To whom it may concern
I,m not happy about the increase in the annual fee
Last year it cost me $175
This year $229 thats a $54 increase Iv been a loyal customer for years
But its starting to get a bit much in my opinion  
I.ll give it another year as i,v just paid for it
But a may have to look for other options
Grandwizz

Too bad you didn't get Life Time updates.

We have another loyal customer!!

Way to kick someone who is down. Regardless of lifetime deals, if these numbers work out that's a price hike of over 30 percent. Something the marketing department should definitely be worried about.

They have said very clearly they expect to offer periodic discounts. Sounds like you have about a year to see what they offer.

Considering you don't even know if they will offer an update you can't live without over a year from now, seems absurd to get bent out of shape about it now.

Sanderxpander
Way to kick someone who is down. Regardless of lifetime deals, if these numbers work out that's a price hike of over 30 percent. Something the marketing department should definitely be worried about.

The marketing team in any company has obvious goals, collect some money at specific time and/or optimize total money flow. They did, they do and they will do. They apply what works and change it when it does not. For all people except USSR fans that should be obvious and not a reason for complains or suggestions, that is how the world works.
There was an idea, theory and a practical attempt to organize it different way. And it has failed as a model for country (but was successfully adopted by big corporations for internal operations...).
 
Cakewalk has managed to take on-board many users which are almost impossible to "harvest" (like myself). Doing this while keeping reasonable budget is not an easy task. But they was successful. So I am convinced that they know what they should "worry about"...
 

Sanderxpander
Way to kick someone who is down. Regardless of lifetime deals, if these numbers work out that's a price hike of over 30 percent. Something the marketing department should definitely be worried about.

I don't know but I don't recall CW every saying they would never increase prices.  They offered the Life Time deal for a long time giving people a chance to sign up. Lots took the deal some didn't. I can't see why one would complain about raising prices for updates when it could have been avoided with a little foresight.

It's pretty normal to increase prices, I agree. I just don't think it's strange to complain about a 30 percent price hike. That's like 15 times inflation. The OP could have gotten a better deal by going for lifetime updates last year but it's absolutely useless and pretty tasteless to throw that in his face now.

Must not be US$. For existing Platinum owners the current price is $199 and about $30 less at resellers.

Sanderxpander
It's pretty normal to increase prices, I agree. I just don't think it's strange to complain about a 30 percent price hike. That's like 15 times inflation. The OP could have gotten a better deal by going for lifetime updates last year but it's absolutely useless and pretty tasteless to throw that in his face now.

My old VW Passat had glue lamps... when broken, I could replace them myself for 2 euro. My newer VM Passat has LEDs at that place. They have decided (for no technical reason, I have it now and can make a photo...) that LEDs there are NOT replaceable, and once some part of them is broken I have to may 300 euro to replace complete thing (payed yesterday). Does it make sense to complain?
 
Cakewalk sad that everyone can pay one time and do not think about that after. May be they just needed extra $$$ last year, may be that was a "gift", may be an attempt to get more users on board, we can only guess...
 
But the fact is that EVERY "loyal" customer (and even not so "loyal") could join the action for NO EXTRA COST. The action was extended, so everyone could one time pay SOME DAYS before this year for this year and forget about price politic. Also every "loyal" customer really had to pay much less then "regular" year price to join.
 
So, my claim is simple: there is NO loyal customers which have no LifeTime update. Either someone is "loyal" and have it or he/she is NOT loyal since has made the decision to pass. There is a separate thread who is "loyal", but from a commercial company perspective "loyalty" means you pay when asked... Ask but not payed? Not loyal. That simple
 
So now the rest of people are informed there is a chance you have to pay $250 per year. Could be $500... could be $1000. No one is forced to pay, marketing team can introduce actions, discounts, etc. They can even re-open LifeTime if they want. From all perspectives, Cakewalk gave a chance for a fair deal. Not it is time for "unfair" deal. Where is the problem?