jatoth
I did see post #2 and I did not "miss the point".
Cakewalks intentions aside, I have analyzed business models for decades. Too many MAJOR paradigm shifts in a very short time usually equates to a company scrambling for cash flow or a lack of CLEAR direction along with disappointing results from prior shifts.  It makes one feel that the company does not really have a "long term" plan for survival. I truly hope I am wrong, as I love working with Sonar.  

Oh dude take off your tin-foil hat. If SONAR lasts just ONE more year* your investment will have paid for itself. Stop looking for evil when there is none.
 
*- I suppose technically it would be 16 months until it pays for itself assuming you would upgrade next Jan when the cycle would have come around. 

jatoth

Anderton
See post #2. You are missing the point, as well as the potential revenue sources.

I did see post #2 and I did not "miss the point".
Cakewalks intentions aside, I have analyzed business models for decades.

Okay, but with all due respect, you haven't analyzed Cakewalk's. STEAM and Music Creator provide substantial sources of income that are not impacted one bit by Platinum users who renewed getting lifetime updates. Ditto instrument and plug-ins sales, including those for the Mac. I think Cakewalk has a much more diversified portfolio of revenue sources than you realize, and for which there have been no "MAJOR paradigm shifts." 

dlion16
funny, i never got the email. nor do i get other emails from cakewalk, even though i've signed up frequently and been a user since DOS.

zomg bro, you are missing OUT! See if Andrew can get you signed up, my jaw literally dropped open when I got the offer.

dlion16
funny, i never got the email. nor do i get other emails from cakewalk, even though i've signed up frequently and been a user since DOS.

You should be all set now. You were unsubscribed.

Anderton
 
Okay, but with all due respect, you haven't analyzed Cakewalk's. STEAM and Music Creator provide substantial sources of income that are not impacted one bit by Platinum users who renewed getting lifetime updates. Ditto instrument and plug-ins sales, including those for the Mac. I think Cakewalk has a much more diversified portfolio of revenue sources than you realize, and for which there have been no "MAJOR paradigm shifts." 

Very true, I haven't "analyzed Cakewalk's".  Craig, I am not trying to argue, please don't take it that way.

I love the idea but once I read the lifetime updates are availible for purchase through the end of August I figured I would wait to see what they are talking about on the 1st of june. I'm always skeptical of quickly giving up cash.

Hey,
 
I just realized that my Sonar Platinum membership ended March 7, 2016.
That is probably why I did not receive the $99 lifetime offer.
So can I still get the lifetime membership?
 
When does the lifetime membership offer expire?
 
Please help.

Vas
 When does the lifetime membership offer expire?
 

Aug. 31, 2016 but that might change.

Vas
Hey,
 
I just realized that my Sonar Platinum membership ended March 7, 2016.
That is probably why I did not receive the $99 lifetime offer.
So can I still get the lifetime membership?
 
When does the lifetime membership offer expire?
 
Please help.

Hi Vas,
 
You will get pricing on June 1st. Offer expires August 31st so you have time to decide.

yeah I've been with em since Twelve Tone days - I didn't get an email

Meno
I own Studio One 3 Professional and Sonar Platinum. Right now I happen to like Studio One 3 layout much better than Sonar Platinum. This being said when I received my 99.00 offer from Cakewalk I jumped all over it because I know that Cakewalk is always moving forward and will constantly better their DAW. Now I never have to worry about making that decision if I should do the next years upgrade again. I can go back to the latest and greatest version of Sonar whenever I want without worrying about what it will cost and who knows at some point I may drop upgrades to Studio One when I feel Sonar meets my whims and needs.
 
Thank you Cakewalk for making my life so much easier and less stressful! Peace and out...
 
-John    

this is exactly my situation (plus reaper and mixbus 3) i wasn't going to renew again after this years subscription expired, and wasn't moving past manchester for various reasons, but when this popped up there was really no thinking required and no decision to be made, instant buy, and i put aside my 'various reasons' and installed the latest early release. now at any time down the track if the tide changes again and sonar draws me back there is nothing to pay, i am already there at the latest and greatest version, don't have to worry about it as long as sonar exists. it really is an awesome deal, and as long as it is not detrimental to cakewalk, which by all accounts it isn't, then its all good, thank you very much.  i think they are smart enough not to shoot themselves and us in the foot, at least they deserve the benefit of any doubt. i will be purchasing any extra items of interest, of course it would be icing on the cake if they were all usable in other daw's, but regardless if they are of interst i will purchase them if for no other reason than return the gesture that has been given to me via the lifetime deal.
 
not sure about the comments in various threads which seem to aim at something underhanded going on or that it may be a cash grab because they know they are going down the sh*^$r. i mean even if it was true, asking the question to me seems rather pointless, i mean if someone was about to rob you, and you ask them are they going to rob you, i'm fairly certain that he would answer 'no' even if they were, so those type of questions are fairly pointless in my view, and maybe a little rude and insulting if nothing else.
 
props to the cakewalk and gibson officials for their efforts since this was announced, they have really had their work cut out for them and have gone beyond the call of duty. they have conducted themselves very well, and i think they must have fairly thick skins

digimidi
I have faith in Cakewalk.  I just took the plunge!

Yeah, I bit on the lifetime of SPlat updates too! Great deal for those of us that are long time/loyal Cakewalk/SONAR users. I upgraded to every SONAR version since v1.0 (2001) and had Pro Audio 9 before that. So for me it is a no brainer. I thought I would pull the trigger before Cake changes their minds!  
 
I'm all in.....SPlat for Life!  
 
Cheers,
 
Billy Buck

This goes to John specifically..... this thread was just for me to post some thoughts on what I think (and others may think) about this too good to be true offer.  I usually don't respond to individual posts but I feel I owe John an explanation. 
 
If this thread inferred that I thought this is a bad deal and I was upset, please read it again, in where I close with "Having Blind Faith" that the powers to be have this under control and was only questioning the wisdom of giving up millions of dollars of revenue for an extra one time hit of revenue. This seemed puzzling especially since this new subscription deal has been executed and accepted so positively by us users.  I like that fixes and new features are being realized more frequently for about the same cost as was the annual upgrade fee (we are all winners here).  
 
I know that CAKE is saying that most of their revenue is NOT coming from existing users but even at 10,000 annual updates we are talking about $1M per year in revenue that has apparently been given up by this new lifetime deal.  I am going to sign up for this and my faith is that CAKE is able to remain my DAW environment software for many years to come.
 
I felt that I  wanted to get my thoughts out to the community to see what others think as well.  And I would say that based upon the additional input here, most agree that this move by CAKE is a bit of a mystery and that, like me, most folks have some blind faith in this move and will be signing up for this too good to be true business model change for us SPLAT  users.  
 
I did some calculations and I think I have purchased over $2000 in upgrades since I first signed up in the mid 1980s to CAKEWALK when the product was basically a MIDI editor with little to no support for AUDIO. I am sure that most of us long time users could estimate how much income they have provided to CAKE for upgrades and as you can see, we are talking about a multi million business change cost to CAKE for what appears to be (from their words) a reward for all of us sticking with CAKE all these years or at least (for newer users) to take the SPLAT plunge.
 
Only time will tell how this turns out but again, I say, they have my blind faith as a loyal and dedicated user of their DAW software.
 
Again, for John, this is why and how I started this thread in good faith and if this came across as a CAKE bashing, that was not my intent for which I apologize to anyone who took this OP as a negative to bakers.
 
Jim