@ Spacey: It took many, many years to get to X3 and a computer that had enough power to handle everything I wanted to do and then it finally happened. Cakewalk, Windows7 and the power of the PC finally came together -and all around the same time and for the first time there was amazing performance.
No conflicts with other intense software I enjoy using such as Vegas Pro and Spectrasonics stuff. Never could say that before X3, Win7 and a powerful PC.
 
Exactly!! Point. set, match!
 
J
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

There's one perspective that's been missing in this discussion.  Suppose you wanted to test the waters with a new mainstream, pro-level DAW?  First time buyers, as opposed to upgraders, will pay a premium to purchase a license.  On the other hand, if you could score a year of use for just a hundred bucks, your risk is very much lower. 
 
Personally, whether I pay a hundred bucks a year for an annual upgrade or a hundred bucks for a subscription makes little difference for a flagship piece of software like a DAW, as long as I'm actively and frequently using it.  Anything smaller though, like synths or effects, no way.

dmbaer
There's one perspective that's been missing in this discussion.  Suppose you wanted to test the waters with a new mainstream, pro-level DAW?  First time buyers, as opposed to upgraders, will pay a premium to purchase a license.  On the other hand, if you could score a year of use for just a hundred bucks, your risk is very much lower. 
 
Personally, whether I pay a hundred bucks a year for an annual upgrade or a hundred bucks for a subscription makes little difference for a flagship piece of software like a DAW, as long as I'm actively and frequently using it.  Anything smaller though, like synths or effects, no way.

As far as testing the waters...well, that's why they have trial versions.  I do get your point though.  the only hole in that aspect with the Adobe model is you have to commit to a year to get the price they quote, so you are in effect committing to $660 to demo for a year.  i also do agree that the model works best for people who typically upgrade annually without fail anyway. Also, I get to claim the cost of subscription on taxes so that lessons the negatives for me. i think for many, particularly, long-time users it is more about principal than actual expense.  you are right, $100 per year is what most of us are paying anyway whether it is called subscription or upgrade.  The big difference of course would be that all upgrades from that point on likely go bye bye if you choose not to play at some point. Although we technically never "own" software", the fact we can use it perpetually (or at least as long as you have a computer that supports the software) even if we choose not to upgrade brings some sense of "mine".

dmbaer
There's one perspective that's been missing in this discussion.  Suppose you wanted to test the waters with a new mainstream, pro-level DAW?  First time buyers, as opposed to upgraders, will pay a premium to purchase a license.  On the other hand, if you could score a year of use for just a hundred bucks, your risk is very much lower. 
 
Personally, whether I pay a hundred bucks a year for an annual upgrade or a hundred bucks for a subscription makes little difference for a flagship piece of software like a DAW, as long as I'm actively and frequently using it.  Anything smaller though, like synths or effects, no way.

 
 
Does not a free trial for software work for those wanting to "test the waters" ? And that's free with no risk .
 
Upgrading and updating are two different things to me.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I think the whole software market is becoming insidious. That's the problem with monopolies. They set the base standard and coerce the rest market to follow suite. I feel the same way about the internet and the large monopolistic companies. Just today I placed a synthesizer on my watch list on Ebay. No biggee I thought... I was just curious to see what price this thing ended up at. So, a few hours later my wife asks me if I'm watching this synth. Now mind you, I never told her about it - but it ended up on her face book as an ad to her asking her if she's still interested. So, she doesn't have an Ebay account and I don't have a facebook account - but because some bonehead IT engineer thinks they can cross post anything to anything as long as it ends up at an IP address. F-ing rediculous - and so completely stupid. What if I was looking at engagement rings and it was my soon to be wife - but I decided to hold off on the big question. Can you see how the stupid aunt with big mouth can really screw things up ? These folks are not smart enough to correctly guess which underwear drawer is ok to look in. Because the answer is none of them.

I'm at the point that I'm 1 Billion times more satisfied than I ever thought I would be in terms of what I can do with the software I currently have to record music.
 
I can do way more than I ever expected.  Way more than I ever even dreamed of doing with music even 5 years ago.
 
I could live on a deserted island (with electricity) and enjoy my Sonar X3 Producer and assorted extra plugins "as is" for the rest of my music endeavors.
 
However, I will be glad to pay for an upgrade for Sonar if as usual a new version comes out with some new features that really seem like a good improvement and the price is fair for the upgrade. 
 
But I wouldn't consider "upgrading" to a subscription model with those newer features.  I'd just stay happily on my island, much like those users who never made the jump to the X series and stayed loyal to Sonar 8.5.3.

I also poo pooed the subscription model.  Would probably just stick with the latest (X3 is already beyond my wildest dreams of a few years ago) and throw some money at ableton or something new like BitWig.
 
 

I also poo pooed the subscription model.  Would probably just stick with the latest (X3 is already beyond my wildest dreams of a few years ago) and throw some money at ableton or something new like BitWig.
 
 

bitflipperSubscription models almost never work for anything other than very narrow vertical markets and highly specialized software such as oil exploration modeling. The history of the software industry is littered with the remains of defunct companies that tried to lock in their customer bases and failed. They failed because somebody else invariably came along to offer those customers a less restrictive and cheaper alternative.

That's where my logic (no pun intended) takes me.
I didn't mind filling out the survey.
But, not being market savvy about it, if they change to this paradigm X3 will likely be my last.
 
Personally, I like it the way it is.
I upgrade when I feel like it's time and I can justify the buckaroos.
Another monthly (or yearly) subscription fee is out of the question for me.
I would never own anything that requires a dongle or whatever other intrusive/captive protocols are out there now....I don't even know what they are anymore since the PACE days horror stories.
 
Carry on....

not interested in a subscription.
 
STILL..... using sonar 6 PE.....
 
works perfectly fine.
 
 
if they are smart, they will provide options for both, like MS does with office.