Anderton
Years ago, when Cakewalk thanked me for my support, I told them not to kid themselves...if I found something that met my needs better, I'd switch in a heartbeat - just liked I switched to SONAR from elsewhere. Yet I'm still using it. So I guess that makes me a loyal user with no loyalty.
I was going to write something along these lines but as usual somebody (and as almost-as-oten it was Craig) beat me to it. If Cakewalk really dropped the ball and stopped meeting my needs as well as it does (and I rather hope they don't!) and somebody else made an unequivocally better product for what I want/need/like to do, I would switch without thinking twice about loyalty. Does that make me a non-loyal user, or just pragmatic?
On the other hand, since they have over the years done, with a few exceptions but overwhelmingly in general, done such a *good* job of keeping me happy and productive, I went and bought into the lifetime updates option - without, it must be said, much thought. So at this point CW would have to drop that ball pretty hard for me to fork out a bunch of cash for a competing product; at the very least I would express my dissatisfaction and give them a fair chance to pick it up again and return to form. Does this make me a loyal user, or just pragmatic?
In fact it's hard for me to imagine this happening; even if the company simply folded tomorrow and announced they would no longer do anything at all in the way of support or development, I would certainly be disappointed but likely I would continue using Sonar for a while, as long as it worked, before feeling the need to dig into the wallet. (Well actually, I'd likely start digging into Live - for which I do have a license, though I don't do much with it truth be told - just to hedge my bets. I might also be somewhat more likely to update my license for Reason, which I have had lots of fun with in the past but who haven't given me a really compelling reason to stay current on for a few years now).
I guess in the end I'm loyal-ish, in that I have over the years developed a degree of *trust* in CW - not that they don't ever screw up, but they seem to be generally trying and mostly succeeding in their mission to deliver quality products and innovate in the space they work in. I'm sure I could be just as happy with any of a number of other products if I happen to have chosen them years ago (I was once a Cubase user, I feel a certain punk affinity for Reaper, I get the idea Studio One is getting a lot of things right, I gather MixBus and Bitwig have their strong points, I know people who are happy and productive with Samplitude and FL and even - or obviously, depending on your point of view - Pro Tools)... but I chose Sonar, and CW have never given me a real reason to regret it, so for the moment she's still my main squeeze.
On which note, I'd better get back to work!