This subscription model brought me into the 'Sonar' camp.  I had been an 'Adobe' user for years, but their greedy, insane subscription system led me to completely drop their products.  If they had adopted a system like this one, I would still be using their products.

Paul P
The article reads like Cakewalk wrote it.

There are only so many ways you can state facts.
 

flashdharma
This subscription model brought me into the 'Sonar' camp.  I had been an 'Adobe' user for years, but their greedy, insane subscription system led me to completely drop their products.  If they had adopted a system like this one, I would still be using their products.

Same here. I used to use Photoshop, but I switched to GIMP. I do miss some of Audition's noise reduction features but while more expensive, iZotope RX5 is much more capable and is a one-time purchase.
 
To be fair, though, Gibson uses the Creative Cloud so even though I don't use the programs, I've seen first-hand how the Adobe system can be beneficial for large corporations where everyone in the company has to be "on the same page" software-wise. Forcing everyone to update at the same time insures consistency, and as to pricing, it's actually more cost-effective than the way Adobe handled things before. If it was done the same way as SONAR with some people updating every month, some people waiting six months, some people buying the programs outright and never updating, etc. it could be a mess (although I don't think the Adobe products change as much over time as SONAR).
 
An important point Brian missed is that the Cakewalk model was developed with single-owner and small businesses in mind, although of course he couldn't have known that...nor has Cakewalk marketed that angle.

SONAR is Hire-purchase not rent.
ADOBE is taking rental.

Sonar Platinum really is The best DAW.
I swore by Cubase for many years but Sonar has surpassed it and made Cubase feel outdated in many ways.
Cubase is still a very competent contender at the top but Sonar really outshines it.
And that to me feels absolutely fantastic because I've been following Cakewalk since the 90's and allways felt it beeing promising but never really felt like a "pro" DAW. Cubase allways won me over from time to time.
So when comparing mixes between Cubase and Sonar today. Sonar sounds so much better when the mix is done and it feels so much smoother in its workflow.
Well done Cakewalk. You've done a fantastic job. From beeing a pretty clumsy,average DAW in the beginning,allways fighting Steinberg,to reach the No 1 position in hard competition. Thats no easy task. Hat's of. I salute you. Really.
Now if you guys could implement a tempo controll-bar worth its name. Thats easy to grab with real-time tempo changes while adjusting the tempo. I'm still a mouse-guy that likes touching and pulling stuff with my hand. :)

Hopefully SONAR gets it due in the form of support by 3rd party like SLATE (for the Raven) or many other "pro" lines of equipment that seem to leave Sonar off their "preferred" list.   I think SOnar is great and the new model has generated some excitement for me each month with the cool new features and performance improvements.  I've had nothing but excellent results (although had a small issue with the CSC  which was fixed!).   I am not sure why people are so nervous.  Its a great product and is VERY stable.  Also, as I read articles about some of the other DAWs, particularly once very "pro"pular one, I am always surprised that they tout their new features that Sonar already has had for years (like fast bounce for example and clip gain)!  I work in software / IT and understand this new "Agile" concept and it is the way of the future (although its been around for quite sometime) so there will be no getting away from this model soon anyway.  That said,   Sonar does a great job at providing new features while fixing all obvious issues quickly and then fixing other problems less obvious  but  that sem to effect enough in that "80%: group.  Basically IT company's focus on pleasing 80% of the base. That other 20% tend to effect smaller groups or less used features and don't always get the attention required (as they may not be "cost effective") but I think overall, Cakewalk does a real good job at maintaining the balance needed to provide a very feature rich and stable product  that we as musicians and engineers can count on.
 
NOTE:  I am still on Win 7 as I've experienced numerous Win 10 issues but not with Sonar. 

Working for a company that 'needs' a lot of Adobe CC licences (vicious circle: GIMP might be good enough but designers want to use the tools they're familiar with and recruit people with similar skills, not to mention file interchange compatability), the new method is an absolute killer financially.

If you need to use previous versions (very common when transferring files to third parties), you have to buy the CC Enterprise Licence, which is not cheap. You also have to carry on paying - unlike the Cakewalk model, thankfully - just to keep using an old version, whereas previously, you'd be able to buy one copy and keep it around forever. Moving the cost from capex doesn't always work well either (tax/depreciation reasons).

It's a good idea in theory, and does potentially allow you to scale up/down as and when needed, but in practice, it's only good for Adobe and if you're a snall company; medium or large user-bases get screwed.

So glad Cakewalk have given us a sane model with the best features of buy and rent in one.