Cakewalk Bandlab V Presonus Studio One

[pwal]

don't forget, bandlab is still a "startup" company and has funding until at least the end of this year, so they don't need to start making money until after that - this time next year we'll have a much clearer picture of where it's going
/fwiw

[excessional]

I doubt that it will cut into the sales of any DAW... seriously, which person who is halfway professional, or willed to shell out hundreds of $ for a DAW will immediately jump on the free wagon, when a DAW which had notorious issues in the past, and which will require getting used to it, no matter what, is available for free? I really can't see that. Especially as, again, the future of Cakewalk is completely unclear.

Cakewalk is a nice option for people who always used Sonar, or beginners, who want to get into music production. Apart from that, i can't really see how it would cut into someone else's business, at all.

But the beginners and dabblers are by far the biggest market segment.
Why wouldn't they use a free fully featured Windows DAW?

Every other DAW apart from Logic will feel some heat from this as new Windows users will try Sonar first...

[LawrenceF]

But the beginners and dabblers are by far the biggest market segment.
Why wouldn't they use a free fully featured Windows DAW?

They will. However, the logical flaw in the above is the presumption that it will be the only thing they "want". We all know better as the daw whores can't resist the shiny and they always want it all. That demographic typically eventually owns 4-5-6 daws and getting another nice one for free isn't going to change that.

Otoh, for the small minority who would typically just buy one and stick with it for 10+ years and just use it to make music while not looking over the fence for greener grass on a daily basis, sure, getting it for free will be a huge benefit, if they get on with it.

For the rest? It means they'll just have more money left to buy another one after they start reading the net and getting the daw bug.

[PlasticSun]

That demographic typically eventually owns 4-5-6 daws ...
...
Otoh, for the small minority who would typically just buy one and stick with it for 10+ years and just use it to make music ...

I'm not saying you're wrong - I really don't know - but I'm surprised that anyone would want to juggle multiple daws. Once I get comfortable with how to do things in my daw I just want to make music. The last thing I want is to wrestle with how to do things with new software; for the first couple of days it feels as if the software is just getting in the way.

Also, if you go back to work on older projects you have to switch daws just to accomodate? Not so great ...

This coming from a long time Cakewalk Sonar user who made the switch over to Studio One when Gibson pulled the plug.