chuckebaby
...but ive yet to see even a glimmer of being screwed by this company. so why now ?
because they are throwing out a great offer ?
 

 
Good point. I have always, always felt well-looked-after by the Bakers.
 
...but maaan, with all this uproar I bet there's some in the Bakery wondering whether it's worth the trouble offering a good deal to loyal users ever again... :)

I think the bakers know most of us are excited; there's always gonna be a few whiny (insert lots of stuff here) that spin in negative directions at every opportunity.  Every forum has them. I try and ignore them

I have been using Cakewalk's flagship product since it came on a single floppy disk.  I have never once regretted a single purchase over all these years.  I jumped on the offer and have no regrets.  Those of you who are suggesting that this is somehow the death-gasp of a company in trouble should be ashamed of yourselves.  You are propagating unfounded rumors that could actually do some harm.  If I was a staff member at CW, I would be saddened and disappointed by some of these responses.  Do you not give a damn for the hard working, Cakewalk staff?
 
I have seen some great announcements met with skepticism and distrust around here lately.  Wow, some of you guys really know how to rain on Cakewalk's parade, don't you?

jimkleban
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

I don't think you intended to bash CW I do think your title is provocative and why you have gotten the reaction you have seen here. It is possible you have insights and resources that allow you to "calculate" the revenue CW gets though I don't know where you would get that data. Still the idea is that you question the viability or at worst the truthfulness of the CW announcement. That is what is troublesome in this thread.
 
You may not have intended that but that is how it came across.  

BRuys
I have been using Cakewalk's flagship product since it came on a single floppy disk.  I have never once regretted a single purchase over all these years.  I jumped on the offer and have no regrets.  Those of you who are suggesting that this is somehow the death-gasp of a company in trouble should be ashamed of yourselves.  You are propagating unfounded rumors that could actually do some harm.  If I was a staff member at CW, I would be saddened and disappointed by some of these responses.  Do you not give a damn for the hard working, Cakewalk staff?
 
I have seen some great announcements met with skepticism and distrust around here lately.  Wow, some of you guys really know how to rain on Cakewalk's parade, don't you?

Very well said indeed!
 
I wholeheartedly agree with every word.

BRuys
I have been using Cakewalk's flagship product since it came on a single floppy disk.  I have never once regretted a single purchase over all these years.  I jumped on the offer and have no regrets.  Those of you who are suggesting that this is somehow the death-gasp of a company in trouble should be ashamed of yourselves.  You are propagating unfounded rumors that could actually do some harm.  If I was a staff member at CW, I would be saddened and disappointed by some of these responses.  Do you not give a damn for the hard working, Cakewalk staff?
 
I have seen some great announcements met with skepticism and distrust around here lately.  Wow, some of you guys really know how to rain on Cakewalk's parade, don't you?

+ 1
Some speculations are going to far.

Bristol_Jonesey

BRuys
I have been using Cakewalk's flagship product since it came on a single floppy disk.  I have never once regretted a single purchase over all these years.  I jumped on the offer and have no regrets.  Those of you who are suggesting that this is somehow the death-gasp of a company in trouble should be ashamed of yourselves.  You are propagating unfounded rumors that could actually do some harm.  If I was a staff member at CW, I would be saddened and disappointed by some of these responses.  Do you not give a damn for the hard working, Cakewalk staff?
 
I have seen some great announcements met with skepticism and distrust around here lately.  Wow, some of you guys really know how to rain on Cakewalk's parade, don't you?

Very well said indeed!
 
I wholeheartedly agree with every word.

I wholeheartedly agree with Bristol Jonesey's agreement.
 
Every positive offer/post from Cakewalk is met with negativity by some.
 
I also echo the words of other posters who point out that Cakewalk have always "done right" by their customers.  I see no sign of this changing.
 
I have paid my upgrade, and am now showing infinity in my store account.  Sonar Plat is a remarkable tool, and I look forward to using it for as long as my crumbling body will let me. 
 
Thank you, Cakewalk.

I've been around since CW8. Core functionality has been my reason for upgrading through the years, when the various add-ons were less of a draw (due to lack of need or previously addressed needs, like already having AD or Melodyne).
So now they offer to reward me for this loyalty with a reasonably lifetime upgrade price..allowing me to pick up the add-ons as I see fit. This is my PERFECT BUSINESS MODEL. 
 
I've made a living with this software for many years, and I feel like CW just threw me a "thank you" birthday party.
I couldn't hit the "buy" button fast enough.
If this sales model works for them, I'm happy to support it ( along with the near certainty of me ponying up for the occasional add-on as we go).
 
I think this is brilliant. Thank you :)

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
......................................
And finally, this is for the SONAR Platinum, our flagship. Clearly stated in the email.

 
And THIS is the salient point imo. Only for "Platinum". Now I imagine if in a couple of years CW decide to morph it into something else (with the usual excuses and whatever), then the so-called "lifetime" of Platinum is over ne c'est pas?
 
Or am I being just a tad cynical?

The Sweetwater interview with Craig (A+) and the lifelong deal (A+) I get it!
BUT...
The things that concern me are well the way I see things. Lol ;)
 
I see my IK Sample Moog and Tron that worked a few months with Splat stop working and the bit bridge grinding to a halt as more and more 32 bit 3^rd party plugins stop working in Splat… I wonder if this isn’t part of the new Cake recipe… Were you have to use and/or buy CW plugins to replace any other plugin brand Or you will need to buy some plugin bridge for each plugin brand. There are many numbers of ways that I can see this going… I have lost many 32bit CW plugins as it is…
 
Life time Splat users??? Hum? Nothing says that CW can’t put a new DAW on the market…  Splat 10 next gen….   ???
Just saying…
 
As long as CW is upfront with us and is focused on taking over the DAW market, I’m in!
 
It would be nice to be using the #1 DAW in the world!
 
Ride the way baby!!!