koikane
Few questions:
1. Why is BandLab free
2. Why is CbB free? While I’m happy it will continue I cannot help to feel a bit slighted that others get for free what we paid for for years
3. How does BandLab stay in business if everything is free? Maybe I’m missing the boat bit I see no ads? What pays for the Goo that holds all this together?

The free version is an AMAZING package, but it does not include everything us Platinum buyers purchased.  
 
It is pretty obviously they will eventually create a "buy the extras" model to get up to a product that is closer to that.  
 
Bandlab has already indicated they have different revenue streams that enabled the support of this free offering.  Companies have to pay for marketing, I can assure you this is an attention grabber.  
 

"Because" would be an appropriate answer... or 42.
 
For those that like conspiracy theories... once your dependency has been entrenched, all audio will get encryption and only be playable in CbB, but with 10s of pink noise every minute. No exports allowed until you pony up the ransom. But even after that middle C will still be inaudible in exports (middle C costs extra, so is a two-step ransom).
 

koikane
Geez such pessimism, is this not a forum?

It's not pessimism. As scook stated, we have all gone over this already ad nauseum. Look up the past threads and read them. Most people don't want to rehash something that has already been dealt with. more important things to do at this point.

michael diemer

koikane
Geez such pessimism, is this not a forum?

It's not pessimism. As scook stated, we have all gone over this already ad nauseum. Look up the past threads and read them. Most people don't want to rehash something that has already been dealt with. more important things to do at this point.

This.

And?

Well we haven’t “all” gone over it. Just asked some simple questions. Thanks for the link, it showed me a lot.

Those of us that prefer using desktops and laptops actually get to ride the coattails of the mobile crowd for a change.  For someone on a fixed income with little disposable money that's a good thing.
 
As you stated, you paid for the privilege of using the Sonar daw and the accessories that came with it.  You still have that privilege but no longer have to pay for the privilege.  You also gain from frequent daw updates without incurring additional cost.
 
We are new to BandLab but BandLab is not new.  The mobile platform has been under development for more than five years.  There is a music store and video platform.  Meng is slowly building an extensive infrastructure built on a music platform.  I find that exciting!

Why not read the bazillion other threads that have beaten this same topic to a pulp over the last 4 months?
 
Since I'm weary of explaining this every time to someone who's never experienced a business model where you're given something for free in order to interest you in an upsell, for instance the peanuts at Five Guys or the coffee at Trader Joe's, or any number of free apps on iOS, or Dropbox, Google Drive, Mega, Evernote, etc., I'm just going to keep this around and paste it in:
 
In my guitar amp repair business, I've been using Google Voice for 5 years now as my business phone line. I was able to get 510-747-TUBE, which may be the coolest phone number for a guitar amp repair business ever, if I may humbly say so. It has not cost me a cent. I can text with it, get voice mail with (often amusing) voice-to-text translations, all kinds of features.
 
I've written lyrics using Google Docs. Shared rough mixes and stems via Google Drive. All free. Never paid them anything. Google Docs, Google Voice, and Google Drive, none of them have ads. These are all services that offer upsells if I decide that I need greater capacity from them, and many do. Google can easily afford to give me what I get for free while they make a fortune selling other companies the greater capacity.
 
Sometimes people bring me amps that have nothing more wrong with them than dirty input jacks, and I'll shoot a bit of DeOxit in the jack, wiggle the plug around, then shoot the 5hit with them about their band, and send them on their way no charge and very happy that they came to Euthymia Electronics and not some other place. No motive other than creating good will and knowing that it will spread the word that Erik is offering a good product.
 
Just because BandLab are licensing a product without charging for it that other companies used to charge money for doesn't mean they are not already making money from it. Just learning about the existence of BandLab has caused me to talk it up to several people. Multiply that by however many people have downloaded and started using the program and it adds up to some very precisely targeted advertising.
 
In our studios, people who don't understand how we do what we are do trust us that we know what we're doing. Can't we give BandLab the same benefit of the doubt? Every company before them had a pay license model for Cakewalk software and look how it ended with SONAR.
 
Cakewalk by BandLab has only been in existence as a program for what, 4 months, and it's already way better as far as stability, and nice small handy features have been added rather than big "who is actually going to use this?" features. Although we are hurting for a phrase sampler. The youth of today need phrase samplers.
 
I'm salivating waiting for them to put out the plug-ins that Cakewalk used to bundle with Platinum and sell separately, and still tantalizingly advertise on the website. The Channel Tools, that fancy L-Phase EQ and Multiband Compressor, some more ProChannel modules, they could make some coin from me in the future with "in-app purchases."
 
I'd love to have a BandLab-developed Dynamic EQ with corresponding ProChannel module, for instance.
 
As far as comfort about having paid for a license for software that is now being licensed for free, there was a LOT of software bundled with SONAR Platinum that is not included with Cakewalk by BandLab. Software that as stated above, I will consider paying for if BandLab start licensing it in the future. SONAR Platinum was a package and part of that package has been changed and further developed and improved and is being licensed for free for all to use including people who bought the SONAR Platinum package. So? I get that part for free, but it doesn't have the sunroof, air conditioner, fancy rims, sound system, trim package, heated leather seats, turbocharger, and tinted glass. If I want any of that, I have to add it myself.
 
Don't worry. Use this fantastic program that these nice folks are giving us to make great sounds. It's back and it's better!

to be fair, these questions have been asked and speculated about a few times, but bandlab themselves never answered, you can find these threads easily... as for actual information the most can be found in a pre-cakewalk-aquisition article from bloomberg, google it, (tl/dr; bandlab's a startup with funding until 2019, at the time the bloomberg article was written) oh, i googled it for you
/hth

Not available to read as I'm not a 'Professional Bloomberg Subscriber' apprarently.