How Dumb Were We?

someone offering you a lifetime product for a few hundred dollars, and we don't stop to think (how can they pay developers for the rest of your life with this amount of money.  I smelt a fish back when they offered this garbage.
 
Disgusting.  Truly disgusting.

how can any company implement such a model?  lifetime updates for so cheap?

I never thought the lifetime updates were a necessary or smart move for Cakewalk, but there's more sense to it than might initially appear to be. They always said that Platinum users made up a minority of the user base, and I'm guessing the calculation was "we can raise some cash now from long termers, who are the most likely buyers of multiple add-ons, and everyone walks away happy". Sadly, it didn't turn out that way, but I don't think it was either stupid or cynical.

I'm not happy about Sonar's demise any more than you, but I figure I would have paid all or most of that "lifetime" money to some other DAW developer in updates along the way, so I'm more or less even in dollar terms.
 
Was Gibson unethical in making the "lifetime" offer, in view of what they probably knew at the time but were not revealing? IMO, yes.
 
But to me the true disaster is the time I've invested in Sonar. Some of that knowledge (the basic concepts) will transfer to my new DAW (Cubase), but not all. Not the specifics. I'll have to learn to walk all over again before I can get up to speed. If I had chosen Cubase from the start, this "Sonar is dead" thing would be just a vague rumble off in the distance.
 
Oh well, crap happens. I'm trying to view it as an opportunity to learn something new.
 
But I'll sure miss Sonar. It was a good ride while it lasted. People will be discussing and debating its demise long after the program has stopped working.

I'm running Windows 7 on an offline computer. I will continue to run Sonar Platinum. I've got Mixbus 4 and 32C as well, but Sonar is going to be my DAW for as long as it runs, which should be a long time.

I took the lifetime update and as a result I have the most current version of SONAR PLatinum, which my status says Expiration: (infinity) Status: Owned.... So, since I doubt the few of us that bought the Lifetime Updates significantly altered the income status of SONAR, since apparently few of us took the opportunity, it appears that SONAR was on life-support already and little we did as customers would save it by then.

I was oblivious to the frailty of the company then and only when Craig Anderton split the scene did I realize how much was amiss. I held out hope, though, since the Bakers seemed confident that good things were coming.
 
We were too optimistic.

I'm not saying this was done with foreknowledge, but at the time there were Gibson/Cakewalk employees who basically argued "Cakewalk has been around for thirty years, anything is possible, but there is no reason to think anything is amiss here". This was basically my thinking as well, and I fully intended to buy the lifetime update plan, but some unforeseen emergency expenses cropped up and I was unable. Had I done so in Dec, at the last opportunity, I would have paid more for the updates I received in 2017 than I did with the monthly plan. I had purchased on a special offer of $14.99 a month, which makes my total for updates I received in 2017 $149.90 as opposed to $199 I would have paid for the lifetime plan, which turned out to be 10 months (assumiing purchased in 12/17.

Our petition to Microsoft to rescue Cakewalk out of Gibson!
 
Cakewalk and later Sonar has been our favorite DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for many years. It is the home we go to when being creative. From writing songs, record songs, mixing songs to master songs and albums. We deeply love Cakewalk and Sonar.
 
Gibson is now stopping developing and service of Cakewalk and Sonar. So they are basically giving it up.
 
Dear Microsoft.
 
Please rescue Cakewalk and Sonar out of Gibson. You can make Sonar a system like Office and Office 365. And Music Creator to an app in the store. And please make it under insider, so that we, the users can have a say in the development. You can rebrand it if you want, but please make it backward compatible with current Sonar, Music Creator and pluggin base.
 
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/microsoft-please-rescue-cakewalk-and-sonar-out-of
 
PS! I don't give up yet. Please sign and share on Facebook an Twitter!

AdamGrossmanLG
how can any company implement such a model?  lifetime updates for so cheap?

Image-Line does it with FL Studio by regularly coming out with new plugins and add-ons for sale.  The base program gets free updates, but those updates will not normally include any new effects, synths, sample libraries, etc. - just updates to the core program functionality.  As long as they keep making new add-on items that people want to buy, they have continual income.
 
When Cakewalk first announced the lifetime updates, I thought they would adopt a similar model.  It may have been their intention, but I guess there wasn't enough time to find out.  More likely it was just Gibson trying to get some quick cash.
 
Anyway, in my case, I paid $99 for the lifetime upgrades in May 2016.  If I hadn't done so, I would have had to pay $99 to renew my yearly subscription in January 2017, which I would have done, so the lifetime updates cost me nothing beyond the paltry interest I could have made keeping the $99 in the bank for seven months.  I guess people who didn't get the best price on the lifetime updates or who renewed their subscription on a different timetable may have gotten a worse deal, though.

Before there was FL Studio there was Fruityloops.  Same deal - one time buy and free updates forever.  Until Fruityloops became FL Studio.  Same program, new name, new buy in.  That is what I figured would happen with SONAR.  Fruityloops was well worth the money, and FL Studio it is still a solid program from what I understand, tho I don't use it.  It was one of the funnest beat makers around.