Cakewalk: "Big announcements coming June 1st, 2016"

[incubus]

Why does this sound familiar?

[shorty]

I´m Sonar customer since X1, bought nearly every plugin. I find Sonar a bit clumsy, but overall nice to work with.

Had some trouble at home and lost my email account (my fault, didn't secure it). Contacted support for help and they helped me. I'm a happy customer and will stay for a few more years (at least I hope so)

[jens]

Arossa, I have a question:

they talked about it in the video, but I didn't quite understand it (might be my lack of English skills) - what about extra content (plugins) that was always a big part of the attraction of the top-of-the-line paid updates?
As they said it in the video I understood it so that such additional content (understandably) won't be part of the lifetime update membeship, but now you say it is content-wise exactly the same as the anual paid-for updates* - so which is it?





*b.t.w.;

I think to call it "subcription" was the daftest marketing move you ever made. That of course made a lot of people totally hate it, while in fact (as compared to the previous business model) nothing changed except that there's now more frequent updates over the year. Otherwise it's still the same - you pay for a year (it always was about a year until the next major version) and get all updates until the next major version. Then you can edecide to pay for the unpdate to it or stick to what you have. That's how it typically worked with all other vendors too b.t.w. . I don't want to know how much money you lost over that terrible marketing decision.

[jinotsuh]

Arossa, I have a question:


*b.t.w.;

I think to call it "subcription" was the daftest marketing move you ever made. That of course made a lot of people totally hate it, while in fact (as compared to the previous business model) nothing changed except that there's now more frequent updates over the year. Otherwise it's still the same - you pay for a year (it always was about a year until the next major version) and get all updates until the next major version. Then you can edecide to pay for the unpdate to it or stick to what you have. That's how it typically worked with all other vendors too b.t.w. . I don't want to know how much money you lost over that terrible marketing decision.

I leave the first part to Mr Rossa. As to the 'Subscription' part of your post . . . Actually they never called it a 'Subscription' they decided to call it a 'Membership' instead because calling it a 'Subscription' would scare people off. Unfortunately everyone outside the Cakewalk forums were not fooled by the semantics being played, and thus everyone in the 'Real World', ie everywhere outside the Cakewalk forums, knew it as a 'Subscription', referred to it as a 'Subscription' because that is exactly what it was, a 'Subscription' and the farce and the argument continues. Just try starting a thread with 'Subscription' in the title on the Cakewalk/Sonar forums and chances are the loyal troopers will come down on you insisting there is no Subscription and that it is a Membership. It's quite pathetic really, and more than a little embarrassing that after all this time they are still trying to convince everyone, or perhaps they are still trying to convince themselves? Whatever, it's just a matter of semantics at the end of the day, but the farce and the arguments rage on

[Aloysius]

$£VB*MB

[whyterabbyt]

Whatever, it's just a matter of semantics at the end of the day, but the farce and the arguments rage on

Well, that, and the fact that every company out there with with a 'subscription' expects continuous, ongoing payment for you to be able to continue to use the product, whereas CW's system, however you choose to describe it, means that after you've paid for 12 months, you are considered to own that version of the product in perpetuity.
And that's a lot more than 'semantics'. Its buying (in staged payments) versus renting. Any claim otherwise is the farce.

[Aloysius]

May the farce be with you.

[jens]

Oh, yes, "Membership" then - but as your reply so aptly proves that was still close enough.

The main point is: nothing changed as compared to the last decade or two, and the way they worded it, it made people believe there was a dramatic change. I first purchased Sonar at V2 (XL at that time) and got a few free updates, until about a year later (or was it closer to 18months?) V3 appeared and then I decided to not pay for the update but instead Keep using V2 - and that is still exactly the same - the only difference is that back then it was just three (iIrc) updates between V2.0 and V3 and now updates are a lot more frequently - so what is actually a great thing turned (in the minds of people) into something very bad, just because of bad marketing. Had they instead just said: "Listen, folks, we decided to from now on give you a new update about every month, which might contain everything between nice workflow improvements, great new features, useful presets, plugin updates and so forth" everyone would have been raving about it.

But instead people believed Cakewalk went all Digidesign on them.

[jinotsuh]

But what about if you are paying monthly and stop paying? your software also stops, Subscription? and what about after your 12 months is complete, from that point on whether or not you are paying monthly or yearly, if you stop paying you stop getting updates, Subscription? (for updates)?

[jens]

But what about if you are paying monthly and stop paying? your software also stops, Subscription?

No, that is exactly the point - the software you paid for will keep working forever.

and what about after your 12 months is complete, from that point on whether or not you are paying monthly or yearly, if you stop paying you stop getting updates, Subscription? (for updates)?

Yes, of course - if you don't pay anymore, after a while (exactly one year in the case of Sonar) you stop getting updates. It's the same as with Cubase, Reason, Studio One and so forth.

[jinotsuh]

But what about if you are paying monthly and stop paying? your software also stops, Subscription?

No, that is exactly the point - the software you paid for will keep working forever.

and what about after your 12 months is complete, from that point on whether or not you are paying monthly or yearly, if you stop paying you stop getting updates, Subscription? (for updates)?

Yes, of course - if you don't pay anymore, after a while (exactly one year in the case of Sonar) you stop getting updates. It's the same as with Cubase, Reason, Studio One and so forth.

No it wont, (read what I said) if you don't complete the 12 months, as soon as you stop so does the software. Subscription

And no, it's not a year later, if you are paying monthly, as soon as you stop paying, the updates stop

The loyal Troopers are so much fun to play with

[jens]

No it wont, if you don't complete the 12 months, as soon as you stop so does the software. Subscription

The loyal Troopers are so much fun to play with

´
See, Arossa? That is exactly what I meant - your maketing-team managed to make people believe that Sonar stops working as soon as the subscription runs out - so strong is their belief, that they won't even stop believing it when you tell them that they got it all wrong.

jinotsuh, thanks for partcipating - your help is really much appreciated - I could not have hoped for a better patient. While we at this point have neither cure nor treatment for you, don't assume your participation won't be significant.

[whyterabbyt]

But what about if you are paying monthly and stop paying? your software also stops, Subscription? and what about after your 12 months is complete, from that point on whether or not you are paying monthly or yearly, if you stop paying you stop getting updates, Subscription? (for updates)?

So you've just said its 'semantics' yet you dont know any of this? FFS.

If you've paid for a minimum of 12 months, you've bought it outright, so you own whichever version of the full product was available when you stopped paying.

If you havent paid for a minimum of 12 months, then you didnt buy it outright, so you dont own it. You own whatever version of the full product you had before you started paying.

[jlaws]

No it wont, if you don't complete the 12 months, as soon as you stop so does the software. Subscription

The loyal Troopers are so much fun to play with

´
See, Arossa? That is exactly what I meant - your maketing-team managed to make people believe that Sonar stops working as soon as the subscription runs out - so strong is their belief, that they won't even stop believing it when you tell them that they got it all wrong.

jinotsuh, thanks for partcipating - your help is really much appreciated - I could not have hoped for a better patient. While we at this point have neither cure nor treatment for you, don't assume your participation won't be significant.

Well played, sir. Well played.

Also, I like sonar except in that in bigger projects, the gui is not responsive. This with a 980 ti and 4790k at 4.7 ghz. So I might do the lifetime thing, even though I primarily use pro tools and live.

[jens]

You own whatever version of the full product you had before you started paying.

Plus all the updates that have been released within the period of your membership, is it not so?

As far as I know everything you ever legally downloaded an installed from the Cakewalk servers will (at least theoretically) keep working until forever.