John T
Also, it's not the case that you have to commit in 12 month blocks. You have to commit to an initial 12 month block, and then after that, it rolls over month by month.

No. I have talked to support and they have said that after your 12 months, new 12 months period begins and you have to pay for 12 months again to have this new updates staying with you. So if they have not changed their mind, you can't pay for the yeah and then prolongate it for a few months. If you stop paying you will have only first year updates. I've said them that they will have much trouble describing this to the customers in January 2016, because there is no information about this anywhere.

Hi Anton-

Adq

John T
Also, it's not the case that you have to commit in 12 month blocks. You have to commit to an initial 12 month block, and then after that, it rolls over month by month.

No. I have talked to support and they have said that after your 12 months, new 12 months period begins and you have to pay for 12 months again to have this new updates staying with you. So if they have not changed their mind, you can't pay for the yeah and then prolongate it for a few months. If you stop paying you will have only first year updates. I've said them that they will have much trouble describing this to the customers in January 2016, because there is no information about this anywhere.

I thought that was the way it was going to work, but it seems to contradict what Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk] said back in January:
 

You wil continue to keep everything you own after the 12th month. So say you continue to renew for 6 more months and then decide for whatever reason that you don't want to be a member, you'd keep everything you received up until month 18. However, once you opt out, you'd have to do another 12 month membership or pay upfront.

 
From <http://forum.cakewalk.com/Introducing-the-new-SONAR-New-lineup-new-features-plus-membership-m3144654-p3.aspx#3144792> 
 
Now I'm confused (again!)
Thanks-
 
-Susan

Hm, it is very strange really. The biggest problem is that such things should be written by large font somewhere on the product page, and not be described on the forums, or by support, where it is easy to make mistake. Here support answer i've got:
 

1. I pay for 1 year, and then for 4 months.
 
This is normal. In this case, the latest version you owned during the first year will be permanently unlocked. If you only pay for 4 months after that, all the versions in those four months will be reverted to demo mode should you cancel your membership at that point. 
 
2. I pay for 16 months.
 
This is the same situation as above. I take this to mean that you paid monthly for 16 months in a row. In this case, the latest version you owned during the first 12 months of payments will be permanently unlocked after the 12th payment is made, but any versions after that will revert to demo mode unless you pay for another full 12 months.
 
3. I pay for 4 months and then for 1 year.
 
This will permanently unlock the latest version you pay for. Since the material from the first 4 months will also be included with the material that is part of the following year, you get everything from all the updates permanently unlocked because the 1 year payment starts your membership over. So assuming you pay 4 months, then pay for a full year up front, then cancel your monthly membership, this will permanently unlock the latest version you own during your entire membership.
 
I hope that clears everything up for you! Let me know if you still need more info.
Best regards,
Joey Adams
Product Support
Cakewalk, Inc.
http://www.cakewalk.com | http://www.cakewalk.com/support

Hi Anton-
 
I agree that the policy needs to be spelled out very clearly and they all need to get on the same page to avoid any more/future confusion. I'm guessing that Andrew's post predates Joey's reply to you, but there certainly seems to be a contradiction there.
 
Thanks-
 
-Susan

Susan G
I agree that the policy needs to be spelled out very clearly and they all need to get on the same page to avoid any more/future confusion. I'm guessing that Andrew's post predates Joey's reply to you, but there certainly seems to be a contradiction there.

Yes, this reply was in June. But it is unlikely that something was changed. It seems that somebody in Cakewalk was confused by their own conspiracy :) I hope this will be resolved soon, thank you for revealing it.

I think your use of the word 'conspiracy' carries very negative undertones.

Bristol_Jonesey
I think your use of the word 'conspiracy' carries very negative undertones.

I'm very sorry, could not find suitable word...

If you paid for 12 months up front, you received a discounted price and your subscription ends after 12 months. You must then renew for another 12 months.
 
If you chose monthly payments you paid a little more for the subscription but the subscription does not end unless you cancel or default on payment. You must continue the subscription for 12 consecutive months in order to keep Sonar. After the initial 12 months monthly payment goes up to $19.95 a month. But you can cancel anytime after the initial 12 months and keep everything up until you decide to cancel.
 
If you are on a monthly subscription it continues until you cancel.
 
That was how it was initially explained. 
 

Doktor Avalanche
The big surprise for me was there was no drum maps UI replacement ;)

(OK that's twice in one month, toning it down..)

 

Anderton
Actually they have a complete new drum maps UI debugged and ready to go, but there's an internal bet going on within Cakewalk about how many more times you'll bring it up.

RD9
I think it is patently unfair that the rest of us are punished for the Dr's persistence.  Maybe CW could release the new Drum Map UI now to everyone but him.  Then he could fume while he reads our posts about how great it is
On the other hand maybe we should keep the present Drum map UI; It makes me a bit nostalgic for the good old days when I used to write machine code on an Ohio Scientific 6502 I built from a kit.  Those were the days!!

 
I am considering all my drum maps moans to be subscription based. After 12 months I move in with my drumkit.

At the start of the membership program, we had two alternative ways to pay for ongoing updates. One option was to pay a monthly amount. The other option was to pay for 12 months in a lump sum up front. That was attractive because the pay all at once price was a bit less than the sum of 12 monthly payments. I'm assuming the upcoming renewal will likely also have a price differential, with full year paid ahead being less total cost then the monthly payment alternative. I don't think I've seen an official announcement for the 2016 choices and prices (which don't automatically have to be the same as 2015), but I haven't felt a need to search for details. I will be interested to know if my guess is right.