Monthly over lifetime offers pretty much nothing... You should switch to platinum lifetime if you plan on staying up to date since it offers you the highest value by far. The sole purpose of the monthly plan was for people who wanted to join and leave as they wish (paying a slightly higher price of course) or for those who didn't want to pay upfront and spread the payment out over time.
 
It looks like you run a pro business and are committed to using SONAR so a monthly option actually creates more hassle for you, since you have to now keep your membership active or if it expires it will go into demo mode (you will own your last annual period of course).  Of course if you want to pay us a bit more by going monthly I won't stop you :)
 
EDIT: I see that you were asking about platinum/professional monthly plans. Nothing will change there. We will still distinguish features based on the product they are offered in. i.e some Platinum features wont be offered at all in professional. Eg features like drum replacer and vocal sync won't be offered in professional. We may allow you to purchase and add features ala carte in the future but that is to be determined.

Well, in terms of running a pro business, here's where I am. I managed to give up my day job just over two and half years ago to go full time self-employed doing audio of various kinds.
 
As is to be generally expected when making such a move, the first thing that happened is my income dropped considerably, and has slowly started to crawl back up over a couple of years of building up the business. So yes, while the lifetime thing would make a lot of sense if I had £150 lying around, I just don't. Am still very much in a bootstrapping just-about-scraping-by phase. Which is nobody else's concern, of course.
 
Surely you can see, where the confusion arises. It's been said several times by Cakewalk that Platinum going forward will be more core stuff and add ons will be generally outside of that.
 
Now, going through the rolling updates page, there are about five things that were Platinum only. Drum Replacer, Vocal Synch, Lounge Lizard, Strum, and a couple of other odds and ends.
 
These are exactly the kind of things that seem to be deemed non-core. Which is fine, except, as I keep saying, it looks like the Platinum monthly deal offers nothing that the Professional doesn't, going by what Cakewalk reps have said.
 
I'm not accusing anyone of a rip off or anything, I just think this hasn't been thought through. In my position, why would I not just switch to Professional for the cheaper price?

DeeringAmps
Thank You Noel for the clarification!
They'll still be confused
 
T

Thanks for sycophantic post complete with pointless, condescending snark.

"Oh man you guys are way overthinking this and confusing yourselves and others with these mile long threads."
 
This says it all.  This offer is the definition of a no brainer. 

John T
 In my position, why would I not just switch to Professional for the cheaper price?

I guess it would depend on whether you plan to stay current and in business for more than a couple of years. And if the total return on the £150 would be greater by spreading the payments over time verses a single one time payment. You are the only one that can run the numbers for your situation and there are a couple of months to make the decision.

I will be going to the lifetime SPlat next month.

The biggest reason is that most of the recent upgrades include a lot of things I really don't use. Since I play bluegrass the drum stuff is useless to me. Same for the electronic synths, and there is a host of other functionality I don't use.

I do like the idea of getting core updates without all the extras. If I need something I prefer to buy it separately.

I think Cake is going to a Pro Tools environment where they don't try to be everything to everybody. Cake will add value to the core, but their money will come from things like Vocal sync, etc. Microsoft did this years ago with Windows,Office and Visual Studio. Windows is free, but you have to pay big for Office and Visual Studio. Not every Windows user needs Visual Studio, so you pay extra if you need it.

Also, I have seen great knashing of teeth over lifetime memberships paying for Porting to OSX. I don't think that is the case. Does it make sense to you to charge your existing Windows customers to fund development on another platform? I think professional studios are starting to realize that Pro Tools might not offer the value it once did relative to Sonar, and Cake is going to capitalize on that big time. Notice Craig Anderton doesn't want the competition reading this forum because he doesn't want the competition gong to the same lifetime model.

Anyway, thanks Noel,Craig and the dev team for doing such great work. I look forward to the new lifetime distribution model.

scook

John T
 In my position, why would I not just switch to Professional for the cheaper price?

I guess it would depend on whether you plan to stay current and in business for more than a couple of years.

 
I don't see how that has anything to do with it.
 
I dunno, perhaps I should give up. It seems like a simple question to me, but I'm clearly failing to communicate it somehow.
 
I'll give it one last go.
 
What will Platinum offer that Professional doesn't, going forward, given that all Platinum-only features to date, are precisely the things that Cakewalk are describing as non-core?
 
Talking about the value of the lifetime membership is not an answer to this question.
 

Everyone now knows now that the lifetime update is a no brainer. If you read John's post, that is not his question. 
 
I see what you are getting at John. I find it incredulous that others dont. There's a pretty big logical flaw in the monthly subscription plans as they have been layed out thus far with regard to differentiating between levels moving forward. Even for brand new users, after the first 12 months, how do you justify charging twice as much if there are no ongoing additional features added? No one thinks there is a conspiracy here - but the picture is far from complete.  
 
And please try not to tell us again that the lifetime updates are a no brainer. We know. This question relates not only to those that for whatever reason can't take advantage of the lifetime offer, but to every new user after August, when lifetime updates cease.
 
 

tenfoot
Everyone now knows now that the lifetime update is a no brainer. If you read John's post, that is not his question. 
 
I see what you are getting at John. I find it incredulous that others dont. There's a pretty big logical flaw in the monthly subscription plans as they have been layed out thus far with regard to differentiating between levels moving forward. Even for brand new users, after the first 12 months, how do you justify charging twice as much if there are no ongoing additional features added? No one thinks there is a conspiracy here - but the picture is far from complete.  
 
And please try not to tell us again that the lifetime updates are a no brainer. We know. This question relates not only to those that for whatever reason can't take advantage of the lifetime offer, but to every new user after August, when lifetime updates cease.
 
 

 
Judging on how things have been handled previously - What is considered a core feature for Platinum will not always be considered a core feature for Professional.
 
 
The way I understood it is the lifetime offer/pricing is for the existing customer base offered as a thank you for their previous support.
New users do not fit that category.