Cakewalk Sonar monthly membership

[krizrox]

I was just browsing and saw that Cakewalk is going to a subscription model for their newest Sonar products. Pay a monthly fee, or an up front annual fee, for product and upgrades. This seems to be a trend in the software industry. What say you?

Also curious if anyone is already on-board with Cakewalk. I own Sonar 8.5 but have considered upgrading to a newer version. Sonar was a fine DAW at one time. Especially for all the MIDI sequencer guys. And it was a decent audio recording platform. Haven't looked at it in a long time though. When I switched to Samplitude, I didnt look back but Magix can't seem to get their act together lately. Their newer version seems to have more bugs than ever.

[jhulk]

wusic have been doing it for years and its good in that anything new they bring out is included in the deal it means that with a subscription they have funds coming in always

i think this is a model that sonic core should do it would allow more development with the sdk guys and new ideas that could have money thrown at it to advance the platform

i know it helps william k this way and helps him make new modules for his modular software

[Sounddesigner]

I don't like rent-to-own/subscription models cause ultimately it's a clever way to get you to pay more. But since Cakewalk have a upfront payment option for my demographic I have no problem with subscriptions options also and agree with Jhulk in that it allows for more revenue and more development for Cakewalk. A change needed to be made at Cakewalk and Roland and other previous owners did not make necessary changes, it's good to see Gibson making changes that seem reasonable and that can work (time will tell). Suscriptions allow for the poorer musicians to get a quality DAW for just a couple bucks a month. I wouldn't purchase a subscription personally and would rarely recommend it since I believe in just saving your money the old fashion way to purchase things but I know others feel different and now Cakewalk have a solution for those others.

Cakewalk was rushing development and often releasing Sonar half-baked due to once a year deadline they meet to keep share holders happy IIRC. Now they can focus on just a couple features at a time while getting more money and release them when they are ready. X1 and X2 were very buggy and I believe Cakewalk paid a price for that bugginess and feel they will put focus on a more robust/less-buggy app now. Hopefully Cakewalk can get away from adding more bloat and frills and gimmicks and bring more quality and innovative new features like they use to, I believe that is their aim. ProAudio/Sonar was the first DAW to do quite a few things e.g. virtual instrument plugins support, 64bit O/S support, etc , With Gibson at the helm hopefully innovation will come again.

I have Sonar X3 and feel its a very mature DAW and very feature rich. I'm one of those MIDI guys you mentioned and I like Sonar's MIDI tools/piano roll/Step-sequencer/etc . The new Sonar platinum has some good new features but not enough to make me reach for my wallet yet. I'm going to wait till more features I care about are released and that will determine when I get on board. But so far it seems that Cakewalk is on the right track imo and I'm someone who definitely did not like what I seen from Cakewalk for several years in a row.

[krizrox]

Interesting/cool response Sounddesigner.

[bosone]

i also am still on sonar 8.5 producer and i will probably update to platinum or professional sooner or later. what pulls me back is the pain to learn a new interface and workflow!
in any case i'll probably go for the one time payment and probably i'll not update anymore after the first year!

[astroman]

subscription is the only business model to provide at least some degree of quality
it's just feels strange...
the 'pizza-price' alternative à la app-store only works for massive sales in a short periode of time

cheers, Tom

[krizrox]

I'll tell ya what I would pay money for as a subscription based solution: a DAW that allows me to pick and choose the options I need. Most of the stuff I seem to be paying upgrade money for is either completely useless to me, or was so poorly implemented that I got fed-up with the feature and stopped using it. I would rather just buy a bare bones product (for a lower cost) and then add/buy features that only pertain to my needs. DAWs are off the deep end with crap they keep adding in order to entice buyers.

[erminardi]

I own software 4-6 years old, and I never had in some cases the needs to upgrade (or even worst the upgrades = new incompatibility and new problems as new drivers, new hardware need, ecc.)
I own also a graphic design company, and for example we used for ages Adobe Creative CS4, and then the CS6. Because we work seriusly on big workstations with big 30" monitors, and not... "during a train journey with the iPad"... so we don't need Cloud services and silly videogames for tablet.

I really don't like the monthly fee policy.
I simply wish to OWN the stuff that I paid.
And I wish to upgrade ONLY when I need/wish.
Period.

The rest is only business and planned obsolescence.

[Sounddesigner]

Wow! Slate Digital now has a subscription model for his effects plugins to. There has been smaller effects companies with subscription models in the past but that was no sign of major change in the Audio industry. Now that Avid, Cakewalk and Slate Digital have it it appears to be the new paradigm coming. This subscription model only shows how hard it is to survive and make money for developers out here. Both Cakewalk and Avid has had difficulty financially out here and Steven Slate complained in the past about piracy hurting him hence he felt the need to go to ilok 2 (a Band-Aid fix) and force it on his users, He basically stated he would not survive other-wise so I know he must have took a hit in sales at some point.

Audio market is small and once the rush of gear-addicts, the naive, and the few that actually need a upgrade or first-timers have bought the sales seem to really really slow down. Getting new customers seem tuffer and tuffer. It's a small pool of customers that's easily exhausted. This subscription model seems to be a forced adjustment to market realites.

Here's a link to Slate Digitals subscription thread - https://www.gearslutz.com/board/namm-20 ... undle.html

EDITED

[erminardi]

For example Adobe can do it because there are no serious professional alternatives (it's a industry standard de facto), but plugins VST, sequencers... the market goes where the customers want, not where the producers wish.

[dante]

Subscription model is great for cloud users - corporate where the cost of owning hardware infrastructure per month exceeds SAAS (software as a service) or home / small business Office 365 users who find it easier and can run thin client, google notebooks etc.

But for me as a DAW user - no way. Ill own outright what I run and choose what to upgrade.

There is a great example of an effective business model for a DAW - check out Propellerhead Reason with Rack Extensions. There has been an explosion of hundreds of devices and - you buy only what you need at much lower prices than VST and still high quality / high stability,

And there's still room for upper echilon emulation manufacturers to sell top plugins at a premium - witness Softube with thier $350 Pultec channel strip.

There's obviously a burgeoning market place there for well known (uHe, Silent Way, Softube) and obscure startups alike.

The purchase / install process is seamless as well, with a local downloader similar to Kontakt.

[erminardi]

And the MAIN point is: I NEVER connect my DAW to internet after the install and the first registrations.
I really don't want a DAW that needs a running connection to operate (like i.e. Adobe software), because this means to have an ANTIVIRUS installed!
For this reason I update very rarely, only when a big bug appears and prevents me from making music...
My UAD registration i.e. is a nightmare when solar time swap to legal time, and viceversa, that is one of the few days in the year that I connect the DAW to the web.

[dante]

Looks like Avid, with a free version of Pro Tools (Protools First), and in-app purchases are going the way of iPad and Reason - sell the base product free or cheap and make the dosh on the plugins.