I find the new membership scheme quite confusing. I get that membership gives you always the most up-to-date version of Sonar, but how about additional content? What do I get and what I don't?
 
So basically, here are the things I'd want to find answers for:
 
1. If I start a new membership in the future, will I get all past additions and plugins as well (that has been released since Jan 2015) or do available additions change after some time has passed?
 
2. If available content changes, how do I know what is seasonal offering and what is not? For example, current what's new page shows content like AD2 drums (which I would have expected to be included on Professional + Platinum deals regardless of the membership offerings).
 
If all content is always additional, that would also mean that people that wait longer, get more content.
 
edit->changed the wording on the first question, it was not about starting a new membership today exactly, but more of a general idea what happens when you do that, be it six months from now or year or two.

risu
...If all content is always additional, that would also mean that people that wait longer, get more content.
 

 
Nothing has changed. If you had Sonar X1, skipped X2, and then waited longer for X3, you would also get more content.
 
Walt

For example, if you skipped over X3 Producer, you missed AD1/AD2 studio pack. But if you had X3 Producer and updated to current Platinum, you get to keep existing AD packs and get 3 more.
 
That's the kind of thing I'm after here. If you miss some updates, will you miss some of the offered content? I'd like to find/hear some official statement how for example third party content will be introduced/replaced/phased out in the future.
 
Because, I've tried to read this stuff from the main site and these forums, but I haven't seen any clear roadmap how they plan to do this (other than giving vague list of things to come, but no real indication how much/what content exactly we would be getting with the membership we are paying for).

The Content Club offerings were only available to users of X2. I do not believe that content was given to people that skipped X2 and bought X3. The situation will be the same going forward. Certain content will only be made available to current members. The product was released a little over 2 weeks ago so it seems a little early to expect member specific content.

risu
For example, if you skipped over X3 Producer, you missed AD1/AD2 studio pack. But if you had X3 Producer and updated to current Platinum, you get to keep existing AD packs and get 3 more.
 
That's the kind of thing I'm after here. If you miss some updates, will you miss some of the offered content? I'd like to find/hear some official statement how for example third party content will be introduced/replaced/phased out in the future.
 
Because, I've tried to read this stuff from the main site and these forums, but I haven't seen any clear roadmap how they plan to do this (other than giving vague list of things to come, but no real indication how much/what content exactly we would be getting with the membership we are paying for).

LOL!
 
Contact Ford Motor Company and ask them what there plans are for 2016, 2017 and beyond.
 
Would you REALLY expect them to tell you? Yes, car designers are usually working on 2016 models just about the time the 2014 model is introduced, but the concept is the same, you'll not know what new features exist or are planned until they are introduced.
 
With that in mind, there is THIS.

Go to this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will find that CW has answers to all your questions.
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Membership

The content that is generated by Cakewalk is only for current members. If you have a membership in 2015, then drop it, then start up again in 2017, you'll have all the 2016 feature updates you missed but will not receive the Cakewalk content that went to members in 2016.
 
The idea is that the content will be sufficiently cool that it will represent yet another reason to renew at the end of the year. 
 
There is also some talk about making content available for purchase to non-members. Brian Hardgroove's Bass Loop Library will be part of the membership benefits, but the loops are really good and there's no reason why people using other DAWs shouldn't be able to buy them. If that happens, then some back content will be available for sale and you can pick it up that way.
 
One reason why I'm not giving a lot of advance notice of what I have planned is that it's subject to change without notice. At the last minute I came up with a couple things that are now slated for the February update. I had no idea I was going to do them back in January. The ability to turn on a dime and respond to user sentiment and requests is one of the reasons I'm stoked about the membership concept.

bapuContact Ford Motor Company and ask them what there plans are for 2016, 2017 and beyond.
 
Would you REALLY expect them to tell you?

 
Kinda, if I was paying for it. I wouldn't buy a car blindly in advance either, not at least knowing what kind of car it will be.. On Sonar membership, we are really not paying for the main product again if we already have a license to it, and we all know what Sonar is. We are paying for keeping it up-to-date and on Professional (+$50 when compared to Artist) and Platinum (+$150) memberships we pay a lot especially for the extra content (as base features are almost the same on all editions). How will one know beforehand that +$150 for the possible content itself is worth it?
 

Grem
Go to this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will find that CW has answers to all your questions.
 
 

 
I'm aware of that page you linked, but that's all the information I could find for this topic so far. If it did answer to my questions, this topic wouldn't exist :) There are no answers to my two main questions from the first post.
 
Previously, when we had numbered releases, it was all clear what the previous content was and what you were getting with the new version, what was left out and when. Now with the membership you basically pay up front for the same thing, but as you don't really know what you are paying for, you can't do more that just hope that Cakewalk will roll out updates and content that's valuable for you as an individual. Also, as I write this, every shop seem to just list currently available content as it all was the base content for the product with no indication of that current offerings may only be available for limited time so it's hard to predict how things will evolve in the future.
 
Anyways, this thread is not about making a rant of the new business model but more about how it's supposed to work in practice. I hope they'll get a better road map for things to come and what people could expect to get with their memberships.

risu
On Sonar membership, we are really not paying for the main product if we already have a license to it, and we all know what Sonar is. We are paying for keeping it up-to-date and on Professional (+$50 when compared to Artist) and Platinum (+$150) memberships we pay a lot especially for the extra content (as base features are almost the same on all editions). How will one know beforehand that +$150 for the possible content itself is worth it?Also, as I write this, every shop seem to just list currently available content as it all was the base content for the product with no indication of that current offerings may only be available for limited time so it's hard to predict how things will evolve in the future.
 
Anyways, this thread is not about making a rant of the new business model but more about how it's supposed to work in practice. I hope they'll get a better road map for things to come and what people could expect to get with their memberships.

I think a lot of people are overlooking a VERY important point. The current upgrade fee is what brings you from X3e to SONAR 2015. That includes multiple new features, new content, hundreds of bug fixes, and many significant workflow enhancements that become obvious only when you start working with SONAR. Noel has written a huge document detailing the workflow enhancements that happened "under the hood" as well as listing over 100 of the most significant bugs. This will be published within a few days at most in the Cakewalk blog; don't miss it.
 
So that's what your upgrade buys. BUT you also get the next 12 months of membership as part of the deal. So you will have a year to decide if what's offered justifies renewing your membership, because it will be representative of the minimum you'll be able to expect in the year ahead.
 
IMHO the analogy to buying a car isn't really appropriate. A better analogy is you buy a 2015 model year car knowing what's in it, but the car dealer says "as part of your purchasing the 2015 model, if you bring it back every month, we'll install some feature that's going to be in the 2016 model." I don't think anyone would say "Well why should I do that if I don't know what's going to be in the 2016 model?"

risu
but no real indication how much/what content exactly we would be getting with the membership we are paying for).

You are getting ALL extra stuff for free, if you buy Sonar, which is what you are paying for.