So I am seeing some posts about X2a users upset about having to spend, say, $150 to upgrade.  I also purchased X2 and yes, I've had some issues with some features, but I feel I have gotten my money's worth out of the software anyway.  Maybe a mammoth company like Microsoft, with billions of copies of their S/W sold and millions of annually renewing corporate license agreements rolling over every year can afford lots of free patches.  But Cakewalk have just a tiny fraction of that market and they need income to keep making the software we love.
 
Let's put this into perspective...  What piece of audio gear in your studio could you upgrade for $150 and get similar bang for your buck?  You could maybe buy a very average microphone.  You could buy a super low-end junky mic pre.  Maybe a really nice mic stand and pop filter?  Does any of that compare with a bunch of enhanced features, fixes and plug-ins?  Most of you guys would drop $150 on a single plug-in and not bat an eyelid.
 
I work full time in IT and you should see the cost of the software assurance contracts we pay.  Believe me when I tell you that $150 per year to keep your software up to date is CHEAP!  You guys have no idea how good we've got it.
 
Just sayin'

Prices go up.  I get resistance to that at my business as well but when met with a firm explanation and the fact that everything is going up, I can usually show that the value of what I do outweighs the price increase.

You're quite right, bang-for-buck wise. I mean, I just ordered a signal splitter for nearly £100 a minute ago. DAWs are complex applications serving a fairly niche market. I think it's fairly amazing how cheap they've become, myself.

Well in all fairness, I wasn't in my previous post complaining about having to shell out another 150 bucks, I was asking a legitimate question albeit in a very cheeky way.  On saying that I paid my 50 bucks to upgrade and I think at least a 50 dollar discount would be nice to even the playing field would be nice.  But on saying that, I'm still taking a wait and see approach to this whole Tascam thing.
 
Ben

My post wasn't directed at any particular individual, but there are those on this forum who, "on principle", think CW should have fixed X2a before/instead of releasing and charging for X3.
 
I guess that would be nice, but in reading about the large amount of work that's gone into X3 (ARA for one, huge update to take lanes for another), it seems pretty clear to me that it wasn't going to be possible to get X2 to where most people would be happy with it.  It seems to me that it was a more sensible thing to do for a company with finite resources to put all that effort into a new version.
 
For me, I want, on principle, to pay for the upgrade.  Imagine if Cakewalk were not a private company but a co-op, owned by us, its users.  We would need to put money in a hat and pay to hire developers to fix bugs anyway.  I want CW to survive, because for the most part, I really like the software and have invested years of my life getting to know it.  As a very small niche market, I think we need to step up and support our DAW maker financially - whether you use Sonar, Reaper, Cubase, whatever.  In the software world, we are really still a cottage industry.
 
If CW ever gets to, say, even 1/8th the size of Microsoft or Apple, it will switch to a volume-based company with huge economy of scale.  At that point I will join you all in demanding as many free updates as I can get.

I love the co op analoGU. you have said what I've been trying to, but much better. the price is SO CHEAP. your examples of other things you can get for 150 were spot on.

Well the other side of the coin is that even during the gold rush, the people who made the most money were the ones who sold the picks and shovels.
 
This is the music business, it can be very hard to eek out a royalty large enough to cover the costs involved in producing music. Musicians dedicate their lives to making music many times with no compensation whatsoever. Only a select few make it big time. For many people creating music is just a hobby, and must look outside the music industry for income. Some people are just scraping to get by, and every penny is important. I'm not thrilled about shelling out another $150 bucks for just an upgrade to a product I've already bought and paid for. A $99 dollar upgrade would be much more palatable, and would be very appealing to many more customers who would balk at a $150 fee.  

Gotta say, $150 seems excessive to me, too. Considering so many things in X2a are just not quite right. Don't we as customers deserve, at least, a fully finished product before we are asked to spend more for the next version, which will more than likely have new unfinished issues?
Where I work, if we delivered unfinished products to our customers and then just sort of sent them a few finished pieces here and there then, asked them to buy a whole new product...... they wouldn't be our customers anymore.
The scary part, to me is, this was my last experience with Tascam. They were a good company for a long time then, they started just discontinuing products, basically just orphaning the product and the customer. No more support, nothing.   

Here's a counter view. I don't think it costs enough starting with a new owner paying full fare on down to upgrades. In general I think that software, similar to music, has suffered a degradation in perceived value. This is based on $0.99 apps that are, in my opinion of very limited value and the rampant illegal sharing of digital music. But it seems the masses now expect cheap apps and music of limited artistic merit.
 
While it is probable I will upgrade at some point I'm unsure whether or not make the move right now. If I do I will consider the current estimated price to be excellent bang for the buck.
 
Just sayin...
 
Regards,

Well, anybody who has put together a pro studio or a home studio knows there are lots of pieces to the puzzle that must all be bought and paid for. If just a piece of software was all that was need that would be great, but the reality is that the total investment in a home studio can easily get into the tens of thousands of dollars before you know it. As a home studio owner I know I have to watch every purchase to keep from bankrupting myself.