Center: Software savings
- IK Multimedia: $450 off plugins
- Loopcloud: Half price annual
- Loopmasters: 60% off samples
- Plugin Boutique: Up to 92% off
- Positive Grid: $150 off BIAS FX 2
- Sweetwater: $100s off software
- Thomann: Save on software
- Waves: $19.99 plugins
🥇 Editor's picks
These are our current top picks of the deals that are live right now:
❓ Cyber Monday plugin deals: FAQ
When do the Cyber Monday plugin deals start?
Cyber Monday isn't 'officially' until Monday 27 November, but last year things kicked off much earlier than that, so it pays to be prepared. Waves got the wheels in motion with a sneak peak at the deals they planned on launching in November, followed by a natural segue into their Early Bird plugin deals at the start of November. Discounts were applied to a mixture of Waves classics, sought-after analogue outboard emulations as well as signature plugins from some of the world’s biggest producers, including Chris Lorde Alge, Joseph Jack Puig, Butch Vig and Andrew Scheps to name just a few.
Will we see more Cyber Monday plugin deals sooner than the day itself in 2023? Judging by previous years, that's a strong horse to back. Whether we see more brands than just Waves jumping on the early doors bandwagon remains to be seen.
You can also expect the deals to continue well into the week following Cyber Monday.
If you're using Cyber Monday to save money on Christmas gifts, our guide to the best Christmas gifts for musicians is great for inspiration.
What deals should I expect?
Loads of music software sites will be taking part in the Cyber Monday plugins bonanza, so we'd recommend signing up to mailing lists of your favourite retailers now to get the jump on the best deals when they do come around.
Of course, if you'd rather not deal with the stress of searching through endless deals yourself, as we get closer to the event our experts will be pulling all-nighters to uncover the very best Cyber Monday plugin deals and publishing them on this page.
We’d recommend bookmarking this page - as well as our main Cyber Monday music deals hub page - while you remember.
So we know there will be deals. But what should you be looking out for? We've covered enough of these events to know a thing or two about what to expect. Seeing as plugins are downloads rather than physical products, they won’t sell out. A more realistic consideration is that some of these deals might be time-limited to just a day or two, or perhaps only a few hours, so we’d recommend you don’t ponder a purchase for too long.
Discounts can range from a few $/£ off a cool sample pack to massive percentage discounts off huge swathes of music production software.
Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:
- Single item - A single product or plugin with a great discount
- Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
- Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
- Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items
Whichever deals you go for, you can guarantee there will be silly savings up for grabs, so if you’re planning on updating your studio or adding to your collection to boost your music production set-up, it’s well worth marking your diary for this year's Cyber Monday plugin deals.
Can I get free plugins on Cyber Monday?
Yes! Many sites offer a free plugin to celebrate Cyber Monday and as a way to tempt you onto their sites, so you could feasibly take advantage of the Cyber Monday hysteria without spending a thing.
Once again, Waves is a sure bet when it comes to free stuff and last year they gave customers the Lil Tube Saturator plugin completely free. Usually all you have to do is provide them with an email address to get your freebie.
And Auto-Tune masters Antares gave customers multiple plugins to choose from without spending a dime. You could choose from one of three Auto-Tune plugins and keep it forever, even after your subscription period ends. You could pick either Auto-Tune Slice (a hybrid synth and sampler), Auto-Tune Vocal EQ (an EQ designed specifically for singers), or Auto-Tune Vocodist (for that Daft Punk/Kraftwerk vocoder effect).
Elsewhere, Slate Digital released a brand new plugin, Fresh Air specifically for Cyber Monday, and gave it away for free. You can still pick it up for nothing today.
Which sites are best for software deals on Cyber Monday?
We have personal experience shopping software at a varity of retailers and we know the ones we trust and where we've had a great experience. These are the places we will always recommend first.
For us, on Cyber Monday there are a small handful of places that we would point your towards and it's a mix of software developers and retailers.
Developers we trust include Waves, IK Multimedia and Native Instruments. They all run great sales and we know they're above board. Buying software from them is a breeze and they all offer fantastic customer service.
Special shout out to Plugin Boutique who sell plugins from hundreds of fantastic brands.
Specialist online music retailers have become better on the software front, too. Where you used to only be able to buy physical copies of DAWs, it's now easy to access direct digital downloads at places like Sweetwater, Guitar Center and Thomann of all your favourite plugin brands. And the best thing is that, because software is a download rather than a physical product that needs shipping, you can go for the seller that has the best price!
🛒 How to prepare for this year's Cyber Monday plugin deals
1. Create a wishlist early - The most sensible way to take advantage of this year's Cyber Monday plugin deals is to know in advance what you’re looking for. This will make searching much easier, rather than having to trawl through loads of deals you don’t want to find the ones you do, or pondering title you don't need.
2. Work out what you actually need - Check out your favourite brands, see what you need and will genuinely use - don’t waste your cash and fill your basket with stuff you'll never load. Has there been a raft of new software launches lately? If so, perhaps the old version will be massively discounted for Cyber Monday? You could start by checking out our guide to the best Waves plugins.
3. Consider your music production goals - What do you want to achieve with you music production goals for the next 12 months or so? Is there software that will help you hit them? Or do you have an unfinished track that needs some extra sauce? Now could be the time to invest.
4. Clear some space - Something else you should consider ahead of time is whether you have enough space on your machine to account for all these additional downloads! Get rid of any unnecessary bloat on your laptop or PC now, or you might want to consider picking up one of the best external hard drives in our guide.
🧐 How we choose which plugin deals to cover
Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music-making, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products we recommend.
First and foremost, we are players and creators, and we want to match like-minded folk with the right products for them, at the best prices.
For us to recommend a deal on music software or anything else it has to be a product we rate that’s a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers where you will have a positive shopping experience.
🤔 Why you can trust our choices
We spend a lot of our time scouring software retailers for fantastic deals on our favorite plugins. Not only is it our job to research and recommend the best gear in our buyer’s guides and reviews, but we’re also dedicated to helping musicians get the best deals on the stuff they need, too. After all, the only thing better than new gear day is a hearty discount.
We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view on which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.
