WDI
IMO the only problem with Ogg Vorbis vs MP3 is support. MP3 is universally supported. You don't have to worry about whether someone is going to be able to play MP3.

Yes, that's why I agreed with your sentiments about MP3s, and specified that Ogg Vorbis requires a "closed system." There are some players that support Ogg Vorbis, but they're few and far between...which always mystified me, given that if manufacturers could have agreed on using Ogg Vorbis, they could have saved themselves a lot of money. Then again, they probably would have been hit with an anti-trust suit or something if they had...

WDI
...I am not averse to hearing other points of view at all. But it does seem to be the other way around. This is what I'm talking about. Besides, regarding your response stating why you question why someone wants to do something a certain way, I responded already and said "Fair enough".  Also, you pretty much took my quote out of context by taking only part of the sentence...

 
I was just responding to the pieces of text that I quoted and directing my responses to the forum generally, not to you in particular. Nothing that I posted in this thread was about you (until now).

It is embarrasing, 150+ posts about allegedly 10 dollar problem which infact is a zero dollar problem. It is taking away Craigs time from something a lot more valueable to us all.

Well, thanks but no one's holding a gun to my head...I was just hoping to inject some reality into the premise that Cakewalk consists of incompetent negotiators who have a blatant disregard for their customers. Now, I do agree it would be convenient for some people if MP3 export was right there when you opened the program. However, that convenience comes at a price, which is a concept some people can't quite seem to grasp - let alone suggest ways to meet that price other than the three alternatives I presented, none of which I like.
 
Product management is all about choosing priorities. Sometimes the choice isn't between something "good" and something "bad," but what would be good for the greatest number of people, with the understanding that a solution may not be as good for a lesser number of people. I just don't buy the argument people buy SONAR primarily to generate low-resolution files, thereby elevating forced MP3 encoder inclusion as a priority that requires some other tradeoff. I think the way Cakewalk handles this makes a lot of sense. I particularly like that SONAR has been engineered to be so open-ended that it's easy to integrate any kind of encoder you want.

Anderton
Now, I do agree it would be convenient for some people if MP3 export was right there when you opened the program.

I would be better if it were clear to all that it wasn't there.  The only mention I can find with respect to Sonar is :
 
a) on the Sonar "What's new" and the "Rolling Updates" page :
 
"MP3 Export has also been improved in this update."
"Mix tracks specifically for radio, podcast, video, or mp3, and then bounce every version in a single export."
 
b) on the Sonar "Compare versions" page :   [I'm sure not everyone will read this page before buying.]
 
"Formats : ... MP3  (via Sound Cloud)."
 
Is there a warning message during the first 30 days (once you've bought the product) that the function will be disabled shortly, or only once it has ?
 
 
 

The whole mp3 thing and the cost and licensing problems would all go away if cake were to issue a license to the mp3 addon to each customer as an incentive to upgrade next year.
 
Since the license would still be independent of teh sonar program itself the cost to cake would be one time and not for each new version.
 
 
Just a thought.

Tom Riggs
The whole mp3 thing and the cost and licensing problems would all go away if cake were to issue a license to the mp3 addon to each customer as an incentive to upgrade next year.

It wouldn't be an incentive for me as I configured LAME myself (10 min job) and that cost me $0. All that will happen is that the customer will burden the costs, or development will get reduced as it would take a slice of Cakewalks profits. This has already been discussed over and over again in great detail. I guess some people will never see this. Cakewalk here has done the right thing here imho.
 
Also I'm only seeing a few people complain about this, vast majority seem happy with the situation.

Paul P
Is there a warning message during the first 30 days (once you've bought the product) that the function will be disabled shortly, or only once it has ?

Well it's been a long time since I opened a version of SONAR without the encoder, but IIRC, it was done the same way Cubase did it at the time...the encoder shipped unlocked, and a dialog came out that let you export, but said it was a limited time and that the encoder would lock after that time (30 days, maybe?). Don't know if that's what it says these days but I doubt it would have changed much. So, you can export quite a bit of material before you have to decide whether you want to purchase the encoder or roll your own.

Here is a 30 seconds solution to this burning problem:
 
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Convertors/Aaron-s-Sonar-Mp3-Patch.shtml

Related question to the current discussion.  Like many of you here I am a long time Sonar and related products user.  I have a couple of older Cakewalk Products called Pyro 5 and Pyro Audio Creater that have MP3 conversion capabilities.  I assume that the cost of this product included the requisite Fraunhoffer license fee since it does MP3 encoding of files.  Is this license transferable/substitutable for the required Sonar Platinum license or do I need to pay an additional license.  I seem to remember when I bought these I had to activate a license, but I am not sure about this.  It was a long time ago.  TIA