JClosed
...
 
It's sad Sonar ended this way, but it does not surprise me. They had their chances, but kept primarily targeting the wrong market and at the end failed.

Sonar perfectly targeted me. I suppose I Am a wrong market 
 
 

BobF
No need for blame.  Businesses shut down.  It happens.  IMO, Roland and then Gibson provided life support for Cakewalk and kept them going longer.
 
I don't know what I would've done differently because I don't know the details of what they did do.  How could any of us know without being on the inside?
 
Cake had a good run.  Barring a last minute turn around of some sort, I'll just say thanks and offer my best wishes to the folks that work(ed) there.  Cake employed some really smart folks so I won't be surprised in the least if some products come to the market from them under a new name.  Phoenix Audio?
 

+1  (maybe +20, haven't read all the posts in between).
 
Face it - no matter how good Cakewalk was doing it or could have (realistically) been doing it would not have been enough to dig Gibson out of its fiscal mismanagement and thus was doomed. So in the end saying that they should have this or should have that is pointless and just demeans those who fought the good fight to keep the company solvent and moving forward.
 
Sonar is awesome. Hopefully some 3rd party will recognize that fact and be able to take it over.
 
 

I hope everyone understand that UsedToWorkAtCakewalk, in case he/she is "real":
* most probably violates disclosure agreement
* write who has made which decision, while writing he was away from the pyramid's top
...
 

Afrodrum

JClosed
...
 
It's sad Sonar ended this way, but it does not surprise me. They had their chances, but kept primarily targeting the wrong market and at the end failed.

Sonar perfectly targeted me. I suppose I Am a wrong market 
 

 
Or you are younger than you taught? ;-).
 
No worries, I liked Sonar too (although I finally "jumped ship", because as a mainly keyboard player I liked the MIDI implementation in Cubase better). And at a age of 62 I am not the part of that "market" too.


What I meant to say is that they also had to target the market where there is money to be made. That market is not where old fossils like me are located, but the EDM and all that stuff that goes around there. Sure - they would have to keep us (or rather - me) "oldies" happy too, but we do not have the biggest market share, do we?
 
Anyway - everything I said was a personal opinion and personal view. Other people will have a whole other perspective. And that's only good.

stratman70
You know, I had a pretty long post here, but then deleted it before posting.

i've done the same so may times these last days

z1812
When I buy a piece of hardware it often comes with one or 2 free software packages with reduced features. That is how I first learned about Fruity Loops and Ableton among other software.

It certainly gets the word out about products and allows you to try them. This was happening before Gibson bought Cakewalk. Cakewalk could have done the same.

well they did - just this summer i got some version of sonar with a boss (roland) multi-fx pedal...

This is a totally pointless thread.
 
 

 
I have worked for a handful of large companies that were gobbled up by larger companies and then a year or three down the road, they shut the doors on whatever parts of the company they felt didn't fit their core focus or were as profitable as they would like. Only one company did this in a manner that treated the employees with dignity and respect, and was honest and up front with everyone throughout the process. Their customers were not effected since it was more a case of consolidation of duplicate businesses than "hey, we don't need this business anymore".
 
Every other company started walking people to the door with no notice and no regard for anyone. Even in similar cases, there was no communication to customers or employees and it was probably the most horrible degrading experience that some of those folks have experienced. I don't know how things went down at CW but lets keep all of them in our thoughts and wish them better things to come.
 
I don't know the reasons Gibson pulled the plug, and I'm not going to speculate. I do think a stronger/different marketing approach would have helped make the brand stronger and put Sonar into more studios and homes. I have never walked into a music store and had a clerk suggest a CW product even though we all know Sonar was up there with the best of them. I have had friends who work in music stores tell me they are supposed to push what sells, and whatever helps maximize sales. So I guess if I was at the top, I'd have worked to make every store clerk a CW sales Rep. The lifetime subscription was great for us customers, and it sure kept us loyal, but was it the right business decision. Maybe a discount for referrals like Dish Network does here in the US. But then again I don't know the whole story or have all the facts. I just wish the best for the CW folks.

Lack of proper marketing on a grassroots level.
Lack of a Mac Version.
 
I'll bet my money on those two reasons as those have always been the observations from my clients.

I would have never sold a private working company to Roland which started the whole debacle.