It's not a subscription, no matter how you WANT to see it.
 
You can't make a car a squirrel just because you "see" it that way.
 

 
TO the OP: Have you read none of the information from CW? Nor ANY of the hundreds of responses to exactly your questions?
 
Pay 149, or take advantage of the CW sponsored MONTHLY PAYMENT PLAN.
 
Better yet, go to your bank, borrow 149, pay for Sonar, then complain to the bank about paying your monthly subscription.

I think Positively Charged is Negatively Charged!  This is due to the loss of an electron!

lfm

Positively Charged

I think this "new way" Cakewalk is taking is for the better. More and more fixes and addons have come from people here on this forum, which (in my mind) is a sign of Cakewalk listening to their users.

I doubt the current pace is indefinitely sustainable.  For now, I'll try to be "cautiously optimistic".

If you get less optimistic - you can always stay away not renewing membership - this will tell Cakewalk somebody is not entirely happy here.
 
So you stay away until there is substantial news that is of value for you - and no penalty to re-enter.
And meanwhile you own your Sonar so far and can continue to use it.
 
There is a healthy dialog in this scheme.
- I like what you are doing, I'm renewing membership
- Not much happended last year, I stay away for a while waiting for something to happend...
 
Compare that to Avid ProTools support plan subscription which is - renew annualy or buy full new license if to come back to ProTools. Your old license is frozen indefinately.
 
Or rent ProTools monthly, which stops working as you stop paying.

 I don't think that is always the case. It could be finances from the end user's part.  People start taking on all of these monthly charges from other sources and they loose track of their finances.  Some people get very religious about their software and if it works they don't want to upgrade at all. (See WindowXP)

kitekrazy1

lfm

Positively Charged

I think this "new way" Cakewalk is taking is for the better. More and more fixes and addons have come from people here on this forum, which (in my mind) is a sign of Cakewalk listening to their users.

I doubt the current pace is indefinitely sustainable.  For now, I'll try to be "cautiously optimistic".

If you get less optimistic - you can always stay away not renewing membership - this will tell Cakewalk somebody is not entirely happy here.
 
So you stay away until there is substantial news that is of value for you - and no penalty to re-enter.
And meanwhile you own your Sonar so far and can continue to use it.
 
There is a healthy dialog in this scheme.
- I like what you are doing, I'm renewing membership
- Not much happended last year, I stay away for a while waiting for something to happend...
 
Compare that to Avid ProTools support plan subscription which is - renew annualy or buy full new license if to come back to ProTools. Your old license is frozen indefinately.
 
Or rent ProTools monthly, which stops working as you stop paying.

 I don't think that is always the case. It could be finances from the end user's part.  People start taking on all of these monthly charges from other sources and they loose track of their finances.  Some people get very religious about their software and if it works they don't want to upgrade at all. (See WindowXP)

Why would anyone want to see Windows XP? 

Anyone who thinks that the bakers are at some point going to run out of good ideas to implement hasn't spent much time in the features and requests forum. Nor are they keeping up with what other DAW makers are doing that cakewalk could not only emulate but improve upon. I love this new model. More new stuff faster and my annual outlay for it is similar (in the same Ballpark anyway...) to what it has been in years past. I also have an AVID PT12 subscription but this deal seems better because if I stop at some point with Cakewalk at least I still own something. Not so with AVID.
 
  

SDCyclist
Anyone who thinks that the bakers are at some point going to run out of good ideas to implement hasn't spent much time in the features and requests forum. Nor are they keeping up with what other DAW makers are doing that cakewalk could not only emulate but improve upon. I love this new model. More new stuff faster and my annual outlay for it is similar (in the same Ballpark anyway...) to what it has been in years past. I also have an AVID PT12 subscription but this deal seems better because if I stop at some point with Cakewalk at least I still own something. Not so with AVID.
 
  

 Let's put it this way. It make the developers more accountable to the end user.  Two or three updates and then a new paid release doesn't always make the end user happy. That was a major rant with Live 8. Now they have where you cant test the beta releases and they are updated more often.

I'm seeing a lot of good arguments that the current membership model is as good value, if not more so, than the previous model of buying an update every year. Probably true. (Ignoring my previously shared concerns about reliability, at least.)
 
What I don't think has been answered yet, is how it will work out for those of us that never did update every year, and don't intend paying $149 every year in future either.

Kylotan
I'm seeing a lot of good arguments that the current membership model is as good value, if not more so, than the previous model of buying an update every year. Probably true. (Ignoring my previously shared concerns about reliability, at least.)

 
I think we'll have the definitive answers about reliability well before the year is up. I suspect that on balance, it will be better to have a limited number of features generating a limited number of issues fixed quickly rather than having a large number of features generating a large number of issues fixed over months. At least that's the plan...
 

What I don't think has been answered yet, is how it will work out for those of us that never did update every year, and don't intend paying $149 every year in future either.

I suspect it will be very similar to how upgrades have worked in the past. If you're renewing, you get the least expensive rate. If you skipped a year, it costs a bit more. If you skipped two years, it costs more than if you skipped one year...same principle as it costs more to upgrade to a version 5.x from a version 1.x than a version 3.x. 

John
I think Positively Charged is Negatively Charged!  This is due to the loss of an electron!

Actually he would have to have gained 2 electrons.