Jeff Evans
Something similar happened around the time that Apple took over Logic. Up until that point I had spent thousands on the program itself plus I bought all the instruments one by one and paid a high price for all that. Even so I was happy with what I had. Then Apple took it over, removed it from the Windows environment, put the whole program out for $200 and included all the instruments free of charge at the same time! I was a bit annoyed at the time as well.
What can you do? Not much really apart from move on I guess. So it's not the first time something like this has happened.
Indeed. New users were happy it was so cheap, long-time users were miffed, stores that sold Logic were distressed, companies selling Mac software that didn't have hundreds of billions of dollars in the bank were devastated...especially those who had supported the Mac through thick and thin, like the Gil Amelio years. I talked to one company that felt Apple might as well have said "Thanks for your loyalty and support, we really appreciate it!! Now go out of business - it's not
our fault you weren't smart enough to make iPhones."
Seems to me that BandLab is adopting the Microsoft model and the original intention behind lifetime updates: You get the core for free, then pay for the extras you want. It doesn't really hurt anyone, helps a lot of people (those dependent on Cakewalk continuing to exist), and will allow more people more options. Works for me.
I suspect we'll also see more and more people using more than one program. After a period of mutual appropriation of features, I see music software programs diverging to the point where people will "double" on programs even more than they do now.