There is no subscription.  You can buy SONAR upfront, just like you always could.  That includes one year of updates, fixes and new features.  Note, that is about the same amount of time between new numbered versions.  Or you can have Cakewalk tote the note, so to speak, rather than put your purchase on a credit card if you don't have the cash to buy it all at once.  In this case, you get all the updates for a year as you pay it off.  After a year, in either case, you "own" the software as much as any user owns software.  It will continue to work as before.  If you want future features and updates, put in another coin.
 
I have to agree that Cake hasn't done a good job describing their new membership and everyone feels scared since MS and Adobe went "subscription" and once you quit paying you don't have usable software anymore.  Still, it doesn't take that much energy to find out how it works.
 
@

stratman70
Why do you INSIST on posting MIs-information.
 
There is not a monthly payment..  If you need to make payments they will oblige you.
 
 But I worry that some may actually believe you know what you are talking about--that's scarey my friend!

Really now...
 
If you buy Sonar 2015 at full or upgrade price, without monthly payments, you get support and fixes for only one year. After that, you need to sign up for a payment schedule of some sort to keep getting support and fixes.
 
There used to be no One-Year cut-off for support and fixes. Hence the price of Sonar increased by separating out support and fixes.
 
Granted that feature upgrades were already limited to the time until the next major version release, after which they'd understandably not write anything new for the old version.
 
Anyway, as of now, if your financial status changes for the worse after buying Cakewalk, you'll be out of support without continuing payments, which you could previously still count on.
 
Misinformation? I think not.

I don't know of the news letter as I don't get any from Cakewalk, but...I think they did a good job updating their website with information and videos. There is a "What's New" tab on the products website page.
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New

mudgel
Around release time Cakewalk are busy with all the things that crop up and early bug catches/fixes. We've already had one that was detected by the pre release users with Melodyne.

If memory serves me correctly then it's the normal cycle that we get the bug list and sonar manual.PDF once the rush of the new release is passed so the lists are upto date.

If I understand your drift, you mean to say they didn't have time yet to either write a good sales pitch or splice it in between the initial link and the buy-it-now page with the arcane feature list?
 
I don't get that.  If they had time to write a new release of Cakewalk with a new method of distribution with their own downloader (good feature) There should have been more than ample time for one of Gibson's marketing types to write up a page on how the new version's new features will BENEFIT YOU.
And link to it from either the newsletter, the buy-it-now page or ANY other place people might stumble over Sonar.
 
This is trivial to do, yet a major omission to not have a sales pitch in front of the buy-it-now page.
 
A feature list is not a sales pitch. All those product names and acronyms and numbers of this and that ONLY sells to the already indoctrinated existing customers.  If I need to use Google to find some pages that might explain to me why it'll benefit me to have the new version, they are doing it wrong.
 
If the only thing they highlight is the new "membership" thing, which going by other posts here, is far from clear to everybody what it means in detail, I feel a total lack of reason to purchase.
 
Having been a Cakewalk customer since the old midi-only 1.0, I know new versions sometimes cut features I sorely miss after upgrading.
 
If this new downloader solves this issue and makes it hassle free to get all my old 3rd party plugins back that were once included in Sonar, I'll have a very solid reason to upgrade, but somebody has to tell me before I reach the shopping cart.

WDI
I don't know of the news letter as I don't get any from Cakewalk, but...I think they did a good job updating their website with information and videos. There is a "What's New" tab on the products website page.
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New

Thanks.
 
That page isn't linked as an alternative to the buy-it-now link in the news letter.
 
A link to that page certainly would help.
 
I'm sure I can find all kinds of stuff by digging here and there.  But you first have to be at a level of "interested" to bother with digging around.  And not everybody buys 'new' just because its new.  I've had painful losses of previously included stuff with Sonar, after 'upgrading'.
 
And while I love Cakewalk, I'm su****ious of Gibson.  So forgive me, if upgrading isn't a clear cut thing to me.
 
Cakewalk managed to stay independent for a long time. Kudos to them.  Outside of Peter Norton, its also the only software company where I can still say "Greg Hendershott" off the top of my head.
 
Gibson only gets the "not Monsanto" bonus.
 
 
Note to Forum mods: the foul language filter appears to be filtering  " s u s p i c i o u s " . . .

n13L5
 
Really now...
 
If you buy Sonar 2015 at full or upgrade price, without monthly payments, you get support and fixes for only one year. After that, you need to sign up for a payment schedule of some sort to keep getting support and fixes.

 
With previous versions of SONAR, you got updates for about six months or less. Now you get them for up to a year. So the new model is better for users by delivering fixes for longer.
 
Cakewalk does not release bug fixes for programs that are no longer for sale. This is common in the software industry. Don't expect any bug fixes for Mountain Lion or Mavericks...or Windows Vista...or Ableton Live 8 etc. etc. etc. It is unreasonable to expect Cakewalk to do what other companies do not do.
 

There used to be no One-Year cut-off for support and fixes. Hence the price of Sonar increased by separating out support and fixes.

 
I think you can still email for support and the forums are an excellent place for support. Members get access to phone support. I suppose Cakewalk could have done the $99 per incident phone support as with Logic, but I don't think that's more generous at all. As to the fixes, see above. Cakewalk may not have provided a STATED cutoff for fixes, but that's what happened for the reasons given above. So now there is no ambiguity. 
 

Anyway, as of now, if your financial status changes for the worse after buying Cakewalk, you'll be out of support without continuing payments, which you could previously still count on.

 
Then buy the software upfront when you have money. If you pay monthly, you will have been able to use software that would have cost you a lot more money for a lot less. It's not Cakewalk's fault if you commit to paying for software for 12 months and you don't fulfill your commitment: it's your fault. It's not Cakewalk's job to predict your financial future, and therefore decide whether to allow you to make payments or not. 
 

Misinformation? I think not.

 
I think so. Read the above. 

n13L5
Or are you guys going to tell us why the 'new' Sonar is great news to celebrate and just didn't have time to write anything yet or put it some place visible?

Go to Cakewalk.com. That is the TOP LEVEL page on the site. Click on "Buy It Today" on the "The New Sonar" rotation of the three rotating pages. You are still on the site's top level.
 
So TWO CLICKS after arriving at the site, you have access to all of the following in a single scrolling page. 
 

• An overall description
• A link to a video of the new features
• Descriptions, bullet points, and pricing on the three different versions
• Link to a feature comparison of the three versions
• A summary of the Membership benefits
• A link to learn details about the Membership
• A summary of six new features in SONAR, with links to videos for five of them
• A link to a listing of all the new features in SONAR
• An additional "Explore" link that take you to pages that describe features in SONAR that relate to six specific areas of recording and production

 
I don't think most people would consider it too onerous to click twice and scroll to access all this information, although I understand you would prefer something simpler.

n13L5
 
(disclaimer: I will never use subscription software, it would be reason for me to switch to other software)

Excellent! Then that means you can continue to use SONAR.
 
There is a commonly accepted term in the software industry for "subscription software." It requires you to sign up for a term, whether one month or whatever, and agree to pay a fee to use the software for that term. After the term is up, you lose any rights to use the software. 
 
That is not how Membership works. If you buy the software upfront, and of course you still have that option, you do not have to participate in what you erroneously call a "subscription plan" as the industry defines it. If you elect to pay monthly, you agree to a term of one year of payments. This is the cost required to buy the software. After you have paid the cost of the software, you own it and it never expires.
 
I truly cannot understand why some people find this so difficult to understand.

n13L5
I'm sure I can find all kinds of stuff by digging here and there.

As detailed above, go to Cakewalk.com. Click twice. Scroll once.

Anderton
[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.8"]I think you can still email for support and the forums are an excellent place for support. Members get access to phone support. I suppose Cakewalk could have done the $99 per incident phone support as with Logic, but I don't think that's more generous at all. As to the fixes, see above. Cakewalk may not have provided a STATED cutoff for fixes, but that's what happened for the reasons given above. So now there is no ambiguity.

Apple provides support for Logic if you have purchased AppleCare.