BMOG

Teds_Studio
I have not read thru every post in the thread....but for those of us who make our living with software, I don't think $150 a year is that much of a cost for the benefits we get.  Plus....it's totally tax deductible :) .  OTOH...if music is a hobby...I can see where someone would rather buy the software...pay for it once...and just use it and not worry about updates if the software works for them.

Tax deductible can you explain more on this please?

Disclaimer: This does not substitute for advice from an accountant, as individual situations differ.
 
If you are self-employed and file a Schedule C, you can legitimately deduct "expenses necessary in order to incur income." For example if you create commercials using SONAR, you need SONAR to create those commercials and generate income, which makes it a business expense and therefore deductible. However you have to be careful if you're splitting with personal use, such as deducting a portion of your rent for a home office. The home office has to be used exclusively for business. Utilities are also difficult because you have to estimate the portion devoted to your business. The IRS can question the validity of your estimates and allow or disallow them. 
 
Similarly, you can deduct the cost of replacing a light bulb if that light bulb is in your home office which you use only for business, but you can't deduct the light bulb in your living room.
 
The odds of being audited increase if you're self-employed and file a Schedule C. However, I've been audited twice and ended up getting money refunded. I was audited because something about my return wasn't "right." It turned out what wasn't "right" was a math error on my part.

UK note: What Craig says is very similar here in the UK, but I'd add an important caveat for UK taxpayers claiming a proportion of their home expenses as business if that home is freehold, i.e. owned outright.  If you sell your house then there is no Capital Gains Tax due if it's your main residence, except HMRC can seek to levy CGT on the theoretical gain made on the home office or studio based on the proportion of utilities costs you've been claiming in the past!

Hello all.  Long time Sonar user here (since v2).
 
I am yet to upgrade to Platinum, currently I could for a mere £98, but I won't be taking up the offer.
This is because for me, I've not seen what I consider to be crucial and fundamental elements of Sonar updated.  Yet.
 
Now, rather than moan and gripe and get frustrated that Cakewalk haven't addressed these areas, and moan and gripe that with each monthly update things get broken etc, I simply decided that I would continue to make music
with the fantastic tools I already have, and wait to see how Cakewalk develop Sonar over time.
 
Maybe Sonar 2016 will entice me over the coming months, maybe not.
But the point is, it's okay to skip versions and not renew subscriptions.  It's okay 

I bought my update outright will I still receive a service but I agree that you do not have to update everytime a new version of sonar comes out. I got X1, X2 and Platinum. Couple more updates for platinum and I will be fine!

Skyline_UK
UK note: What Craig says is very similar here in the UK, but I'd add an important caveat for UK taxpayers claiming a proportion of their home expenses as business if that home is freehold, i.e. owned outright.  If you sell your house then there is no Capital Gains Tax due if it's your main residence, except HMRC can seek to levy CGT on the theoretical gain made on the home office or studio based on the proportion of utilities costs you've been claiming in the past!

There is a similar law in the US. This is why it's essential for anyone to use a professional accountant if they want to enter the labyrinth of self-employment tax laws.

To give an update I finally upgraded every option for the first time. Normally I focus on the Platinum version and that is it but I chose everything most of it I won't use but if that was my last update for a while I wanted everything. I am extremely pleased with Kingston, I was getting errors opening old projects from X1-X3 not anymore and the increased speed is great.  Just to bring clarity my original post my subscription will end in March not December, I assumed December because I upgraded to Platinum in December 

Paul P

BMOG
Great point about paying for cable

Who has time to watch tv these days ?  I cancelled my cable tv years ago since I only used it to watch the SuperBowl and get info on the latest natural or man-made disaster.  I do have cable for the Internet, but without that I couldn't even run Sonar.
 

I am leaning towards Hulu and Netflix and letting cable TV go, sports was my main reason for keeping cable but now that I see how much money has corrupted all sports it is not fun to watch anymore

BMOG
 
I am leaning towards Hulu and Netflix and letting cable TV go, sports was my main reason for keeping cable but now that I see how much money has corrupted all sports it is not fun to watch anymore

Not on-topic...but +1000. I cut the cable; Netflix, YouTube, and over the air TV provide what I need.

Anderton

NeoSoul

Anderton

BMOG
 
$150 times forever adds up over time don't you think? 

Yes, no doubt it does add up. In fact 35 years from now, it will have added up to what I paid (adjusted for inflation) for a 4-track tape recorder in 1975 which had no mixer, no processors, no instruments, and a need to feed it $156 worth of tape every month. (No, that's not a typo...35 years.)

I really enjoy using Sonar.   But it is quite an unfair comparison.  Sonar doesn't do anything without a computer + audio interface

 
I think very few people dedicate a computer exclusively to SONAR (even though they should, LOL). They are amortizing the expense of that computer over multiple applications. All a tape recorder could do was push tape.
 

The $150 is also just an update cost.  To start the process, sonar costs $500 for the version under question.

 
Consider the price I quoted for my monthly expense for tape. You can't run a tape recorder without tape...over a year, that would more than cover the $500, as well as $150 updates for 8+ years.
 

I personally thought it was odd that the developers came out with Rapture Pro, but didn't add that to the premium product, they just provided a stripped down version, and offer it as a separate purchase. Even Apple gave Logic users (a full DAW that costs $200, and even includes plgins like drummer) the Alchemy Synth as a free add on, not some stripped down version.

 
When you want to dominate a market, have $200,000,000,000 in cash on hand, and more importantly hefty profit margins on the computers people have to buy to run your software, you can take certain liberties with pricing. Remember that the goal of Logic is to induce you to buy a computer.
 

The same can be said for some of the pro-channel models they have released on the side.  The model has changed, why not start including those in the package, especially since they are of no value to anyone but Sonar users.

 
Because developing software and paying licensing fees to third party developers is not free. The more things SONAR includes, the higher the price will have to be to cover the extra expenses. Then people would complain about "I have Omnisphere, why do I have to pay for Rapture Pro? And I already have the Waves Mercury Suite of plug-ins and UA's Powered Plug-Ins. Why should I have to pay for more ProChannel modules I won't use?"
 
If you don't think that would happen, look at all the people here complaining that they don't want to pay money for particular features they don't use. It's a balancing act. No matter what Cakewalk does or does not include, their choices will satisfy some people and not others. To stay in business, all they have to do is make sure that most people are satisfied.
 
 
 

The easiest approach to making a small fortune in any niche market is to start with a large one.