Paid for Lifetime Updates and I think this move was brilliant.   Cakewalk will become the most used DAW worldwide very soon.   I can't see Avid or Steinberg matching this offer or business model. 
 
The next step should be education.  Teaching all the new users how to use Cakewalk.  If really good tutorial videos make their way onto Youtube, Cakewalk will be adopted by the masses.  Think about it if you were a band starting out, this is clearly the best option financially for you to start.   Way more professional and powerful than GarageBand.  This is going to be a game changer.  In the next update if they can figure out a way to integrate Project 5 easily into Cakewalk it could become a Fruity Loops killer too.

One thing comes to mind about this,,, I used to pay $1,)))))) of dollars for a reverb unit, a sequencer, a tape deck , a, well you know the rest, It's become cheaper and cheaper and ya, now it's free. ,,, get over it. I won't bore you with the $1))))) of dollars it used to have to spend to record just 4 tracks.....and you can stop boring me with your issue you have about it being free... 

BMOG
What in the hell is going on so I have spent money from as far back as cakewalk, to 8.5 all the way up to a lifetime member and Bandlab just gives it away for free????? I was told the free version is the latest version of Splat minus 3rd party plugins WTF again I say! That has to the ultimate middle finger to loyal members of this DAW!

Not a middle finger at all since it is another company doing this.  Bandlab has nothing to do with cakewak loyalty.  any loyalty was to cakewalk . It is up to Bandlab to earn loyalty basdd on own merits

So let's see, a few hours ago your very expensive DAW was totally obsolete with no support and no future. Now the basic version of your DAW is free, suddenly has about 40 developers working on it and it suddenly has a few million new users, and you are complaining? What about the value you got out of it while it was a paid-DAW? The court would argue there was fair exchange. But more importantly, the DAW seems to have an actual chance of survival now. And don't worry, you'll get plenty of chances to pay for stuff in the future - don't kidd yourself ;O)

LJB
 suddenly has about 40 developers working on it

 
Where did you get that idea from?

Well, there's about 10 times more staff in the Bandlab pic. So maybe it now has FIVE developers working on it and the rest is marketing - that's about 10 times more than a month ago ;O) Not really the point though.

I go way back to Cakewalk 4, and updated through to 2017. I agree with msmcleod - Cakewalk was dead, now it isn't - so I'm happy. If Mengs marketing model drives new customers in, and keeps it alive, i'm very happy. 
And don't forget Computer Music magazine was giving away Sonar Home Studio for free last October. Not a huge difference to Plat without the add-ons. 
 

Hell, the bible bashers have turned up now! I've been on the upgrade path too and paying my way. Last time I did that was when I bought the lifetime deal. I got 11 months out of that before Cakewalk went down.
 
Looking on the bright side, I don't have to pay for an update again so in a kind of mystical way I got my free lifetime deal after all. Meng doesn't seem to be a slouch in the Business world so I imagine there is a good reason he is making it free. Of course, if this multiplies the user base by a magnitude which it is likely to do, development will scale up too which means that it will improve at a faster rate than before. This all seems very advantageous.
 
In a nutshell, Bandlab has every right to do as they please with all the Cakewalk property that THEY PAID FOR. You don't get to dictate or complain about what they do with it. You do get to choose whether you use it or not - for free.

I paid for a lifetime subscription and in return got months and months of updates and new features for my money.
If Sonar remained as abandonware, I still would be using it and still getting my initial money's worth.
But now Bandlab is starting from scratch.  They have picked up the ball dropped by Gibson and are now running with it.  I suspect they will start adding even more updates and features (ones I haven't yet paid for), and I will happily continue to use what I already paid for, and have the choice to use new features that will be offered.

If you want to get caught up in semantics, then yes, you'll soon be paying for new features that "you should have" been getting for free with your old "Lifetime updates".  But through no fault of their own, Bandlab has saved Sonar from oblivion, while at the same time attempting to honor the folks who paid for a lifetime subscription.  Meaning that we won't get double charged for features we already paid for!   In a perfect world Gibson/Cakewalk would have survived and we'd be getting lifetime updates for free until we croak.   But sh*t happens and we're faced with a new reality.  I'm satisfied with all the updates and features I already got with my "lifetime" subscription, and I'm greatly relieved that Cakewalk won't stop working now if MS releases a Windows update that might've screwed Sonar up.

I choose to see it as a good thing and I don't feel like I've been screwed or taken advantage of.  But obviously others will try and make the WORST out of this situation.  And quite honestly, this kind of petty bickering and open hostility makes it seem more like people fighting about politics than a simple change in ownership of DAW software.
Make music and let it go, you'll be much happier and live longer!

Not Platinum Full with all the plugins. As you know, all the plugins you bought will run perfectly in the current version so you will not need to spend any more money on it. In other words, your money was well invested. You will be very well equipped with prochannel modules and purchased plugins that have invested your hard earned money. Do not worry, you're still at an advantage ... Fortunately I was able to use my studio account after all. The result is that my Sonar 2018 is far superior to 2017. All the tools we pay in the studio are available. It is intact only much better!