I have a couple of questions regarding the upgrade process with regards to the new "membership" plan:  If I pay the upfront price for a year of membership, will SONAR be immediately and permanently activated or would I still have to wait for the 12 months to complete? 
 
Also, and more importantly, at the end of the 12 month membership (after having paid the upfront price) will an "upfront offer" for another 12 months of product and membership be available or will I be forced into a monthly membership payment plan in order to continue with SONAR after this initial 12 months (of "X4") ends????
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

Paying upfront, the product will "be immediately and permanently activated" and in 12 months you can make another annual renewal payment, if you wish.

How are you paying Upfront? when you pay now you will get the development results of the last 12 months of development and during this year get smaller releases as they become available as well as the 12 month member ship. Not only that but there's already a general road map for advanced features that are being worked on for this year.

"Upfront" is a term used on this page http://www.cakewalk.com/P...SONAR/Versions, to distinguish the annual payment plan from the monthly payment plan. It is true, this year, there is a lot of development hitting all at once with the initial release.

Paying midway now, and upfront next year. Unless Cake hold back on half the developments over 2015 and chucks a load in 2016

I think that Cakewalk have made an error by using the term "Upfront", because it keeps people thinking that they are paying for something in advance when in fact they aren't. It's like people are thinking that when eg Sonar Platinum is released that there's no significant feature upgrades since Sonar Producer X3e, when that's far from what's actually happening.

We are paying for a membership in advance. See here http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Membership. For serial early adopters there is no net change other than when updates become available. The changes may be more significant for other users.

Lump sum would be a better term.  We are paying a 12 month membership lump sum initially, instead of 12 payments.

scook
Paying upfront, the product will "be immediately and permanently activated" and in 12 months you can make another annual renewal payment, if you wish.

Thanks, Scook.  Is this official (officially stated somewhere in the promotion info.) or can Cakewalk confirm for me?
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

Upfront is the way you bought SONAR X3. That means you pay for the product now but you continue to get membership benefits for 12 more months.