Poll to see how many would pay annual fee to keep Sonar going?

The reality is that most of us have paid an annual fee .  if it was that simple it would not be an issue. I highly doubt Cakewalk was the where Gibson was bleeding money heavily, but it is one of many casualties resulting from Gibson's mismanagement.

Cubase is expensive compared to Sonar.  Sonar was underpriced and we should have been charged for updates.  Whatever the costs of the staff should have been paid for by the users.  By trying to get short term great deals, we hurt the stability of the overall company.  If Cubase can make it, there should be something to save Sonar.

TerraSin
My understanding was that the lifetime license was supposed to be for a small group of people but the word got out...

 
Could be something to do with the fact that they started marketing it. Turned from a little surprise bonus opportunity for long-term users, into what now looks like a cash grab bait and switch (though I do not believe that was ever the intention of the folks in Boston).

I'd happily give up my lifetime license and go back to my annual fee if it meant Cakewalk remained in business... but only if they rid themselves of those parasites at Gibson.

^ This. ^

i too would pay an annual fee even though I'm already a lifer :) Am pretty annoyed about the situation today

me

No, I already paid.

I think I generally pay about a hundred dollars per year since I get every new version. I would happily continue paying that or more. It's an entire recording studio on my computer.
I've been using it since 2000.
I've actually been saying for years that they should have been charging more. When I think of all the money I've spent on my studio, the centerpiece, sonar, has only been a tiny fraction of the expense.

Think of it this way....a company makes hammers, a very nice hammer and sells them for $50 each. After a while business slows down so the owner of the company decides he needs to make more money, so he goes after all his customers who bought one of the hammers and says I'll sell you a new hammer for $40. The customers balk and say the first hammer still works fine, so there's no need to buy a second hammer. Desperate for cash, the owner decides offer a free hammer every year for life for one time $60.00 fee. Many of the old customers decide to buy the new deal....the owner makes a lot of money and leaves town, leaving the customers without any more new hammers. So they go back to using their old hammers, but they are out the money for the newer hammers. Company number 2 comes into town and tries to sell really nice hammers for $70 and company number three says I'll sell a similar hammer for $35. The smarter customers just keep using the original hammer and don't buy anything, while the dumber customers think they're getting a bargain at $35. The poor suckers who buy the $70 hammers, now have $180 worth of hammers. How many hammers does a guy need ?? Then all of a sudden people stop buying houses and all the customers stop using their hammers. They can't sell their hammers because each of the companies made it illegal to re-sell their hammers. So the hammers all end up in somebodies basements sitting idle, while the companies owners have all left town with the money....sound familiar ?? Is this a new fangled business plan or just monkey business ?? 

Infantile shallow analysis...par for the course as humanity sucks these days... thats why, as a species, we're pretty much done for...
 
I'll b transitioning to the cubase forum...theres still children hoping for a better world... music is a lever... whining don't do jack, especially when its misdirected and impactless...
 
I'll keep my ear open hoping Magix grabs this lovely daw, like Vegas...
 
Will burn my Gibson in the next community bondfire...
 
In the mean time, I'll enjoy figuring out why so many love to wield cubase! 

Throwing good money after bad if you ask me.
 
I mean - they couldn't make a go of it already.  How many people, studios, etc are going to jump ship reducing the number of users even more? 
 
Maybe if it was a few person operation - but not sure that's even possible.

I can see a small boutique-style company coming out of the ashes; it must make sense, as long as they can gain ownership of the code for a reasonable amount.  If they had some nouse Gibson would gift it for PR reasons alone.  I would be happy to pay an annual (reasonable) fee for continuity and ongoing development.

me

Yes I would go back and pay for yearly upgrades.
 
As of right now Cakewalk is dead so our lifetime upgrades are dead.  Although we have to get over that as far as I am concerned I got a lot for my lifetime payment so I am not going to complain. 
Don't count the fixes and look at the freebees we got like the Adaptive Limiter. That alone was worth the lifetime money.  YMMV