aidanodr
So Andrew,
 
I upgrade my Sonar X3 Producer to Platinum via the $149 one off payment. I get 1 year membership for the following 12 months. My choices then are:
 
1. Stop subscribing,own the Platinum outright with updates ONLY up to that point
2. Continue subscription via another yearly sub of $149 or greater ( after intro offer ) in perpetuity 
3. Continue subscription via monthly sub of $14.99.
 
If one chooses option 3 could one dip in and out and get updates at that time and up to that time? Say, decide to just pay sub every two months or every 3 months skipping the months in between? So only sub for months where an update is seen as useful. 
 
Game dev software UNREAL ENGINE works this way - dip in / out

No, if you decide to go renew at a monthly basis you will need to pay for 12 months to own everything you are receiving as part of the new renewal. If you opt out, you'll revert back to the version you paid for before you renewed.

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

What stinks? The "membership" pricing? You can just pay for a full upgrade which seems to be the same prices they were for the X3 upgrade and you get a full license. It's the exact same thing. The subscription thing is for those who just want to pay less on a monthly basis.
 
If they had forced everyone to a subscription model I'd say the same thing but that is not what is happening.
 

theheliosequence
Hmmm... it says membership renewal after 12 months is $199 or $19.99 per month. I also notice that this version doesn't seem to be called Sonar X4, but as far as I could tell... Sonar 2015. I'm I to believe that Sonar will no longer have version upgrades, but just be constantly upgrading on the same platform or perhaps a yearly overhaul?

 
Yes. It's just SONAR, no version number. We'll be delivering updates and fixes as soon as they're ready. You can purchase using whatever option is best for you, pre-pay upfront or monthly.
 

Does that also mean that Sonar will basically be $200/year to continue using from here on out?

Upgrade pricing depends on which version you are currently on, the chart here: http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#pricing has those details.  Today it's $149 for 12 months for current X3 Producer Owners

I see no hover car.

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

Any chance you read the FAQ before you posted this? This is a very customer friendly program. It's also good for us in that we can focus on developing features in smaller chunks and releasing them sooner.

Beepster

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

What stinks? The "membership" pricing? You can just pay for a full upgrade which seems to be the same prices they were for the X3 upgrade and you get a full license. It's the exact same thing. The subscription thing is for those who just want to pay less on a monthly basis.
 
If they had forced everyone to a subscription model I'd say the same thing but that is not what is happening.
 

Yeah exactly, and after 12 months of paying month to month, you get to keep everything you received, no strings attached. As mentioned before, it's very customer-friendly.

Andrew,
 
So I can post a bug on Tuesday and have a patch on Wednesday?

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]
Users that only buy one month won't be able to use SONAR after 30 days. They will need an active membership to continue access to the program and updates. After 12 months of non-interrupted membership, they get to keep their software.

Thanks for clarifying that Seth. I didn't get deep enough into the paperwork to catch that point, which is very reassuring. So basically it sounds like the membership is "invisible" to loyal customers and is a $149 upgrade to the new version, which is really no different to us than before.

Vern C
So is there any word on a potential release date? I'd like to know a timeframe so I can set aside the cash. :)

Later this month. If I had to guess, NAMM.

Anderton

orhanproject
Overall mixed feelings, same as when adobe moved (forced) completely to CC (Im still on cs6) Didn't see anything about MELODYNE (ctrl+m) (i have the full version which works fine in x3e), will it still be available in platinum?

Yes, Melodyne will remain. But remember, the big advantage compared to Adobe is you get to keep stuff. If you want to upgrade, you upgrade. If you don't, you don't but you still get to keep what you paid for. Another big advantage AFAIC is you get new features when they're ready, not in accordance to an upgrade schedule.
 
But another advantage that hasn't really been emphasized is that rolling out and QAing one or two new program features at a time is much more straightforward than QAing 40 changes in a huge rollout. Also if there's an issue, it can be fixed more quickly.
 
I think this is pretty darn cool. Frankly, I think it's going to shake up the industry. The bar has now been set for a customer-centric ownership model instead of a company-centric rental ("subscription") model. 

Nice to hear melodyne will remain, sounds good, I like to keep stuff :) , this will be interesting