Quick question, if I reg X3 Producer now, is there a grace period for a "automatic" update (the outright buy version I guess) to the latest version (which is what... Platinum)? I'm totally confused :P

tclark101

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

tclark101
"Any chance you read the FAQ before you posted this? This is a very customer friendly program."
 
My worry is that I will be paying $149 for the update -- THIS YEAR. 

After that, it looks like I will be expected to pay around $600 per year to keep up my Platinum Subscription. Is this correct? 

Nope. After a year, you can purchase upfront for $199 or renew monthly for $19.99/month. You will have had a year to decide if you think it's worth it. So does put the burden on us to provide value :)

That does sound nice, but what about third year, fourth year, etc? Is the $199 per year the currently-planned on-going price to maintain a Platinum Membership? That is, for all users, is the planned Platinum membership $499 first year (for new people), and $199 after that? 
 
Just trying to clarify if the plan will soon become $499 per year, every year, to maintain. 

New customers would pay $499 upfront (like they do today) or $49.99/month for 12 months for SONAR Platinum and then starting month 13, they'd get charged $19.99. There is no plan to bump everyone up to $49.99. After you renew or upgrade from SONAR Producer, you will only pay $19.99/month.

Not intending to sound impolite, but I keep hearing "next year $199" -- I know you don't want to commit the company to $199 forever, but is it envisioned that it will go much beyond $199 per year to maintain a Platinum Membership? 
 
That is, i can see it going to $219 or $229 in a couple years, but are you planning to eventually have long-term future maintenance be on the level of $499 per year?

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Scoot
A little underwhelmed due to the holiday sales meaning I'd be looking for XLN to release some new kits from me to benefit from that

One thing to keep in mind, Platinum comes with Addictive Drums 2 Producer Bundle. That means that even if you have some of the kits already, you can choose 3 more ADPaks, MIDIpaks and Kit Pieces. Also, the new Drum Replacer will be a Platinum feature. 

I have all the kits I want from them at the moment, hence the waiting for new kits to be made by xln. I on the fence with their percussion session, so if I got x4 pro, it would get me that one I guess. If I hadn't bought 4 kits in the holiday season sales, then platinum would look a bargain. 

Easy to see I can only use Sonar on "1" computer from now on end. Then the occasional rebuilding of the said "1" computer will need to hassle of reclaiming whatever token I have 'dongled-Sonar' to the internet. 

So, now, in the forum, we'll have lots of little incremental versions of software people might be posting with. Like 2015.69 or something. It's going to be a trick knowing all the differences between all the versions.
 
Will there be a public tracking of what changes between all the versions?

GeorgeZ
Quick question, if I reg X3 Producer now, is there a grace period for a "automatic" update (the outright buy version I guess) to the latest version (which is what... Platinum)? I'm totally confused :P

There is no grace period. We've been discounting SONAR for the past few months. New customers for example are only paying $329 right now. If you add in the price of the upgrade to Platinum, it's actually slightly cheaper than the street price of $499 for Platinum.

tclark101
Not intending to sound impolite, but I keep hearing "next year $199" -- I know you don't want to commit the company to $199 forever, but is it envisioned that it will go much beyond $199 per year to maintain a Platinum Membership? 
 
That is, i can see it going to $219 or $229 in a couple years, but are you planning to eventually have long-term future maintenance be on the level of $499 per year?

Well it used to be $79... then $99 unless you waited for a sale... then $149... and after this initial offer $199. So yeah, of course it will eventually go up. But they've raised the prices, slowly... so at least it will take a away before we're paying $499 a year to use Sonar.

SimpleManZ
Easy to see I can only use Sonar on "1" computer from now on end. Then the occasional rebuilding of the said "1" computer will need to hassle of reclaiming whatever token I have 'dongled-Sonar' to the internet. 

You can still install on multiple computers. This feels like a very cryptic message :)

tclark101
Not intending to sound impolite, but I keep hearing "next year $199" -- I know you don't want to commit the company to $199 forever, but is it envisioned that it will go much beyond $199 per year to maintain a Platinum Membership? 
 
That is, i can see it going to $219 or $229 in a couple years, but are you planning to eventually have long-term future maintenance be on the level of $499 per year?

I don't think that's the plan. We want to keep this simple. So moving forward there is only one renewal price, not the multiple upgrade paths we have now. We thought at least for the beginning it would be nice to give X3 customers a little break on the price. We also think $199 or $19.99 is a nice price point. I know I spend more than $20/month on worse things than DAW software :)