Disregarding all the debate about membership, I do agree that the link in the email should have gone to the "what's new" page, or perhaps a special "why upgrade" page with a buy button. If you go to the site manually it's obvious how to get there, but if you send out a newsletter with a link it should direct you to the most helpful place. Getting a mail with a simple "buy now" link is almost akin to those viagra spam mails. Just very unelegant. With my apologies to the marketing guy who wrote the thing :)

WDI

Anderton
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.

My point exactly. You have to pay for support. The only one that doesn't require paying in advance is the per incident option.

Sanderxpander
Disregarding all the debate about membership, I do agree that the link in the email should have gone to the "what's new" page, or perhaps a special "why upgrade" page with a buy button. If you go to the site manually it's obvious how to get there, but if you send out a newsletter with a link it should direct you to the most helpful place. Getting a mail with a simple "buy now" link is almost akin to those viagra spam mails. Just very unelegant. With my apologies to the marketing guy who wrote the thing :)

I'm curious where the link took people. Can you provide?

Anderton

WDI

Anderton
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.

My point exactly. You have to pay for support. The only one that doesn't require paying in advance is the per incident option.

My point was that there is another option and it's not as bad as you were making it sound.
 
But regardless, your always paying for support. For Cakewalk I suppose that is included in the price of the product. It does sound like OP is partially correct in that you do get about a year less phone support under the new model. However, I don't think that is unreasonable. I'm sure there is quite a bit of overhead providing technical support. 

Anderton

Sanderxpander
Disregarding all the debate about membership, I do agree that the link in the email should have gone to the "what's new" page, or perhaps a special "why upgrade" page with a buy button. If you go to the site manually it's obvious how to get there, but if you send out a newsletter with a link it should direct you to the most helpful place. Getting a mail with a simple "buy now" link is almost akin to those viagra spam mails. Just very unelegant. With my apologies to the marketing guy who wrote the thing :)

I'm curious where the link took people. Can you provide?

The OP already did.

Sanderxpander

Anderton

Sanderxpander
Disregarding all the debate about membership, I do agree that the link in the email should have gone to the "what's new" page, or perhaps a special "why upgrade" page with a buy button. If you go to the site manually it's obvious how to get there, but if you send out a newsletter with a link it should direct you to the most helpful place. Getting a mail with a simple "buy now" link is almost akin to those viagra spam mails. Just very unelegant. With my apologies to the marketing guy who wrote the thing :)

I'm curious where the link took people. Can you provide?

The OP already did.

Maybe I need new glasses, but I don't see a link in any of his posts. Can you tell me which post has the link? It's not all that important, but I'm curious to see what he's talking about.

WDI
 
Apple provides support for Logic if you have purchased AppleCare.

And since I'm asking questions...do you know what the AppleCare Professional Audio support costs? The info for support on this page doesn't really give any answers.

People get hung up on the word "Subscription" and only see  that part of the Sonar Platinum Upgrade.
 
I, for one don't like that word.
 
The way I see it is that you pay $149.00 up front for the upgrades from X3 to Platinum, which would be normally the case with a usual upgrade. BUT, in the next 12 months you get all the upgrades and features free, which for me is a 2 year upgrade package for the same $149.00. No extra charge.
 
The "Subscription" as they call it seems to me like a payment installment plan. You choose to upgrade and you pay in 12 consecutive months. It does cost a little extra as do all payment installment plans, but if you are short on cash you could always go this way and get the same as everyone else for $30.00 more.
 
It's not the greatest way to get Platinum, but for some maybe the only way.
 
I will say I find the year after that too expensive just for 1 continueous year IMHO. We have already paid for the basic program the first year and will not have to buy that again. The upgrades from the first year we also paid for and best of all we get to keep them at the end of the year.
 
I hope that when the time comes, Cakewalk will change the prices of the upgrade to be more reasonable.
Anyway, that is how I see it.

Anderton

Sanderxpander

Anderton

Sanderxpander
Disregarding all the debate about membership, I do agree that the link in the email should have gone to the "what's new" page, or perhaps a special "why upgrade" page with a buy button. If you go to the site manually it's obvious how to get there, but if you send out a newsletter with a link it should direct you to the most helpful place. Getting a mail with a simple "buy now" link is almost akin to those viagra spam mails. Just very unelegant. With my apologies to the marketing guy who wrote the thing :)

I'm curious where the link took people. Can you provide?

The OP already did.

Maybe I need new glasses, but I don't see a link in any of his posts. Can you tell me which post has the link? It's not all that important, but I'm curious to see what he's talking about.

You're right, Craig, sorry. Someone else posted a link and I misrembered. I'd also like to know in that case.

I'm still altogether confused why there seems to be such a hot defense of Cakewalk's failure to link to the "What's New" page instead of the "Buy Now" page in the newsletter. It seems a simple mistake or misjudgment and I would be happy it was brought up. Heading to a "What's New" page is just much friendlier than to one that says "spend money on our stuff".

The email is a bit long, so in a normal browser, the only thing that shows initially is a picture with this link embedded into it: http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Buy-Now/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Image+-+New+SONAR&utm_content=The+New+SONAR%3A+Now+Available+-+Buy+it+today&utm_campaign=Jan+21+2015+-+All
 
However... if you scroll down, the following is immediately below that picture (with even more below this):
 
"The New SONAR: Now Available - Upgrade today! The new SONAR is more than just a digital audio workstation - it's the most advanced music production experience available today. We've completely changed the way our software is developed by introducing a Membership program that offers continuous updates to the software including new features, improvements, fixes, content, and video tutorials that guide you along in the process. And thanks to the new Cakewalk Command Center, we've made the installation and update process a breeze so you can focus on what's truly important - making music.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ FIRST: Click the option you would like to buy and login/create a Cakewalk SSO account to see your upgrade price in the cart. Please watch this video for download and installation instructions with the new Cakewalk Command Center.
See What's New in SONAR
Choose your SONAR Version - Upgrade today!
"
 
The entire email is roughly 3 pages long (or more).