dimelives1

dcumpian
If you unsubscribe at month 18, your version will rollback to the version at month 12.

That's the only part of all this that doesn't make complete sense to me. In keeping with the "you keep everything you've paid for up to that point" theme, shouldn't you be able to retain any updates/bug fixes you've paid for, even if you cease your membership payments part way through the year, and just not receive anything new after that? (At least after the initial 12 month cost, so that you've at least paid for the equivalent of a whole new version of the program.)

Wouldn't paying 50% of the price upfront be the same thing? How much use should i expect to get out of a product for which i pay half its value? For someone paying monthly, they at least get to use it fully until they (choose to) stop paying. Sorry but little sympathy for that scenario , when others will be regularly upgrading and paying in full.

bsheen
hmmm.  Interesting.  Basically sounds like they want you to spend $150(for Platinum users) every year until you quit or change.

 
It's 200$ every year except for this first year.

 

 
It's 200$ every year except for this first year.


Didn't catch that....

Brando

dimelives1

dcumpian
If you unsubscribe at month 18, your version will rollback to the version at month 12.

That's the only part of all this that doesn't make complete sense to me. In keeping with the "you keep everything you've paid for up to that point" theme, shouldn't you be able to retain any updates/bug fixes you've paid for, even if you cease your membership payments part way through the year, and just not receive anything new after that? (At least after the initial 12 month cost, so that you've at least paid for the equivalent of a whole new version of the program.)

Wouldn't paying 50% of the price upfront be the same thing? How much use should i expect to get out of a product for which i pay half its value? For someone paying monthly, they at least get to use it fully until they (choose to) stop paying. Sorry but little sympathy for that scenario , when others will be regularly upgrading and paying in full.

But let's look at two scenarios...
 
First, say you pay up front for the first 12 months of the program, but then decide you don't wish to renew after that. You are still left with everything you paid for over that 12-month period. All good and well.
 
Now, let's say you pay up front for the first 12 months of the program, then elect to do monthly payments after that, but then decide to cease your paid membership halfway through months 13-24. What are you left with then? Just the same program you had after the first year, with none of the updates and fixes from the last six months? Then what were you paying for? Access to those updates and fixes as long as you continue paying? At that point, that IS an almost Adobe-like subscription model. Until you hit another 12-month mark, that is. But in that case, why offer a membership service at all, and why make it a singular, perpetual version of the program?
 
Unless there are distinct and separate versions that people are paying into from one 12-month period to the next, I don't see how it can automatically roll you back to a state X-amount of paid dollars ago AND posess the "you keep what you've paid for" demeanor. With a perpetual, non-versioned program, if you paid for half of the second year, shouldn't you be left with that half of the year's updates?...
 
PS: Please don't misunderstand -- I'm not vying for sympathy or even trying to raise a pitchfork over the new sales model (in fact, I'm intrigued by and largely supportive of it, and respect Cakewalk for trying something new). I'm just trying to understand the finer details of how it all will work.

My take is you go monthly for one of two reasons
 
1. Cash flow. You simply cannot pony up the full price. This the user who expects to stick it out.
2. You want to "see" what the fuss is about and you accept that you are "renting it". And if you opt out it was by choice.
 
If you are a #2 and you went more than two moths (of hard hitting use) and you still like the program you've become a #1, or you can simply plop down the full amount like the rest of us die hards who pretty much upgrade a year at a time (pretty much like the "old" model).

dimelives1
Now, let's say you pay up front for the first 12 months of the program, then elect to do monthly payments after that, but then decide to cease your paid membership halfway through months 13-24. What are you left with then? Just the same program you had after the first year, with none of the updates and fixes from the last six months?

I'm pretty sure I remember a Cakewalk representative say that once the first 12 months are passed (at which point you become an owner if you weren't already), if you continue paying for some months and stop, you will keep the current state at the moment you stopped.  You won't roll back to the 12 month state.  But it will probably cost you 200$ (or whatever) to get back in (now I'm guessing).
 
Given the size of the intro thread, it would be pretty hard to locate the post in which this was dealt with.

Let's be clear here!  Monthly payments are like Cakewalk becoming the bank... and the difference is the cost of financing... fine with me.   If you get a loan on a new car and stop paying half way, you DON'T get to keep half the car.... you give it back... You DON'T get perpetual rights to own what you're buying on their "time payment plan" until you've paid the FULL price which many will do upfront.  Very simple.
 
For financial reasons (gardening money sucks in the winter) I just started with the monthly program, which I expect to do for a month or two... I consider that awesome as when I do have the money, say March 16, I will cancel my payment plan and pay full price $149 and the 12 month clock will start from March 16... So for me this is the best strategy as I'm only paying a bit of interest and extending my subscription by two months...

dimelives1

dcumpian
If you unsubscribe at month 18, your version will rollback to the version at month 12.

That's the only part of all this that doesn't make complete sense to me. In keeping with the "you keep everything you've paid for up to that point" theme, shouldn't you be able to retain any updates/bug fixes you've paid for, even if you cease your membership payments part way through the year, and just not receive anything new after that? (At least after the initial 12 month cost, so that you've at least paid for the equivalent of a whole new version of the program.)

No, because the update also has a cost, e.g., $149. There is no "a la carte" option where you can pay for, say, 3/12ths of 5/12ths of an update. Either you commit to buying the update, or you don't commit to buying the update. If you commit to it, you get it and keep it. If you don't commit to buying it, you don't get it and don't get to keep it.
 
Perhaps some kind of a la carte variation or rental variation could be considered for the future, but it's not in the cards at present. I think it would be too complicated to have all these possible permutations and combinations of software and plans.
 

bsheen
I absolutely don't mind paying for enhancement updates.  Thats why I'm at x3 now.  If things are not working properly however I think that is something that should be considered beyond subscription.  

But how far back do you go? There are probably still some unresolved bugs in Pro Audio 9 and SONAR 2. There are still bugs in Windows XP, in Ableton Live 5, etc. etc. Sure, a company could choose to put all their resources into fixing bugs from previous programs back to the dawn of time, and never make significant enhancements or release new products. If they choose that model, then as I have pointed out in this forum the cost of the software would be prohibitive because the cost of bug fixes is factored into the software. So the company would probably go out of business. They would also go out of business if they didn't enhance the software to remain competitive. Either way, you lose the software entirely.
 
Cakewalk has already said that if a serious bug needed fixing and they had a fix, they wouldn't leave customers high and dry. But if the bug is that plug-in ABC doesn't work on a stereo track if you try to use Melodyne pitch correction on it while synched to SMPTE using only a touch screen laptop running a version of Windows that Microsoft no longer supports, it's probably not going to get fixed at all, let alone carried over to future versions.

It's the perpetual argument!  Bottom line, take a break with upgrades till something "bugs" you enough and then restart the update program again... that's what we've pretty much ended up saying to all those X1 users complaining about problems... and at this point, X3 is pretty darn stable for the 99% user base/case scenarios.