My view LRR is that in the past to buy Sonar a full payment was required before they could have it. Now CW is offering a way for them to get it with having to pay a small portion each month for a year. I can't see how this is not a great offer for them. They still have the option to do it the old way and pay for it up front.
 
I just don't see how there is a problem here.  

I think people are just getting hung up on the "membership" name.  I'm sure most people are thinking of this like joining a fitness club.  I either pay a month at a time, and quit when I want, or I pay for a whole year at a lower price.
 
As Seth pointed out, this is like financing a car.  You are buying a product and services for a years time.  You either pay upfront or in monthly installments where you will pay more.  You don't own the product until you've made 12 payments.
 

You are asking cakewalk to reduce prices... Really?
12 months subscription is just like buying x3.
Use the rental model if you are hard up. Don't like rental then buy 12 months it's yours (like X3).
If you are a student get better prices (coming soon ).
 
I can't see the problem...

Basically if you are paying for less than 12  months IT IS RENTAL!
Otherwise it's yours.
 
Membership? \ subscription? ... Forget the terminology...

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk
Because in his example/model any member would get Artist if they lapsed after 3mo, or that is what I took away from it.

Thanks. Context is everything. :)
 

Living Room Rocker
P.S. On another note, I am disappointed in my fellow members on this forum.  These attacks on me are unwarranted and should be individually addressed by the monitors, as expected.  Okay, I got that off my chest.

As a new user to these forums I hate to jump in like this but.. I've read the responses to you and calling them attacks is stretching it and a little self-serving, given that you didn't bother linking your concerns again or addressing them again in any way. Instead you chose to bait with a request for a technical definition and played it in such a way that forced the hosts to step up and address you politely.
 
I'm new here and I thought 'you' were the one being a little unreasonable and so I found the comments directed at you themselves to be reasonable, given... again... that you complained yet didn't share the source of your complaint. We surely should ask ourselves, if you can't be bothered to reiterate, why should it fall upon us to pull this information from out of you?
 
Also, presuming you're not at fault and declaring that things will be "addressed by the monitors, as expected." reeks of hubris. Everyone here has endured massive trolling these past few days, so at worst, you may have been caught in the cross-fire and should perhaps consider your passive-aggressive approach in this light.
 

If someone is using Sonar commercially, as was suggested, the price of the gig should include the subscription money (if a pro would even use the subscription rather than the prepay option). I agree about the lawsuits and fists on the nose but it is really up to the engineer's professionalism to have a working DAW when this is a steady source of income.

If this is not a commercial venture but a hobby or part time venture, then what is really at stake? No 20 bucks this month to use the DAW means you do something else this month. Buy back in next month. If this is really a big priority I believe the 20 bucks can be found.

The whole thing seems very fair to me. There are more payment options than there ever were before and the "subscription" is way more generous than what comparable deals from large software companies tend to offer. Except for Waves, which is quite similar, and gets a lot of flak on this forum, ironically.

Living Room Rocker

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk

Living Room Rocker
If I may take this opportunity to suggest/request, how about, say, after three months of payments, no matter what happens to a membership there after, that member is guaranteed SONAR Artist to keep with full functionality.  That way the membership, although temporary, is not a complete loss and SONAR (Artist) remains fully functional.  I am taking this from a Professional or Platinum membership.

This probably hasn't been addressed directly before, because it is not in the plans. For example, if I stopped paying my car loan after 3 months, I wouldn't get to keep a lower version of the same model, that I'm not on the hook to pay for. If an Artist user subscribed for 3 months, he's paid $30, while a Platinum user would have paid $150. In this instance it's not really fair to the Platinum member as they paid 133% more for the same software. 
 
If someone is commercially using the software, in a mission critical setting, the tools should be built into the price they are charging customers. The user knows that SONAR will go into demo mode. The imperative is on them to secure their customers data. I would make sure stems, mixes, raw tracks, and maybe even OMF's were saved before I let my subscription lapse. If the customer wanted something else later, I'd charge them enough for another month of access.

Thanks, Seth.  Nonetheless, we are not talking "loan" here, but membership.  Further, in the 3-month example, the Platinum member would have already enjoyed SONAR in that time.  As for the Artist member, I don't know of a comparable conciliation.  But that is just what I am referring to, a conciliation as opposed to a loss (even for the Platinum member in this scenario).
 
To your other point, I work with musician starting out and/or starving, if you will.  These musicians do not have income from paying customers as a studio or engineer might from clients.  I've been trying to convenience people like this to buy and use SONAR.  Not just for their own benefit, recording on their own, but for mine so that once they need my help it will be easier for me to step in and not have to convert or transfer the recordings.  Now that there is a perceivable means to obtain SONAR at an affordable price, this is making it a bit of a hurdle in the pitch.  I know that musicians, like many I work with, don't have the funds to throw at new ideas particularly when it is not directly connected to writing and/or playing music for them.
 
I really hope you understand where I am coming from and consider these potential users.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker
 
P.S. On another note, I am disappointed in my fellow members on this forum.  These attacks on me are unwarranted and should be individually addressed by the monitors, as expected.  Okay, I got that off my chest.

Yes, I definitely get the angle that you're coming from. I had to use free tools or my friends DAWS for a long time, until I had the cash to grab SONAR 6. Another option for your new musicians would be Music Creator. It's feature set is very close to SONAR's. Timing a purchase with a STEAM sale could net you a full DAW for under $20. It's sort of the forgotten step-child to SONAR, but it's really good.  
 
I know its a minor point, but while we're calling it a membership, it really is like a loan since you're singing onto an agreement.
 
I think everyone's a little high strung lately and there's a lot of excitement in the air. Cooler heads will prevail after today's launch. Text does a horrible job at conveying intent/concern.

Living Room Rocker
P.S. On another note, I am disappointed in my fellow members on this forum.  These attacks on me are unwarranted and should be individually addressed by the monitors, as expected.  Okay, I got that off my chest.

Wait... are you including me in that statement?

Sonar Artist is $99 bucks or $10 bucks a month.  And that's enough for someone to lay down tracks.  If you're a professional musician starving or not, if you can't afford that much to support your career, you might want to consider a different line of work.
 
If you're really hard up, Music Creator is a great little light weight program that is fine for laying down song ideas or even fully publish songs with VST plug-in support!  I think you can get this for something around $20 on Steam.
 
LRR, I'm sorry if you feel that people are attacking you, but it's just that no one is really sympathizing with your argument.  Cakewalk is in the buisness for profit, and they have to make money on this.  If they allowed people to opt out of the monthly payments, then everyone would pay for one month get the upgrade and quit.

P.S. On another note, I am disappointed in my fellow members on this forum.  These attacks on me are unwarranted and should be individually addressed by the monitors, as expected.  Okay, I got that off my chest.

 LRR point out where you have been attacked and I will deal with it.