slartabartfast
It remains to be seen how popular SONAR will become. Those of us who have put $$$$$ into Cakewalk products over the years will be flabbergasted if it does not become a major force in the universe at the new price. On the other hand I recall a friend who was selling a litter of puppies for $1500.00 a piece. When I asked her why so much, she told me "No one would take them for free."
 
If SONAR does become a major player, then it will be in the interest of ancillary suppliers of software and hardware to prioritize testing and coordinating SONAR compatibility.  That is after all how they sell their stuff.

Well Ray Charles did record his last album with SONAR soooo...
 I'm pretty sure it's been on the map as a major player for quite some time now..

Steev

slartabartfast
If SONAR does become a major player, then it will be in the interest of ancillary suppliers of software and hardware to prioritize testing and coordinating SONAR compatibility.  That is after all how they sell their stuff.

Well Ray Charles did record his last album with SONAR soooo...
 I'm pretty sure it's been on the map as a major player for quite some time now..

The issue remains that for a fair number of ancillary product suppliers, it has not always been major enough to justify the testing and willingness to provide support that some of the other major players have received. SONAR has often been AWOL from lists of supported DAW's that these developers provide in descriptions of their products. In many cases the products will work in SONAR, of course, since SONAR adheres pretty closely to the de facto standards, but it has apparently not been seen as a marketing priority by many developers to confirm that fact for SONAR users.

It should be becoming clear that what we understand as 'the music industry' is in a contraction phase. In historical context - this is known as the rubberband effect. If you think about the way a rubberband behaves, you pull the band apart and at a particular point the rubberband can no longer be stretched. It's at this point - the rubberband contracts and contracts rather rapidly. My point being, music creation software is pretty much valueless. It's only companies like Presonus which got into the software market to support their hardware that are still making money. The music software companies still standing generally have strong hardware makers behind them. Logic and Apple, Cubase and Yamaha for example. Bandlab is trying to circumvent this paradigm with a different conceit which is the social media aspect.

Personally for me, I'm sticking with my paid version of Sonar for as long as possiable. I too have some problem with the concept of free. Even a nominal price like Reaper would be better than the current model. But again, this is the new model and paradgim. Fortunately all music making software these days is what I call mature - this is the wall that probably finished Cakewalk. Gibson failing didn't help, but Sonar worked (Yes not for some, but that was the owners fault and the choice of hardware) and had a full suite of tools - it was getting harder to sell the upgrades.

My only advice is hold tight, because in a market in contraction - there should be plenty of opportunities.