Mr. Anderton:
agree with most of your points. The ratio of paus DAWs to interfaces might not be as bad as suggested. I own Sonar, Studio One V3, and Reaper. I believe that many others own multiple DAWs.
i also believe that customers having unreal expectations is not solely the fault of said customers. Companies set the prices, and if the industry is cannibalistic whose  fault is that?
i agree that Sonar is providing exceptional value which is why I have been a customer for over 20 years.

I think the elephant in the room is that there are too many DAWs on the market and something eventually has to give.  As Craig pointed out Apple is able to sell Logic at best break even or more likely at a loss, because they're using it to promote hardware sales of MacBooks.  Because there's no equivalent sales model in the PC market, companies are left to fight like sharks over market share in a niche market.
 
Because there are so many DAWs on the market there is going to be a competitive price structure, not just to attract new customers but to retain the ones they have.
 
I think Craig's comments on the complaints wasn't about the pricing structure, it's more from a standpoint of the cost of doing business, and when people expect a large elaborate display at NAMM what is that going to do for their sales?  If they could triple their sales figures it might be worth them doing something like that, but if not then it's a wasted expenditure.
 
 
 

 
Thanks for the inside view Craig.  It looks like the energy that everyone got caught up in the past has faded.  It used to be that those that went were excited to go and those of us left behind were just as excited to hear from them, as if we also were there.  This year there's only your somewhat gloomy trip report and total silence from Cakewalk.
 
Whether or not it makes economic sense to be present at NAMM (and it looks like it's really expensive and also that software companies are teetering on the edge) it was a way to make a splash in person (that would get reported on within various online forums) and on youtube (I see there are at least two of Cakewalks's presence last year).  It was a fun time of the year which is now apparently gone.
 
(I'd gladly give up a weekend or two if it meant going to NAMM and hanging out with superstars )
 

might be better to have no presence than an unoccupied one

Anderton
Well, I do take requests

And you really do play those requests well. Where's the tip jar! :)

jbow
I hate a thief. I wish there were a way to put a self destruct code in Sonar that would wipe out a whole drive unless the software is determined to be pirated. I know it isn't something that can happen since now in many places software can be sold as used. I know it isn't realistic but I wish it was.
 

Lol if we had that we would surely wipe out your drive on next launch :-P
 
I was at NAMM this year but the sole purpose was to meet up with our other Gibson brands and some of our partners, including the big guys like Microsoft and Intel. NAMM is a convenient place to meet other industry people under one roof. I was so busy in meetings that I barely had time to even see stuff at the show. I was at our booth probably only a few hours. I did salivate over some of the new Gibson 2016 guitars though :)
 
Its never been a show for end users - in fact you cannot buy tickets for NAMM. Its only open to exhibitors or people who get NAMM passes. Companies get a limited amount of NAMM passes that we give out to our artists and partners. See this:
https://www.namm.org/faqs/how-do-i-attend-namms-trade-shows-and-show-open
 
Given this, its curious why so much fuss was made over our low attendance there. As Andrew and Craig mentioned many software companies have chosen NOT to participate anymore due to the high cost of running a booth there and low return. 
 

scottfa
The ratio of paus DAWs to interfaces might not be as bad as suggested. I own Sonar, Studio One V3, and Reaper. I believe that many others own multiple DAWs.

 
Yes, but do you run them with multiple interfaces, or the same interface for all of them? I have access to monthly industry unit sales figures for DAWs, virtual instruments, and interfaces, and way more interfaces are sold.
 

i also believe that customers having unreal expectations is not solely the fault of said customers. Companies set the prices, and if the industry is cannibalistic whose  fault is that?

 
Because there is a certain naivete among customers, they hold a company like Cakewalk to the same performance and price standards as an Apple or Microsoft. What Apple did to take over the Mac music software business makes sense from a business standpoint, but it reduced pricing to where no music industry company has the resources to compete (although frankly, SONAR seems to be having a lot fewer issues than El Capitan did ). All's fair in love, war, and capitalism, but as companies that can't compete drop off, customers have fewer choices. And when there's less competition, the remaining companies have less incentive to really push the envelope.

denverdrummer
I think Craig's comments on the complaints wasn't about the pricing structure, it's more from a standpoint of the cost of doing business, and when people expect a large elaborate display at NAMM what is that going to do for their sales?  If they could triple their sales figures it might be worth them doing something like that, but if not then it's a wasted expenditure.

 
Exactly. Unless a company's presence at NAMM produces enough orders to cover the cost of going, it's not worth it.
 

Paul P
Thanks for the inside view Craig.  It looks like the energy that everyone got caught up in the past has faded.  It used to be that those that went were excited to go and those of us left behind were just as excited to hear from them, as if we also were there.  This year there's only your somewhat gloomy trip report and total silence from Cakewalk.

 
Overall, the attendance set a new record (over 100K people) and don't get me wrong, there was a lot of exciting stuff but it was almost all about hardware, not software. I didn't get to see much of the show but there was quite a bit of interest. I'm going to look over the Harmony Central show report to see what I missed as soon as I debrief.
 

Whether or not it makes economic sense to be present at NAMM (and it looks like it's really expensive and also that software companies are teetering on the edge) it was a way to make a splash in person (that would get reported on within various online forums) and on youtube (I see there are at least two of Cakewalks's presence last year).  It was a fun time of the year which is now apparently gone.

 
It's not really gone as much as changed, and not necessarily for the worse. Yes, items appear in show reports and YouTube, but the the noise-to-signal ratio of social media is substantial. For example I don't know how many people will buy the Gibson Bass Collection expansion pack because they saw me on YouTube, but I suspect it's not very many...probably the video othat's on the Cakewalk site is more effective. It's still fun to drool over the cool new gear, but having that translate into purchases that support a trade show presence is the problem. Without getting too specific, to have the presence of a major manufacturer like Korg or whatever is going to cost at least $100K and more like $250-300K, not to mention the disruption of attending. There's nothing wrong with that if you can justify it, but in many cases there are better ways to spend that amount of money.
 
The overall economy is still not in great shape, but the real problem in our corner of the world is the fact that software can be stolen easily and without penalty. That remains an extremely serious problem. The irony is that if everyone who stole SONAR paid for SONAR, the price would drop much further than it is now, making it more affordable for everyone.

One thing is for sure . That 2016 Gibson ES 275 looks pretty good Yes,  I want one  .
 
Kenny

That's exactly the one I liked. I'm getting one:)
Plays and sounds great I only played it acoustically though.

Andrew, Noel, Craig, thanks very much for the background information.
In view of the reality my future postings shall be more useful respectful. Perhaps its we who should be ashamed...?
 
I certainly must confess to having had the illusion of Cakewalk Megacorp Inc., partly from the Brandon/Seth videos where they're broadcasting from the Cakewalk studios.
 
Makes you wonder what motivates guys like Bitwig to enter an already crowded market.