They stole my MP3 encoder, they made me pay monthly and now my cat is pregnant.
Im going back to Audacity.

I need clarification because I'm not so sure that the Shop is showing me the correct prices.
 
First off, I rented to own Sonar Platinum when the membership model first started. A year later, I paid for a whole year in a one-time-payment. So I own Sonar Platinum. But the shop is telling me that if I want to continue my membership, I have to pay full price for either the one time payment ($499) or monthly ($49.99).

Is this correct? This is a very wild jump if it is.....

Until the store is updated, contact Cakewalk directly they can handle this for you see this thread http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3600646

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]
Hi Folks,
 
If you're looking to renew/upgrade head on over to 
 
It'll handle any applicable discounts for your unique situation.
 
Sorry for any confusion guys!
 
-Ryan

250 $ for a year? I'm sorry, but my trip with Sonar is over.

Anderton

carlosigls
 
250 $ for a year?

 
Actually, no. Aside from Cakewalk saying specials would be offered from time to time, if you skip a year (remember, the software keeps working, this isn't a subscription) your cost goes down to $125 a year. 
 
It's all about choice. If there's some spectacular feature you absolutely have to have right now, you'll pay the full price. If you wait for a special, you'll pay less. If you want for a year, you'll pay even less. 
 

I follow this link  in my case I would have to pay 250$. I'll wait for a special.

Anderton

carlosigls250 $ for a year?

Actually, no. Aside from Cakewalk saying specials would be offered from time to time, if you skip a year (remember, the software keeps working, this isn't a subscription) your cost goes down to $125 a year. 
 
It's all about choice. If there's some spectacular feature you absolutely have to have right now, you'll pay the full price. If you wait for a special, you'll pay less. If you want for a year, you'll pay even less.

Except your explanation that SPlat was never primary money source, I must admit that for me that "prices simplification" is simplified the marketing down to the level I no longer understand how that can work at all
a) who was on-board and has payed every time, has Lifetime by now
b) harvesting by LE versions coming with some hardware (like me and I remember some other) is also out of equation (f.e. US-2x2 is still listen in retails with X3 LE, not eligible for reduced price,  unlike also included Live Lite...)
c) who was still waiting with X3 are out
d) continuous membership bring no benefits (no special upgrade price this year, even increased now, no "loyal" members bonus mentioned in the model). Even you a kind of recommend  "wait for some spectacular feature", which in turn means something worse $250 (the price comparable with cross-grading to new platform) or waiting for some "special action"
e) "coming soon" could help (d), so the price could be justified by something existing plus interesting coming features, but it is not there and what "soon" means in practice have proved to be undefined.
 
I am not criticizing nor begging for something. I am just curious 

Anderton

carlosigls
 
250 $ for a year?

 
Actually, no. Aside from Cakewalk saying specials would be offered from time to time, if you skip a year (remember, the software keeps working, this isn't a subscription) your cost goes down to $125 a year. 
 
It's all about choice. If there's some spectacular feature you absolutely have to have right now, you'll pay the full price. If you wait for a special, you'll pay less. If you want for a year, you'll pay even less. 
 

What nonsense. Following this logic I a person could wait 5 years to renew and the annual cost would only be $50. What are they putting in your water cooler Craig? Why not wait 10 years and get it for $2.50/year?
 
LOOK UP. THERE'S A STUPID MATH ERROR.

ampfixer
What nonsense. Following this logic I a person could wait 5 years to renew and the annual cost would only be $50.

 
Correct. You would pay $250, yet get five years' worth of updates. That works out to $50 a year.
 
It's not nonsense. It's math.
 

From their recent posts in the release thread. It's seems they are 'hoping' that we as users do this job for them. But it doesn't work for each latest release as they know what it can do and we don't have the insight.
 
I feel a total disconnect to the company, and have for a long time. If I hadn't of taken the lifetime membership, then what I would have received from Jan 2016-17 would have just felt OK. The biggest thing for me was Theme editor, and in the end that just felt dumped an stranded and with little to no response from Cakewalk. It still has work to be done, but it had nothing.
 
Meanwhile we have about three years of feature requests that are basically ignored adding to my disillusionment, and faith that the new features you expect from the 'membership' will ever pull from them. And so the term 'Mebership' adds to the insult, as I don't feel I am a member of anything, I just have paid for Sonar, I am no closer.
 
I'm glad I've got membership,because I don't want to give them anymore money and feel dejected about what I feel I should be getting as a "member'.
 
I think their marketing sucks and their excuse that 'we only have a small marketing team' sucks too.

Some very valid points. I think we can all agree that what Cakewalk is doing is far better than the Avid approach. I have used tethered systems in the past. The actual software resides off-site and you access it via an annual $20k annual licensing fee. Only the biggest companies can afford to use it.
 
I feel any DAW that goes down this road will only be of use to people that can write off the annual cost as a business expense. Maybe that's the crux of the problem. When you straddle the market of professional and amateur you get the constraints of both worlds to deal with. 
 
I wish I could help you guys sort it out. Good discussion.

Anderton
Of course I understand not everyone has the same priorities, so those updates might not be worth $250 to them. I am speaking only for myself, and not as a hobbyist for whom $250 might seem excessive but as someone who depends on SONAR to make a living.

ampfixer
I feel any DAW that goes down this road will only be of use to people that can write off the annual cost as a business expense. Maybe that's the crux of the problem. When you straddle the market of professional and amateur you get the constraints of both worlds to deal with. 

I also think that is one of real questions. How Sonar Platinum should be perceived?
I have no problem to buy a sever for $4k, the same day I feel I need it. I have bought my last notebook in a hurry. After several months using it I have not configure its GTX card (one of its expensive parts) and I probably will never do. But all that AT WORK...
At the same time $200 to upgrade something in my home PC is much more complicated decision for me. And not because I have no money.


I have no experience with professional music studios. Outside music, $1000 per year for a software someone use every day AT WORK is nothing in general. One man, with one computer in one room cost 10 times  more per month.
 
For many years Sonar was a very attractive hobby package. With all things included, "bonuses", "extra", "actions", etc. And here the price difference $100-$250 is significant. No extra, not bonuses etc. also.
 
I mean if someone buy a PC for $2000, an audio interface for another $2000 and surface yet another $1000-$2000. Guitar for $1000-$3000, a piano for $3000-$15000-$50000. Does it matter how much primary intended software cost, when it is in range $100-$500?
 
If Sonar is in this segment, I am ready to take my previous worries back. Make it $1000 pro year and that will work.
 
But from all discussion, question about $100 or $300 interface, most sales are from MusicCreator / HomeStudio, etc. I conclude it make no sense to reference Adobe/Avid/Oracle/SAP/Apple/etc when speaking about Cakewalk prices.
Note that I do not mean features, bugs or quality. I personally use Open Office (while I have MS Office), MySQL (while sometimes have to access Oracle) and temporarily install consumer grade disks into RAIDs. And I had to deal with very expensive and extremely buggy commercial software... The problem is THE LABEL. "Other software" has managed to put itself into the place where the price no longer matter.

"I think their marketing sucks and their excuse that 'we only have a small marketing team' sucks too."
 
Which DAWs have the best marketing then?

Anderton
....
SONAR has never had a strong presence in interface bundles because it's not cross-platform. The pairing of X3 LE and Live Lite for the TASCAM interfaces was a deal I helped facilitate because of my connections with Cakewalk, TASCAM, and Ableton but that kind of deal is an exception.

 
Cakewalk has had interface bundles going all the way back to pro audio 9. So what you stated wasn't exactly wrong but not exactly right either.

Can someone please explain to me why my subscription has gone from 17 dollars a month to 50. I'm getting a bit upset at this. My version of Sonar Platinum was current till Feb apparently, I don't keep abreast of these things, because I thought my 17 dollars a month meant I didn't have too.
 
I've never paid 500 dollars for an upgrade, particularly to go from one version of sonar to only the next version.
 
Someone please explain this to me. 
 
Cheers Ben