Hey Guys -- I'm a former Cakewalk user (and fan) from another era, and my interest in Cakewalk goes way back to the early days with Hendershott. What memories. I currently don't use Cakewalk as my primary DAW, but with the latest news, I'm fascinated and want to be optimistic, but have some real questions about Cakewalk's ultimate direction.
 
I was saddened to find out that Cakewalk was being discontinued by Gibson, very happy to see it rescued by Meng Ru Kuok, and blown away to see him release it for free. Wow. That sent shockwaves through the larger DAW community. The winds of change are blowing. I was also really happy to see Noel brought back on the team, as many years ago, I had the privilege of some great personal exchanges with him and I think he's a stand-up guy. 
 
As I've been following the latest developments, I've gotten into several discussions with former- and never- and current-Cakewalk users about this big announcement, and most of us agree this is potentially a MAJOR shift for the entire DAW community, representing what is probably a brand new business model for DAWs.
 
So now to my questions -- What is the long-term plan for Cakewalk and BandLab? How will they really make money down the road? What will Cakewalk have to morph into in order to actually make money? What long-term commitments can Meng actually give the Cakewalk community of his support for advanced development? Obviously, BandLab won't likely share all it's deep strategic thinking with us, but I wanted to try to understand the general game plan. I hope Noel and/or Meng might be reading this too, would love their input.
 
Why is this important for some of us to know? Well, IMO, if someone installs a DAW, they may or may not realize this, but they are installing a product that is a long-term commitment. The musician/producer is forming a long-term relationship with his toolset. When you start writing or recording something so personal as music in a DAW, those projects can go on for years and years, and the tools we use are the creative extension of our minds and hearts. I've got old cherished Cakewalk files 20+ years ago (and older) in my backups -- and so I'll always be interested and optimistic about what happens with Cakewalk, and it's great to know it has a life ahead of it. And also great to know where Cakewalk is going. There will be a lot of heart and soul poured into using Cakewalk in the coming chapter of its history, and since this is such a "new" business model, I'd personally love to know where it's really going. I'm sure I'm not alone in my curiosity.
 
There's a basic fact in business (and some might say, life in general), which is that NOTHING is ever really, truly free. So BandLab has to get SOMETHING out of this extraordinary move they just made, at some point in the future. For now, I get it. It's a market-share move, and I believe the genuine passion of Meng. So it's a great first step worthy of huge kudos!
 
Yes, I've read Meng's posts and press releases about the general philosophy of giving the tools to produce music to the maximum number of people, etc.. And as a philosophy, I think that's great. But as a BUSINESS MODEL, he needs Cakewalk to eventually make money. Right now, Meng seems to be in Internet start-up mode, building market share for his BandLab and now Cakewalk divisions. But EVERY business (even ones with deep investment from billionaire fathers) will have to eventually make money, right?
 
So will Cakewalk continue to be developed as a high-end (but still FREE) DAW, but then start making money via the in-app purchase model? Will it go the advertising model? Will it go the profile monitoring and collection model? All three models?
 
Will they ever start removing features, or limiting the higher-end features with a pay wall? Is their focus going to be moving to mainstream, consumer kind of DAW, or will they ever be developing unique features for sub-market segments and specialties, like film/media/game composers, or EDM, or classical notation-oriented tools, or sound designers, or post production, or mastering, or studio hardware integration, etc... How generic will they go, or will they still pay attention to the fringe areas? Will they invest in R&D on the science of DSP algorithms or just package tons of loops to sell?
 
Would love to know the direction BandLab will really be going. I work with a bunch of people and I recommend DAW software all the time, and I want to be able to give them good advice, but I'm not sure what to say about the "new" Cakewalk yet. Where will it go in 2-3-4 years? What and how and why is it being released this way? Not a criticism, but if in 2 years Cakewalk is constantly hitting you with ads and in-app purchases or monitoring your computer to collect profile data, I wouldn't want to recommend that to anyone (or keep it installed myself). I'd like to know if BandLab will actually keep Cakewalk around and really commit long-term to it as a world-class high-performance DAW... and if so, how is BandLab as a parent company itself going to make money long-term?
 
It's all great and wonderful that Cakewalk is free and under development again with a good team led by Noel again, but I wouldn't want to experience the UNCERTAINTY again. Yes, obviously, life is filled with uncertainty, but in the DAW market, there's never been an approach like this before, so the more we know about the general direction and game plan, the more helpful that will be for generating confidence in the user base that this is a long-term commitment. And I know it's very early in the new chapter and they're still figuring things out, but I'm not even sure that BandLab itself is solvent or profitable on its own right now (I have no way of knowing, but I don't see any real visible revenue streams yet). I mean, BandLab is in a huge growth phase with start-up investment, so we understand how that model works more or less, but look at SoundCloud, which is really struggling, and that was a darling of the industry in recent years. What happens if BandLab can't transition to a profitable venture on its own? What happens with Cakewalk once again? I'm not just looking at 2018, but I'm looking at what level of stability and commitment I can anticipate in 2019, 2020, 2021, etc... 
 
Not trying to be negative but trying to understand the game plan. I see a lot of celebrating in the forum, with a few nay-sayers getting criticized, but some of them are bringing up valid concerns. I for one wish Meng and Noel the best with all this, and I hope they can truly transform the industry in a positive way. The potential is certainly there! But it's also a risky move -- BOLD, but risky. Meng is about 30 years old, clearly very ambitious, innovative, and with great support from his family, and he already has shown he has some great business skills. But when the numbers have to add up in a few years, what will Cakewalk look like then and how will it balance the accounting? 
 
Hope you all understand this is NOT a negative post, but a genuine query on the bigger picture. In any case, I wish Cakewalk all the best, and hope that it stays around for a long, long time! Congrats to Meng and his team, and warmest well-wishes to Noel as he starts this new journey!

I can see you like to delve into the deeper picture and I like that. I'm sure many here are thinking the same or similar thoughts.
Here's my simple take on it. Unlike most other tangible items. Software is in an entirely different universe. We can't really compare it to much that is similar. It is ever developing and ever changing right along with advancing hardware.. This goes contrary to the old school thought that you buy something and keep it until it wears out. Software doesn't wear out, it becomes "obsolete". It needs hardware to work. If you over stay the life expectancy of the hardware you can't use the new software.
 
If  Cakewalk by BandLab draws in new customers and sells  synths, plug ins etc. it really is a means to an end..the focus is no longer on the daw as such. It becomes more about an environment people are drawn to, so yes we are in a new era and I think Cakewalk/Bandlab is leading that. Price or value only figure into the way it helps achieve the other goals.
 
I think Cakewalk by BandLab will continue to develop so long as there are developers. No software program can remain static and survive over the long haul. It might be a chargeable option in the future, but in the scope of things it doesn't necessarily need to be. It could be looked at more as a tool or a business expense.
 

I think that it is possible to spead previous version of Cakewalk freely by only Bandlab. If Logic and Cubase do that, so many customers will bring a suit against them. In contrast, nobody can do that against Bandlab who has no responsibility for previous verision. Just these point, Bandlab's chance to shot to fame to the world! 
Maybe the next version will make lots of money. I think so.

I have the same concerns, ionecake, so you are not alone.  Meng did make it clear that CbB will be free just as BandLab (the app) is free and the extras, like Rapture, etc., will be sold.  Noel has voiced the same but the future is yet to me seen.
 
I would caution...  This thread might be suddenly locked by a certain moderator who does not appreciate discussions regarding the business side of Cakewalk, although it is of great concern for some of us.
 
I have confidence in Meng.  He has shown himself to be a standup guy himself.  Nonetheless, some clarification or idea on what is to be expected would be reassuring (like new features and not just fixes, etc., which might be for sale).
 
Kind regards,
 
tecknot

I think BL will use CbB as it’s base DAW to use for music creation collaboration. Think about it. Individuals use the free DAW as a standardized platform to work together creating songs. I think soon you will see some sort of sharing your tracks in progress within the same DAW. They may charge a monthly subscription to use it. They could then charge a fee to post Demo productions that music labels could browse online. They could place all sorts of advertising in this section and others that does not have to be overly intrusive. They would be the only game in town where you can work offline, hit Share, and open your entire project to others using the same Pro level DAW. Sounds like a plan to me.

So far they have a very small team of developers.  The product is already fully mature so all they have to do is small updates.
 
Paying the salary of 3-4 people (for say a marketing team) is a cost most million dollar companies do, it might look a little different here, but it really isn't.
 
Supplement this expense with ad-on plugins and instruments and why would it be unreasonable to keep this going?
 
If they hired 20+ developers it would be a different discussion.  The concept seems viable.
 
Oh, and they have a tip jar.....  :)  

New features will absolutely be developed, not just fixes. As I said in my very first post, at BandLab we prefer to under-promise and over-deliver, so I hope we'll continue to bring positive surprises in the future.

The way we operate our group is not like many others, and Cakewalk, like all of our brands, are not isolated projects but integrated ones, which is why our approach is even financially feasible. Our commitment to the world of music as BandLab Technologies extends beyond software and those of you who start to research a little will understand we have many traditional revenue streams within our group and don't just give everything away for free :-)

For those of you who use Cakewalk in a professional context and are looking to whether you should put your time and effort into a platform - you should know that we are committed to all our products and the immense responsibility towards not just the Cakewalk community but the millions who are part of the BandLab community too - we would not dare to take on a project of this nature unless we were confident we would be a good home for it.

Now it sounds a little hard sell, so I'll shut up and get back to working on the product :-)

In the online world, if you sell a product you will limit your user base but make money direct from sales - if you are successful. That is almost instant revenue. If you give a product away for free you will build a much bigger user base and that gives you power in the market, but it requires more upfront investment and a longer time to recoup that investment. Look at Google, Youtube and Facebook for example. In the early days before they had any ads, everyone was asking, "But how do they make any money when they give this away for free?" They are now some of the biggest companies in terms of revenue, and they still give their services to the end user for free.
 
The bottom line is that in this new world there are many different ways to make money from a product without selling it directly to the end user. Having a huge user base is always worth a lot of money even if they are not paying you anything. Users, data and content are valuable resources and that value can easily be converted to revenue in many different ways.
 
Bandlab falls in the same category as Google, Youtube and Facebook and it has the upfront investment to build it over time and sustain it as a free service. The users, data and content will grow over time and thus it's value will grow too as well as its ability to turn that value into revenue.
 
Cake fits in nicely with what Bandlab is all about. Giving it for free exclusively to Bandlab members (to make content with) will make Bandlab grow. In other words, you have to join Bandlab to get Cake for free, and you have to remain a member of Bandlab to keep using Cake for free, and people will be using Cake to make content that will go on Bandlab. So Cake is a massive asset for Bandlab.
 
Exactly how Bandlab will turn the value of its users, data and content into revenue, we can only guess at - maybe advertising, maybe something else. They will be able to at least partly fund the continued development of Cake by selling add-ons for it.
 
Edit: Took me about an hour to post this due to people constantly knocking on my door and turning up all at once. I see that Meng has since replied and given a very good explanation.

As I said above, if you google a little or check our NAMM photos and announcements, you'll see we aren't just a software company.

We don't believe in chasing rainbow startup dreams but building solid sustainable businesses. They take longer, but they last longer too :-)

Thanks, Meng.  I thought as much since BandLab is much more than it is at first glace.  I just didin't want to assume that revenues from other sources would be used across different branches of product development.  I'm not sure if that is common in the business world, but it would seem a risk to drain/spend monies (or profits) from one source (or product line), that would typically be set aside for the sole purpose of that product's further development, as an investment in another.  I'm ignorant in the field of conglomerate (big) business (no slight intended) practices, but it does look that way from the experiences I had as a customer.  Of course, as you stated, BandLab is unique and your case is reassuring.  I'm just a nervous and twice burned end user.  I sincerely appreciate and respect your endeavors.
 
Kind regards,
 
tecknot