Sonar's new name

2018/03/06 21:06:03

SandlinJohn

MandolinPicker

Given that most folks today turn to Google (or other search engines) when they are first looking into a new topic, it appears that all of the DAW companies have dropped the ball in this area. I started thinking about how someone who is new to this would start their search. They probably have no idea what a "DAW" is, but they know what they want to do. So I did a search for "audio recording" - and the first result is "Online Voice Recorder" (hardley what you would call a DAW by rather a simple web based voice recorder) followed by "Audacity", followed by how-to articles. If you put in "record music on my computer" you also get a ton of "how to" articles, but not a single DAW on the first few pages (except for Audacity). Other generic recording searches reveal similar results.

You might find better results from "produce music On computer" - but you still don't get products on the first page. Just articles that lump all the DAWs together. Or which computers are best for producing music. Or the 12 best programs for producing music - from 5 years ago...

It is almost like you can only find these things if you already know about them.

2018/03/06 21:11:02

SandlinJohn

dantarbill
sharke
One things for sure. None of us have careers in product branding on the horizon. All of these are awful

And yes I've read them all.....

...and thanks for reading them all for me. (Really! I mean that!)

Another thing I missed by not reading the whole thread...

Why would SONAR need to be renamed at all?

There was a bit of a headslap back when it went from Cakewalk to SONAR, but I've gotten over it. Now, "SONAR" has a lot of years of traction and mindshare with a passionate user base. Why on earth would you want to squander all that valuable existing branding by doing some stupid "New Coke" thing?

Really?!

Because legal reasons. Because in the industry, if you ask anyone about DAWs, they all purposely never mention SONAR (unless you've managed to ask a SONAR user). It's always the same "Big Three": Pro Tools, Logic, and Cubase. After that all the other DAWs may or may not get mentioned except SONAR. SONAR has a stigma, somehow, in the rest of the industry.

So if we want the new product to get noticed, move forward and attract new, younger, fresher users, we need to lose the baggage that SONAR as a name has picked up.