Deleted

joden
I would appreciate them not trying to be so "buddy-buddy" about it, as if all of us (users) and all of them were somehow part of one big "family" all looking out for each other.

So you want us to lie. Duly noted. 
 
You are certainly free to exempt yourself from being part of a family where everyone looks out for each other. Those who do feel like part of a family will continue to do so. 
 
Cakewalk is tiny part of Gibson. Cakewalk could fall off the earth tomorrow and it wouldn't make one iota of difference to Gibson Brands, except after the people at corporate eventually realized that it had fallen off the earth, it would make life easier because it would be one less division to track. Anyone who thinks that the profit motive was Gibson's reason for acquiring Cakewalk knows absolutely nothing about business. Even if Cakewalk was the biggest software company in the music industry its contribution to Gibson Brands' bottom line would still be negligible.
 
This is me speaking - not Cakewalk, not Gibson - but it's incredibly sad that people are so cynical they can't accept that a company truly believes that the only pathway to true success is to have happy customers. To think that Gibson and Cakewalk are simply out to "get" their users flies in the face of everything that's happened since X3 was introduced.
 
And I'm not even going to get into how much good Gibson has brought to the world through the Gibson Foundation, which does charitable work around the world and whose administrative costs are borne completely by Gibson, not the Foundation. When you buy something from Gibson Brands you are buying clean water for African children, helping cancer victims, those fighting muscular dystrophy, the blind, MusiCares, and a whole lot more...all because Gibson's CEO thinks it's important to give back. And he won't even talk it up because he's doing it to give back, not get credit. He might even chastise me for this rant if he sees it.
 
Some people do give a damn.
 
 
 

Ad hominem attacks and inferences have no place on this forum.

Dismissing the confusion (skepticism?) among potential buyers as "negativity" is intellectually dishonest. There is no clear contract to either buy or enforce if it is not clear what the meaning of "lifetime" and "core" are in the offer. I do not for one moment believe that there is any kind of scam intended here by Cakewalk. These guys are not intending to take your money and fly to Brazil, but there is a considerable amount of ambiguity that is lending itself to misinterpretation. The few explanations from official sources that have been forthcoming have been instantly buried deep in the bowels of the forum cacophony. Someone accountable at Cakewalk should put together a FAQ for the offer that addresses the legitimate concerns expressed in this and other threads.
 
SuperDan is raising an interesting point that I have been wondering about as well.
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3427905
 
For some buyers at least, part of the price they were willing to pay, was in expectation that they would be receiving something other than bug fixes and "core" features over the course of a membership. A new Platinum member receives some valuable instruments for example. Those I assume are not "core" features. Someone who bought an upgrade from Producer version to the current Platinum in the last couple of months will apparently (another question) be required to pay an upgrade to the lifetime update at the full $199.00 price. Most of the non-core effects or instruments he received will have been carried over from his X3 Producer version. He may have expected that he would receive additional non-core goodies for the full 12 months. If everyone buying a lifetime upgrade will no longer be receiving any non-core products, then buying the upgrade may represent a downgrade and a loss of his expected value for his investment at least for the year he has paid for, but not yet received. This is hinted at in the $99.00 credit applied for the cost of a lifetime service upgrade for those who currently have an unexpired subscription, but apparently only for those who are on their second consecutive subscription or possibly only for those who subscribed when it was first offered or during an undefined grace period (another question) thereafter. For someone in the 199.00 upgrade category, who was expecting some goodies, and who does not take advantage of lifetime support, does his current unexpired membership actually lose value?
 
The expectation of those goodies was clearly not something that Cakewalk has done anything to dampen. The fact is that they remained undefined for the most part, and were part of a "trust us great things are coming" marketing communication, that in no way constitutes an enforceable contract. It does however ask for an unusual degree of customer trust to expect them to buy a pig in a poke. Will everyone be receiving non-core goodies until his membership expires, at which time the lifetimers will only get core features and the others will get nothing (expired membership) or will everyone henceforth only be getting core features? Of course, never having been promised  a list of specific non-core goodies, their failure to materialize will be impossible to evaluate from the customer position. I have seen no indication that Cakewalk intends to fork the Platinum distribution, providing non-core goodies for those who decline the lifetime support upgrade until their current year expires, so I assume that henceforth everyone will get the same Platinum for the duration of their subscription, including non-core goodies (another question) presumably with monthly or annual subscribers being offered one time downloads of non-core goodies as an incentive to renew, which lifetimers would have to buy separately on the model of the TV cable introductory offers available to new customers only. It would only take a few carefully written sentences in an easily located web page to clarify this.
 
Is it being negative or paranoid or disloyal to ask for clarification before buying?

mcdonalk
Ad hominem attacks and inferences have no place on this forum.

None have been made afaics well at least by me.

Anderton

joden
I would appreciate them not trying to be so "buddy-buddy" about it, as if all of us (users) and all of them were somehow part of one big "family" all looking out for each other.

So you want us to lie. Duly noted. 
 

well, Mr A, just as you are entitled to view things your way, I view them my way - all good! Me, I don't trust companies as far as I could kick them. For the record though I never once asserted that anyone lied...same as someone claimed I was writing about free software, didn't do that either!

abacab
If I was them, I would give the Mac version away for free to all schools and educators :-)
 

Anderton already let that cat out of the bag maybe 2 or three months ago, as a possible CW strategy. He did that right here on this forum.

abacab
One word: Adobe ...
 
Words cannot express what I really think about their Monthly/Annual plan for the "Creative Cloud". It is an all you eat buffet of all their creative applications, from Photoshop and Illustrator, to their web & publishing tools. You can download and use them all, similar to CCC.  They are an "industry standard" for graphics professionals, so many depend on them for the tools of their trade.
 
Their monthly pricing for all that sounds great at first look.  But there's a catch. Stop paying and your software stops working. WTF?  You have created projects in formats that can only be edited and saved with said software.

One more word (actually two):
 
Slate Digital*
East West Creative Cloud
 
They use the same model as Adobe.
 
*Slate still (as of now) offers outright ownership as an option

Boscoe

Lord Tim
How is this in any way a rip off?
 
You have so many options now. Pay by the month, the yearly membership, and lifetime updates. If you're as cynical as some of the people are in here and like them you assume Cakewalk moves the goalposts in 2 years time with a new name of the product, you're STILL out in front compared to the regular options, which everyone was already quite fine with.
 
I don't get it. This thread makes my brain ache.

This forum SO needs a "like" button...  

It's called Helpful in the lower right hand corner in each post (except your own of course). Be the first on your block to click it and the poster receives an email telling them you marked it "Helpful".
 
Yes, sadly it can only be clicked once by one person.

slartabartfast
Is it being negative or paranoid or disloyal to ask for clarification before buying?

No, but think about it...I've never seen any posts saying "Cakewalk should just provide content and add-ons, I don't care about fixes and enhancements." But I've seen lots of posts with the reverse, and Cakewalk's surveys show having an ultra-stable, reliable program as a priority (the "I already have enough compressors" syndrome ).
 
So, you pay one time and get all future fixes and enhancements. Suppose Cakewalk had continued with the $150/year upgrade cost. After 5 years, you would have spent $750 and who knows if the "goodies" would have been things you wanted to buy or not.
 
Now suppose you paid $199 for the updates for life. In five years, you will have spent $199, and whatever discretionary income you wanted to spend on "goodies." You - not Cakewalk - controls how much you spend, and what you buy. I think CW pretty much had to take this approach because at this point, SONAR Platinum provides a very complete virtual studio. I suspect that as the years roll on, fewer people will want "more goodies," and programs will become more a la carte. I think there would be resistance to upgrades where users couldn't choose what the upgrades would include. 
 
What is completely clear is that you're getting updates and fixes to the SONAR program for life. If you look at what happens when you download the "core" SONAR updates each month, it's usually a pretty substantial list. Imagine what that will add up to over five years, and I think it's easy to make a case that the money spent on lifetime updates will be money well spent. As a bonus, you can choose to buy some, none, or all add-ons, depending on your needs and financial situation.