Anderton

Sweet Tooth
A new user who pays for 4 months and stops payment leaves with no perpetual license...This is by definition subscription software.

Wow, and now you're making up your own definition because the one YOU provided as a counter-argument was an utter failure at a counter-argument and is a direct contradiction to what you're saying! Way to go!! 
 
From the link YOU provided:
 
"Subscription license models still seem to cause a fair amount of anxiety among customers looking into the possibility of offering such a model for their traditional software. While there are some minor variances in the interpretation of a subscription license model, It is typically defined as an annual or multi-year software license that combines the right-to-use the software with the rights to obtain software updates and service. At the end of the term, all rights associated with the use of the software and the acquisition of updates ceases."
 
Read carefully and slowly: AT THE END OF THE TERM. The term for Cakewalk's membership program is not 4 months, as given in your "example." It is 12 months.
 
I realize that the number 12 exceeds the number of fingers and toes you have, and therefore might present a challenge. But I think everyone here will back me up when I say that the number 4 does not equal the number 12, which is the length of the term.

And the Belittling sets in, True Colors which is surprising for a man of your stature. Never meet your hero they say...But hey, there are some people out there with 12 Fingers...
 
Polydactyly 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly
 
https://www.google.com/search?q=12+fingers&num=20&safe=off&client=opera&hs=UL3&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=1yu7VOvYIZazyASC-ICICA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=972
 
As stated before, there is no single form to the subscription model. Here, I'll try to spin the same article my way...
 
"It is typically defined as an annual or multi-year software license that combines the right-to-use the software with the rights to obtain software updates and service."
 
Sounds like what Cake is offering.
 
I'd like to have a civil debate maybe even philosophical. IMO Cake is telling a half truth which in effect is a lie, for reasons that are beyond me. I'm sitting here waiting to toss money at them, I mean heck its only $10 a month.

Paul P
   What happens if you sign up for the payment plan and stop paying after four months ?

 
Paul, as I said in an earlier post, think of it as "rent to own". If you pay monthly, you are renting the software. Stop paying, you stop having access. However if you rent it long enough, you own it, and get to keep it forever. Of course if you buy it up front you also own it forever.
 
When I was a kid, there was a tool store like that. They sold all kinds of home tools, and also rented out higher end stuff like sand blaster, compressors, paint guns, etc. You could buy any of that outright, but you could also rent it. Twist was, the rental money you paid counted towards ownership (at a higher cost than buying up front). If you rented it enough, it was yours. This appealed to multiple groups of people:
 
--If you were a construction firm or something, you just bought it straight out, as you normally would.
--If you were a home owner, you could rent tools that you didn't need often, and didn't wish to afford. One summer my dad rented some big sanders, a compressor, and pain gun to repaint the house one summer (not the most fun summer for me).
--However if you were a small contractor or the like, you could rent something with out committing to buy, but if you ended up using it all the time, you got to keep it, rather than having all that money go nowhere.
 
Same deal here. You want Sonar? Buy it. You get to have it for ever and ever, just as you did before. You just have a small project and want to rent it for a bit? No problem, rent it monthly for as long as you need. However, if you find out you use it a lot and keep renting it, after a year you get to keep it like you'd bought it up front.

Please tell Henry. He might give me a raise.

First I need to be paid to have a raise! 

Anderton
Because there is no longer any plan, you cannot call it a subscription because NO PLAN EXISTS. YOU HAVE TERMINATED IT. IT'S OVER. 

Ok.  I can't add to that.
 
 

John
With a subscription you can't pay up front and you never own anything. 

My subscription to Big'uns gets paid upfront and I do own the Magazines.

mike_mccue
Hi Paul,
 The Elephant Folio by Jame Audobon is the result of one of the most famous subscriptions in the history of the world.
 
 Audobon sold subscriptions to the print editions and the subscribers received, and got to keep perpetually, the prints they had subscribed too.
 
 It's saddens me to see so much hatred and ill will being shared by people who probably think they are the forum good guys as they demonstrate that they are misinformed of the actual definition of the word "subscription".
 
Google
 
Merriam Webster
 
 

 
Mike, I understand what you're saying, magazines have subscriptions that let you keep what you bought, and there are many variants. But language changes. It's no longer an insult to say "thou art an egg" and terms often have different meanings in technical or business contexts. 
 
The term subscription has come to have a definite, accepted meaning in the world of software. It is cited above. That is the world Cakewalk and Cakewalk customers deal with, not Audubon prints or magazines.
 
There is one person who continues coming in here and creating a disruptive presence under multiple alias, and violates the terms of service repeatedly. That person has chosen as his definition of "subscription" the one that has a definite, accepted meaning in the world of software, and he has cited it in his own posts. The only problem is that he has cited a definition that undermines what he says. Yet he continues with this obsessive behavior of returning day after day, hour after hour, posting the same basic message and thinking he is clever because he knows how to create multiple aliases.
 
I have no tolerance whatsoever for that kind of behavior and it's pretty clear the community only has so much tolerance as well. If I went to a bar where someone was allowed to come in and barf on the floor multiple times per hour over the course of multiple days while pretending to be a different person each time, I would stop going to that bar.

Sycraft
Paul, as I said in an earlier post, think of it as "rent to own". If you pay monthly, you are renting the software. Stop paying, you stop having access. However if you rent it long enough, you own it, and get to keep it forever. Of course if you buy it up front you also own it forever.

Thanks Sycraft, I've also been saying that all along.  We're all just playing with words.
 
I'd much prefer we actually dealt with what actually is and will be happening, maybe with other words that have no political weight.  Then there'd be no argument.
 
I've said I accept the new system and think some parts are great.  I don't like the substantial cost increase, but I can understand there may be a need at Cakewalk's end of things.  I don't want their livelihood to suffer and I can determine what I can and can't afford.
 
 
 
 

Paul P

Anderton
Because there is no longer any plan, you cannot call it a subscription because NO PLAN EXISTS. YOU HAVE TERMINATED IT. IT'S OVER. 

Ok.  I can't add to that.

This is why you're not even remotely close to a troll. You discuss. You ask questions. And when given answers, you evaluate them, and you respond. Whether you agree with the answer or not is FAR less important than whether or not you are willing to carry on a dialog. The other guy does serial monologues. AND, you ask legitimate questions that, if others read them, will likely answer some of THEIR questions as well. This benefits the community. You have raised many points that are points worth considering. IIRC there were a couple that definitely require clarification. There's no way that can be a bad thing.
 
Believe me there are plenty of times where at the end of a dialog, I have found out I was wrong. But long-term, from a personal standpoint I "won" something because I learned, and came out of it knowing more than when I went in.
 
The good news is I can't add anything either, so I'm outta here! I hope you have a wonderful evening. I'm going to go edit some really great bass loops, and maybe work some more on my "Miracle Pad Loops" that stretch without audible problems from 40 BPM to 500 BPM. (Well actually it's 10 to 900 BPM, but no one believes that so I quote something more conservative). That's another story for another time, and if you get a membership, they'll show up sometime in the next couple months anyway.

Paul you are a long time member that I know. I do not in anyway take any offense with your asking questions and trying to figure this out. 
 
You are always welcome to voice your point of view. 

Anderton
That's another story for another time, and if you get a membership, they'll show up sometime in the next couple months anyway.

Like a Magazine in the mail. Can't wait, they're always good.