Best Music Software Deals - Black Friday and Holidays

Every year from Black Friday up until Christmas and New Years I do the bulk of my music software purchases for the year. Almost everything from plugins, to sample packs, to Kontakt libraries is typically discounted at least 30% off. In this post i'll be talking about some of the best Black Friday and Holiday 2018 music software sales i'm aware of.

As of November 21st, here is a video where I talk about the sales in this post. Just note that while this post will be updated very frequently over the coming weeks, the video may not be!

Waves Black Friday Sales

Waves has an interesting pricing model that revolves around setting incredibly high retail prices, but keeping them almost constantly discounted throughout the year. My rule of thumb is to never (under any circumstances) pay full price for a Waves plugin. Black Friday into the holiday season is always their biggest sale, so its where I typically stock up the most - currently I have almost every Waves plugin they offer due to years of doing this.

Currently they're running Black Friday early deals, so you have an idea of the prices that might occur for Black Friday and up until New Years. If you don't have any Waves plugins i'd recommend starting with the Waves Gold bundle, it was my first purchase from them on Black Friday some years ago. For you vocalists or people who mix vocals out there Waves Tune and CLA-2A are must-buys.

Native Instruments Black Friday Sales

Similar to Waves, i've been buying from Native Instruments on Black Friday for years now. Every year NI releases sales for the holiday season going up to 50% off, so its the perfect time to stock up on their sample libraries and instruments if you don't already have them. Since i've been doing this for years and I own the newest Komplete Ultimate Collector's Edition bundle, I don't think theirs anything left for me to buy!

This time they've announced 50% off of 175 instruments and effects until the beginning of December. Before taking advantage of any of their deals, i'd make sure to check out their Komplete bundle where the discount is even higher all year - but the price tag is also much higher. Then if you have any products left over that aren't in Komplete, pick those up during this sale.

UVI Black Friday Sales

I actually don't own a single UVI product, but I have my eye on several of their products. Researching previous years of Black Friday sales from UVI shows that every Thanksgiving they run a 30% off sale until around the end of November - they've done this 2015-2017. While we haven't heard a peep from them yet this year, you can expect a similar sale to occur again.

Personally I plan on buying UVI Falcon (a crazy 15 oscillator hybrid synthesizer and sampler), and perhaps a few of their sample libraries.

Heavyocity Black Friday Sales

Heavyocity is already running a Thanksgiving sale of up to 50% their amazing instruments. Research shows they only run a couple sales a year, so this is the best time to buy from them. Personally I already own most of their Kontakt libraries, but some of them are discounted over $200 currently. I'm planning on picking up some of their expansion packs - Vocalise 2, Scoring Guitars 2, and maybe a few others.

If you don't own any Heavyocity products i'd highly recommend Gravity and Damage for cinematic type sounds. Forzo and Novo are also very, very good if you want big cinematic brass and string sounds.

Spitfire Audio Black Friday Sales

Research shows that in the past Spitfire Audio has run 25% off individual libraries and up to 50% off sample library collections (including the collection discount). For the most part the best way to get Spitfire Audio products at a great price is to buy one of their collections, to buy the products during their launch sale, or to be a student and use a student discount. The Black Friday sale is still a nice sale.

ThePhonoLoop Black Friday Sales

ThePhonoLoop is currently running a 30% off sale for Black Friday up until December 3rd, site-wide on every product. ThePhonoLoop are a small team of two sound designers who have many Kontakt libraries focused on vintage sounds - in many cases bouncing their samples to different types of cassette tape. I'd highly recommend you check out their Cassette line of instruments, you can actually choose from different cassette decks and control the noise generated by the cassette tape.

SoundIron Black Friday Sales

SoundIron is currently running a 30-40% sale for Black Friday. If you're not familiar with SoundIron, they have a giant collection of Kontakt libraries available in almost every category and genre. I personally don't have any of their products, but I have a feeling thats going to change soon.

Soniccouture Black Friday sales

Soniccouture seems to be a little all over the place with their Black Friday sales. In some cases giving 20% coupons to existing customers, and in others running sales up to 60% off. You can probably bet they'll run some kind of sale this year for both Black Friday and Christmas, so keep your eye out for their announcement.

Izotope Black Friday Sales

Izotope are the makers of some of the best mixing/mastering, audio repair, and audio effects plugins in the world. They're currently running a HUGE sale up to 89% off. I already own most of their products, and I can personally vouch for their awesome-ness! I highly recommend you check out their bundles of Ozone, Neutron, and their Creative Suite. I use their products on every single mix i've done since I got them.

Arturia Black Friday Deals

Arturia is running a promotion for 50% off their legendary V Collection! Includes 21 incredible physically modeled instruments with over 6,500 presets. I bought this months ago and absolutely love it!