When Sonar was doing monthly subscriptions for existing owners, were they considered renters at the point?  Essentially, as long as they continued to pay their monthly fee, users would have full access to the program?  and if the membership lapsed, the user would be launched into demo mode until the fee is paid again?  Its been a long time since I've used it and I turned it on today and it launched into demo mode.  My membership expired last year, but I was really disheartened when that happened. 

This mischaracterizes the program. There is no rental program. Cakewalk only sells SONAR. There are 2 payment options, a single payment in full and a 12 month payment plan. Upon completing 12 consecutive payments, those on the 12 month payment plan receive the same license as the users who purchased with the single payment option.
 
The only change to those options today is through Aug 31, the the single payment plan for Platinum now includes free updates for life. The monthly payment plan still available and the terms have not changed.
 
 
Edit: since this post is being quoted elsewhere I added the bit about updates for life applying only to Platinum.

Did you pay for the full 12 months? If so you may want to contact CW and figure out why it went into demo mode. 

scook
This mischaracterizes the program. There is no rental program. Cakewalk only sells SONAR. There are 2 payment options, a single payment in full and a 12 month payment plan. Upon completing 12 consecutive payments, those on the 12 month payment plan receive the same license as the users who purchased with the single payment option.
 
The only change to those options today is through Aug 31, the the single payment plan now includes free updates for life. The monthly payment plan still available and the terms have not changed.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, now I get how it was supposed to work.  Thank you!

scook
This mischaracterizes the program. There is no rental program. Cakewalk only sells SONAR. There are 2 payment options, a single payment in full and a 12 month payment plan. Upon completing 12 consecutive payments, those on the 12 month payment plan receive the same license as the users who purchased with the single payment option.
 
The only change to those options today is through Aug 31, the the single payment plan now includes free updates for life for SONAR Platinum users. The monthly payment plan still available and the terms have not changed.

Clarified.