P-Theory
I love sonar I think its a fantastic product but I fully accept I'm trying to push water uphill with a rake in trying to convince the rest of the world this is the only platform that matters to professionals

 
Only better marketing strategies and more active user reviews/positive posts OUTSIDE the Cakewalk forums can improve Sonar's reputation. 

Look, if you have the engineering chops to turn out pro quality mixes, and master them yourself, it does not make all that much difference what DAW you are using for the most part. The issue raised by the OP was one that relates to moving your product to a "professional" collaborator/mix doctor or mastering expert. It may be quite true that many of the highly qualified people working in audio today are doing a lot of their work in a vacuum, and that they do not need the capability to share or open a full project in anything but their own favorite DAW.
 
It is also undoubtedly true that the days when song writers were using professional studios for making demos are coming to an end. The economics of both songwriting and studios, and the technical capability of inexpensive computer audio processing have changed dramatically. Since 2000 the number of professional song writers in Nashville has declined by 80%, for example, and the publishers who used to pay writers salaries and pick up the tab for demos are not the players that they once were.*
 
The ability of almost anyone to upload his music to the internet, regardless of the musical or technical quality, has dramatically increased the demand for affordable and easy to use DAW software. Many people who will never make a profit from their music now have access to quality processing that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the analog age. That is good news for Cakewalk sales, as it is for its competitors. Like it or not, many customers will choose another DAW that is less suitable to their needs just so they can say they have the "professional" software,  as they might buy a shoe that does not fit their foot because their favorite basketball star wears them.
 
Cakewalk is an excellent choice for the DIY composer/musician/recordist. Historically, it descended from a first rate sequencer that added audio capabilities, as compared to many of its competitors that added MIDI capability to a primarily audio application, and it remains strong in the MIDI/softsynth area. Cakewalk has made impressive efforts to broaden Sonar's appeal to a wide variety of musicians, or pander to the latest fads depending on your point of view.
 
Nonetheless, there clearly is a group who are going to find doing their work in Sonar inconvenient when they are trying to collaborate with someone using another DAW. The money cost of Sonar is negligible compared to the time cost of learning to use a DAW, and the time cost and technical limitations of modifying a Sonar project to move to and from another application is not insignificant. I personally do not see myself as quitting Sonar for a competitor, but I do not interact with "professionals" in the audio world. 
 
One issue to consider is that amateur collaborators may also need to standardize on one DAW. That could easily be Sonar, as there is certainly a large base of users out there, and there are very affordable versions available. But Sonar does not seem to have made major inroads into the academic music world. One does not see a lot of conservatories or music or recording programs in college building courses or labs/studios around Sonar. Many graduates of these programs, the very people who may be interested in collaboration, will have spent hundreds of hours learning to use another application. I suspect ProTools may be the academic favorite, but I do not have figures to prove it.
 
 
Many graduates will have purchased expensive software at affordable academic prices or as a "required text," for a course, which they continue to use for some time after graduation, and will likely upgrade that DAW.  Cakewalk could offer Sonar on a ridiculously low monthly academic rate, say free, and require proof of student eligibility yearly to keep the subscription current, offering upgrade pricing to graduates. That would have some appeal for cash strapped students. Unfortunately getting an associate adjunct professor of music at a college to spend hundreds of unpaid hours, that could better be spent tutoring undergraduates in skin flute techniques, learning a new DAW would probably not be easy. And it is faculty, not students, who need to be made happy in academia.
 
*http://copyright.gov/policy/musiclicensingstudy/copyright-and-the-music-marketplace.pdf
 
 

A friend of mine teaches Music Technology, in the Uk this was mainly to children from difficult backgrounds. His choice was Ableton, which I think suits his demographic, kids want to make Dupstep and stuff. He's now working with an organisation here in Vietnam to set be art of a creative workshops team. The idea of teaching creativity seems almost alien to many parents her, but they are coming around to it. A sidearm of my school is a franchise called Global Arts. and it feels me with joy to see so many parents not just investing in an English Education, but doing something that is not going to be directly linked to them studying Accountancy, Engineering and other 'Professional' qualifications. As English teachers here our methods are very different from those in the State schools, and trying to developing some opinion is a challenge. The only consistent creative endeavours that the kids seem to learn, is the Piano, about 10% of my classes.
 
Now here in Vietnam, Apple stuff is expensive, so PC is choice of establishments, There is no way my friend Dan would ever go for 10 Apple laptops to do his creative music workshops. (Laptops being the choice for portability and security (easier to lock away)). Keeping them maintained is far more accessible and their is a wealth of IT minded Vietnamese guys. Even with mobile phones, although I see iPhones, Samsung seems predominant, and repairable.
 
I always get the impression that when comments are made about Music Academia, it's in Music Schools. But at home the music department wouldn't have Apple computers in the state school, well they wouldn't have computers, but the IT classes would, and they would be PCs. I would have thought getting Sonar into schools such as State schools in the UK. would suit the music department more than Ableton (being it's image is primarily dance music), and being PC based would suit the IT departments. Throughout the 90's in the UK, Cubase was King, with Logic a close second, and cakewalk which I used was 'who?'.
 
So the market here in Vietnam is PC based with kids that parents focus on playing piano and reading music. The Vietnamese are obsessed with music. Everyone sings, no one feel uncomfortable about it. Diving around on my scooter I see guitar bags on back everywhere. And amusingly, Keyboards and amps and a passenger to hold them on scooters too.
 
Just last week we had a Vietnamese poster ask about an issue with 8.5. And theirs a guy from Kuala Lumper who posts here too (he seems to have a full working studio up near Batu Caves in KL
 
It would be nice to think of Sonars marketing being more active outside the US. ON the whole it still seems US centric, with UK and Japan tagged on.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I hate Mac elitism because most of the people who are guilty of it have no idea what they're talking about. That said, Mac DOES handle midi and audio better. CoreAudio is a great protocol that support aggregate devices and provides sample accurate timing on the OS level. Sadly we're still stuck with ASIO (and MME!) on PC. Also, Windows has a really dumb 10 midi device limit which becomes really problematic if you switch ports or gear often. I have a Traktor controller, Maschine, an APC40, a Roland midi keyboard, a USB-midi cable, a Fast Track Pro audio/midi interface and sometimes I use a Behringer X32 or a FireFace 800 on location. In practice, I'm constantly uninstalling drivers and using a utility to delete their entries from the registry.

I hear that this is going to be fixed in Windows 10. But it will probably be a while before I'm running on that.

There is also, not anecdotally but generally, less "tweaking" to do on Mac. Which is why every singer/songwriter I know walks around with a Macbook and Garageband.

I haven't tweaked anything on my laptop yet, I think it was more necessary pre windows 8 and the lower RAM amounts you'd find in off the shelf laptops in the past.
 
I lived with 3 mac guys who would always talk about how they never had issues with Macs and couldn't fault them, 2 of which had never owned a PC. But put them in a room together with out a PC user about, and then the complaints and issues would role. I heard so many times that offices with PC's need an IT guy, but Macs are so good, that they don't have them. Which was funny being my friend  Kree is and has been an IT support guys for a number of Mac only graphic design companies.
 One day Kree fecked up a system issue, bug style. His manager called him up to find out what went wrong. He told him that it stemmed from someone in the office looking at porn. It wasn't true, but he knew his manager looked at porn. His manager congratulated him on finding the root of the issue, and nothing more was said

I would wager that the demographics of who has bought SONAR is split significantly different than the over use of "professional" implies, yet this seems to be thrown about rather cavalierly.

I know lots and lots of professional MUSICIANS who use Macs simply because they feel they're better suited for music work, even though they wouldn't be able to tell a midi track from an audio track.

 Maybe it is true that Sonar isn't going to be the choice of the professionals, for the reasons mentioned above.  However, it doesn't necessarily need to be.
 
I think Sonar will do just fine being sold to people like me.  I'm a hobbyist, mainly recording covers currently.  I don't make money from whatever I put out.  I'm doing it purely for fun.  I was originally using Studio One Free, which I'll be honest I liked a lot.  However, the free version doesn't allow 3rd party plugins or VSTi's, and doesn't include any EQ.  Had the Producer version of Studio One been affordable or available on a monthly payment, I would have gone for that.  However I don't have a great deal of "disposable" cash, so Sonar's monthly membership really grabbed my attention.
 
I had tried Reaper, and although I like the way they do things, I didn't like the DAW much.  I found it crashed a lot, but that could possibly be my laptop.

I went for the Professional version of Sonar, and for just over £12 per month I get a hell of a lot for that.  Plus, if I want to I can stop paying after 12 months and the software is mine.  Or I can carry on paying the same price and upgrade to platinum.  So thanks to how they're doing things, Cakewalk have managed to get somebody to convert from another DAW.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.

If there was only one DAW in the world, I'd use it. I'd just hope it would be SONAR :)
 
[Just realized I wrote the last post of mine in the Atlanta airport, and this one in the Madrid airport. Isn't the internet great?!?!]

kevmsmith81
 Maybe it is true that Sonar isn't going to be the choice of the professionals, for the reasons mentioned above.  However, it doesn't necessarily need to be. 
 

+1
If I were selling audio software, and was given the choice between being the only supplier of software to professionals who actually make their living doing music, as opposed to being the only supplier to people who either do not or who never expect to do so, I would certainly go for the wannabe/amateur market. If your only customer were the true professionals, you would have a hard time staying in business.