http://forum.cakewalk.com/What-About-Subscription-Models-for-Software-m2862949.aspx
 
In light of the fact that Craig works for Gibson and Gibson will soon own Cakewalk, should we give increased/renewed focus to the thread?
 
In this post by Rain, he points out that Logic has a $200 entry cost...
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2893671
 
Is Cakewalk considering lowering the barrier of entry and raising the subscription cost (not charging new users so much to get through the door and raising the cost on maintenance subscriptions).
 
Craig, now that we know what we do, is there more you can share with us about what you are thinking?
 
 

Craig addressed this issue in one of the Gibson threads..I believe it was the one where his name is mentioned in the subject title.  He stated that he was not asking the question as a prerequisite for Cakewalk going to that model but for an article he was writing.  I will stop there as to not put words in his mouth since it is all there in the thread.

He talks about it up in the merger threads and mentions an article he wrote about the subject.

Not yet. We would all need the product and need to have the most current version at all times to do business as Adobe now insists. Not sure that is the case here. I get updates for Adobe Creative Cloud every few days. Am I going to pay for that privilege? No. My employer does. I can't. It may become the model, but not for a lot of us for the near future. If everyone needed Sonar to run their business as Adobe needs everybody in the graphics world to run their business, then yes. Good model. Not for this venture. Not yet.

All this talk means it IS coming it probably is a done deal..
 
this is a viable business model ..
 
the days of affordable CW upgrades will soon be over
 
but what will you gain ?
 
Updates pushed to you or available within the one year WUP   opps subscription
 
your stuff on a "cloud" not your local HD . so if your PC crashes its still there.. if the cloud crashes ,, well......
 
Authorization requiring an internet connection.. no more pirates.. i CANNOT USE MY wAVES 9.0 without an active internet connection , one it authorizes, I can go off line ..you have a non internet connected DAW,, no more  buddy maintain a connection
 
but its the future !!!

musicman100
All this talk means it IS coming it probably is a done deal..
 
this is a viable business model ..
 
the days of affordable CW upgrades will soon be over
 
but what will you gain ?
 
Updates pushed to you or available within the one year WUP   opps subscription
 
your stuff on a "cloud" not your local HD . so if your PC crashes its still there.. if the cloud crashes ,, well......
 
Authorization requiring an internet connection.. no more pirates.. i CANNOT USE MY wAVES 9.0 without an active internet connection , one it authorizes, I can go off line ..you have a non internet connected DAW,, no more  buddy maintain a connection
 
but its the future !!!

HAHA! You are reading way too much into this. I won't speak for him but he was writing articles about this and this was around the time of the Creative Cloud release. It was most likely just a question based on the current events at that time. This is why Craig is great though, because he does talk to real users and keeps up on trends. I'll let Craig speak but I remember this conversation because we discussed it at well at the time. 

OK Andrew , some of it is A WAG and speculation,, AND I really Hope Cakewalk would buck the trend and not follow it..
 
But lets revisit this a year from now and see if I was a Nostradamus or a crazy loon 
 
I just work in Technology in HIGHER ED ed, and although I am on the network side, I work closely with the software guys and see the subscription models , heck even with our hardware there are paid firmware subscriptions

This is like all the bluster abut "cloud computing".  The tech business can't keep itself from frothing at the mouth with the latest buzzword.  There was a period a year ago where you couldn't find any software company that didn't try to use appropriate the word "cloud" at the center of their advertising.
 
But that fad is over.  There are a few cases where "cloud computing" makes sense.  But in general people don't want to pay every month for something they can pay once and be done with it.
 
Technically you cannot do DAW work with (literal) cloud computing.  The computing and data transmission requirements are magnitudes more than what today's networks could handle.  But you certainly can put the license on a pay-as-you=go basis.  That might appeal to a few people.  I can't see any vendor making that the ONLY option.

I wasnt saying the actual storage and real time would be done via cloud..although back in the day Vocals were done remotely over ISDN,, 64 KB .. I am saying your authorization would be dome via a central system (cloud??)
you cant see vendors going that way only? really?
do you use waves 9.0?

This is all semantics
 
Cakewalk already has a subscription service... we pay ~$100/yr for a new release.. in that we get bug fixes and some new features.. if you don't want bug fixes or new features you opt out.