Team Green
 
 
   Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!  It will now become The Industry Standard!

My feelings exactly!!! 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

JoeOss
I smell a rat - Nothing is free!! Watch this space.

The program itself is indeed free, no catches as hard as that might be to believe. You can thank Meng for his philanthropic philosophy of making great music production software available to all. You are however welcome to contribute and support the cause for future development of Cakewalk here and even get some free swag for it.
 
https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk/rewards 

Sorry Noel, I'm not buying the philanthropic thing, and I can't believe you would make that statement. If he really wanted to help he'd just send an unlocker so all of us who have bought Platinum can install it forever without Meng's permission, or he could make it available for all to download without signing up for Bandlab and using its online activation nonsense.
 
With these procedures, it's clearly not free, no matter what you call it. There will be some mechanism of monetization, as there always is, and to pretend otherwise is kinda rude. Ads? Probably... selling of information? Most likely... Holding the program I and many others depend on to make a living hostage? You bet ya....
 
Sorry, just trying to keep it real...

It's cool that Cakewalk is free, but didn't Meng tell us that it would be free to SONAR/Cakewalk customers and that's why we were required to sign up at BandLab so our accounts would migrate over and qualify us for Cakewalk for free.  If it is free to everyone, then we really didn't have to transfer our accounts (with our email add's) to BandLab, just create new ones when/now that Cakewalk is available.  It just seems a little disingenuous even though it was innocuous.
 
Kind regards,
 
tecknot

Mugs $50, T-shirts $100, name coded into the software $1,000. That's how this thing pays for itself?
 
Man I hate the 21st century.

tecknot
It's cool that Cakewalk is free, but didn't Meng tell us that it would be free to SONAR/Cakewalk customers and that's why we were required to sign up at BandLab so our accounts would migrate over and qualify us for Cakewalk for free.  If it is free to everyone, then we really didn't have to transfer our accounts (with our email add's) to BandLab, just create new ones when/now that Cakewalk is available.  It just seems a little disingenuous even though it was innocuous.
 
Kind regards,
 
tecknot

I think us Cakewalk owners will have software migrated to the new servers and that is why we are to sign up at Bandlab. Rapture Pro, z3ta+ 2 etc.....

release the Kraken!!!!!....

eikelbijter
Sorry Noel, I'm not buying the philanthropic thing, and I can't believe you would make that statement. If he really wanted to help he'd just send an unlocker so all of us who have bought Platinum can install it forever without Meng's permission, or he could make it available for all to download without signing up for Bandlab and using its online activation nonsense.
 
With these procedures, it's clearly not free, no matter what you call it. There will be some mechanism of monetization, as there always is, and to pretend otherwise is kinda rude. Ads? Probably... selling of information? Most likely... Holding the program I and many others depend on to make a living hostage? You bet ya....
 
Sorry, just trying to keep it real...

From Meng's announcement:
"We have an aggressive vision here at BandLab – and that is a world in which there are no barriers, physical, geographical or technical to the making and sharing of music. For the millions of creators already on BandLab in more than 180 countries around the world – this vision continues to develop every time we push a new release."
I can't tell you what to believe but BandLab has been doing this for 4 years and hasn't wavered from this theme.
 
An general unlocker for platinum is not really up to BandLab to give away since there are 3rd party license agreements in the platinum bundle that BandLab is not liable for. BandLab acquired the IP for Cakewalk products not the other stuff that was redistributed by Cakewalk, Inc as part of the platinum bundle.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
 
An general unlocker for platinum is not really up to BandLab to give away since there are 3rd party license agreements in the platinum bundle that BandLab is not liable for. BandLab acquired the IP for Cakewalk products not the other stuff that was redistributed by Cakewalk, Inc as part of the platinum bundle.

A computer independent unlocker for purchased Cakewalk, Inc stuff (only) would be the next best thing, IMO.
 
Especially since, in my case, I own fully licensed versions of AD2, TH3, Rematrix, Melodyne, BlueTubes, BREVERB 2 et. al.

But I do see the complications that need to be worked out.
 
ATM I have X1, X2, X3 and SONAR Platinum installed so that I can make use of older 3rd party stuff I may not have purchased.

Can we at least give it a fair shake before trashing? We have nothing to lose.  many of us have some form of backup DAW or two anyway. I am excited that a DAW i have used for a long time is back from what seemed like the dead. i have no clue what  their longterm gameplan is, but i am guessing that not having to pay for initial development affords them a little leeway in launch. This practically ensures loyal customers stick around and may turn a few new heads.