jb101

CedricM
200 euros is a lot of upfront money for someone who has sinked a lot already on Sonar for many many years.
How about offering a free payment in three installments or something similar ?

Really?

100 euros a year is fine, but 200. Euros for life is a lot?

Being offered updates for life for the cost of two years updates is not a good enough offer - you think Cake should offer an installment plan to sweeten the deal?

I am lost for words - a rare occurrence..

You may be lost for words, but it's a simple question of the amount of discretionary spending at time t.
In the same way that a corporation that can happily invest 100 millions a year may not be in a position to invest 200 millions, even if say the robots are much better, without a financing deal.
 
Or in the same way most Apple consumers would not be in a position to purchase an iPhone without (a very expensive) monthly plan binding over a few years.
 
As for the 'forever', like campaign pledges, it binds only the believers.
 
One does not need a doctorate in economics to understand that a forever pledge isn't financially sustainable over the long term. Cakewalk employees will need their salaries, every month. Cakewalk will have to sell us extras to survive. Like the extras we got when we paid for a 'perpetual' or a yearly subscription, but that are no more included in the forever sub.
 

CedricM

CedricM




One does not need a doctorate in economics to understand that a forever pledge isn't financially sustainable over the long term. Cakewalk employees will need their salaries, every month. Cakewalk will have to sell us extras to survive. Like the extras we got when we paid for a 'perpetual' or a yearly subscription, but that are no more included in the forever sub.
 

New users are far more profitable then current users seeking upgrades.   Most users do not upgrade every year anyway.  It is a fallacy to think that they will have to sell us extra to survive.  They might need to, but not necessarily if they can attract enough new users, and Plat the only one with the lifetime offer, it has been stated numerous times is not even close to the best selling version.  

Repeat customers is where the profit is.
 
Peter Drucker informed us many decades ago that no profit occurs until the second sale at best. The new customer acquisition costs of advertising and marketing are hopefully covered by the first sale. But not always.
 
 

One scenario: enough customers (~25K) purchase the lifetime bit that a pile of cash approximating $5M is accumulated. It is invested so that it spins off close to 10% per year. That will be enough to pay for the 5 major programmers needed to fulfill the promises.
 

The SONAR for mac has been a long time coming and even though it is still in early beta I find the prospect very exciting. I have always been a cakewalk musician since early versions of home studio then moved on to SONAR. One big problem I have had is getting other people to understand why I use it over other DAWs because the files are not transportable between PC and MAC. I hope the development of a MAC version of SONAR changes this and brings SONAR to the top of the most used DAW software. This lack of transportability is what I feel has kept it from being the most popular DAW around the world. So happy to see a change is in the air.

geoffc
The SONAR for mac has been a long time coming and even though it is still in early beta I find the prospect very exciting. 

 
Just to be clear - it's on the verge of being an alpha release. Beta is in the future, as is the full port. 
 

CedricM
One does not need a doctorate in economics to understand that a forever pledge isn't financially sustainable over the long term. Cakewalk employees will need their salaries, every month. Cakewalk will have to sell us extras to survive. Like the extras we got when we paid for a 'perpetual' or a yearly subscription, but that are no more included in the forever sub.

 
I keep seeing this idea repeated, but it overlooks several key points that would make sense to someone with a doctorate in economics.
 

• At least for foreseeable future, lifetime updates are Platinum only. Platinum is only a part of what pays salaries. Products like Music Creator continue to be popular, and help contribute the income needed to sustain a company.
• Not everyone updates anyway. Look at all the people still using X1-X3 or 8.5 (or even older versions) either because those older programs do what's needed, or the users don't realize how much SONAR has evolved since then so they're not aware of the advantages of updating. They haven't contributed any more money for updates, yet the company is still here.
• Several software companies have already done lifetime updates for years, and the model works for them. 
• There have always been extras that were not part of the Rolling Updates, like ProChannel plug-ins, Rapture Pro, Expansion Packs, items in the Cakewalk store, etc. 
• Cakewalk will continue to introduce new products and content in the months and years to come, providing additional revenue streams.

 
So when you take the entirety of Cakewalk's business into account, Platinum users getting lifetime updates simply isn't a deal-breaker, and IMHO it's a really great way to thank loyal users for their support. 
 
 
 
 

Anderton

• Not everyone updates anyway. Look at all the people still using X1-X3 or 8.5 (or even older versions) either because those older programs do what's needed, or the users don't realize how much SONAR has evolved since then so they're not aware of the advantages of updating. They haven't contributed any more money for updates, yet the company is still here.

So I am one of these people.... still using X3e and not upgrading until I absolutely have to.  X3e does everything I want it to do, rarely crashes, and I'm quite prolific with it.  I can't imagine messing with what is working.
 
That said, I just bought the lifetime update because I want to have it before the sale ends, if it ends.  It's really a no-brainer at that price.  Will I run into any issues when I try to install it if I don't upgrade until next year or even a few years from now if I can make it that long on X3e?

Matt

Anderton

• Not everyone updates anyway. Look at all the people still using X1-X3 or 8.5 (or even older versions) either because those older programs do what's needed, or the users don't realize how much SONAR has evolved since then so they're not aware of the advantages of updating. They haven't contributed any more money for updates, yet the company is still here.

So I am one of these people.... still using X3e and not upgrading until I absolutely have to.  X3e does everything I want it to do, rarely crashes, and I'm quite prolific with it.  I can't imagine messing with what is working.
 
That said, I just bought the lifetime update because I want to have it before the sale ends, if it ends.  It's really a no-brainer at that price.  Will I run into any issues when I try to install it if I don't upgrade until next year or even a few years from now if I can make it that long on X3e?

It might be possible to have both installed. Keep using X3e for production work, while learning SPlat.

Matt

Anderton

• Not everyone updates anyway. Look at all the people still using X1-X3 or 8.5 (or even older versions) either because those older programs do what's needed, or the users don't realize how much SONAR has evolved since then so they're not aware of the advantages of updating. They haven't contributed any more money for updates, yet the company is still here.

So I am one of these people.... still using X3e and not upgrading until I absolutely have to.  X3e does everything I want it to do, rarely crashes, and I'm quite prolific with it.  I can't imagine messing with what is working.
 
That said, I just bought the lifetime update because I want to have it before the sale ends, if it ends.  It's really a no-brainer at that price.  Will I run into any issues when I try to install it if I don't upgrade until next year or even a few years from now if I can make it that long on X3e?

You can run both on the same machine.  I was running X3e and holding off as long as possible for Plat.  But once I made the purchase, I figured why not go ahead and see what it is like.
 
Once you get Plat installed you likely won't use X3e anymore.  They are basically the same program but with some extra things added and optimizations.  You are missing things like the Convolution Reverb in the pro-channel, the new mastering plugins, and the Tempo mapping which you don't see until you try to use it.  
 
I have both on my machine but I don't open X3e anymore and just open the old X3 projects with Plat.  I'd go ahead and install it if I was in your situation.