BRuys
Well, given that the only way to cancel your subscription will be to terminate your life, you will need to threaten them with a gun to your head

Dickie Fredericks
So... paying the $100 for lifetime upgrades was a bad idea? LOL
 

James Sing
Compare the picture in the announcement with this:
http://www.image-line.com/documents/news.php?entry_id=1431645710&title=gibson-acquires-deckadance

cparmerlee
 
Interesting.  I don't have any informed speculation about the exciting new development.  However the offer of a paid-up-for-life version of Platinum suggests that Gibson/Cakewalk sees DAWs in general and SONAR in particular as starting to approach the end of their mission.  That isn't to say that DAWs are going away, only that the DAW foundation and core feature set are pretty stable.  Future developments will mostly be at higher layers and/or separate products that live in the DAW ecosystem.  And these products won't necessarily be free to the Platinum user.  Examples, FWIW, include LANDR and Melodyne.
 
I am not suggesting that the DAW development will be frozen, but that over time, Cakewalk will consider there is less and less they want to do with that product.
 
If my speculation is correct, that is not good news for people who have been hoping to see big improvements in MIDI editing and music notation, to name a couple of soft areas.  I am not suggesting such a product direction would be wrong, evil or anything else.  Every product needs to find its niche and Cakewalk has made enormous progress on solidifying SONAR since the Platinum program was announced.  Realistically, those who really want strong DAW/Notation synergy will probably end up on Dorico and Cubase.  But I would sure like to see the rough edges of MIDI editing worked out in SONAR.

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk
Clearly stated, you will not have to pay for any future updates for SONAR. Everything we put into SONAR, you receive. You continue to get the rolling updates, only they don't expire after a year. That also means you never have to pay for bug fixes (a long time gripe). You will only pay for optional stuff that we release that is not part of SONAR. We do that today as well. Z3TA+ 2, CA-2A, Rapture Pro, Videos, Expansion Packs, Third party products are all available as add-ons and for purchase separately. 

WallyG
Andrew, 
 
I signed up and paid for the lifetime option last week. Today I downloaded the Early Access version with the Great Looking Theme option. 
 
I checked the "about" section and it still shows 2/17 as the end of my subscription. Could someone look into this?
 
Thanks
 
Walt

FCCfirstclass

WallyG
Andrew, 
 
I signed up and paid for the lifetime option last week. Today I downloaded the Early Access version with the Great Looking Theme option. 
 
I checked the "about" section and it still shows 2/17 as the end of my subscription. Could someone look into this?
 
Thanks
 
Walt

Wally, check your account page online and it should show the infinidy (no date) for exp.

SilkTone
 
3. Previous "loyal" SONAR users who opt for the lifetime deal:
You get the latest version of SONAR + the default set of add-ons with all fixes and new/updated add-ons as it becomes available indefinitely. You don't need to pay anything again unless you want extra add-ons that are not part of default set of add-ons.
 
 
Now... I think people are concerned about option 3 because it implies CW will never make any money from them again. 

skitch_84

Morvejones
With monthly/annual everything would be included as it is now, people with lifetime updates would have to pay extra for things, such as Drum Replacer, Vocal sync and 3rd party plugs

If I'm not mistaken, Cake has officially stated that this is not the case. There will be no difference in regards to what people who pay monthly for Platinum get compared to what lifetime people get. Both will have to pay extra for extra stuff like 3rd party plugins. This, though not officially stated, leads me to believe that the price for a monthly/yearly membership will drop to account for this.