sharke
Personally I think it's madness not to keep abreast of developments in the software you use every day. Cakewalk's failings aside, surely there's some kind of responsibility to yourself to check in every once in a while. There are really no excuses these days, unless you don't have an internet connection. There's the company site, the forums, Twitter feeds, Facebook feeds - pick one. So easy. 

Believe it or not there are still plenty of people who don't use Twitter or Facebook and never will.
 
That aside, why should it be up to the customer to find out if the vendor of something that they have just bought is still in business or not on a regular basis ?  The last year or so of CW I got emails all the time with various tempting or not ways to give them money, but the one time they actually had some info that it actually would be useful to know......
 
 
 

 
 
 
Think of it this way - if you moved house would you consider it up to your family and friends to find out for themselves what became of you, or for you to tell them where you've gone ?
 
(yeah, okay there's probably a few that I might "forget" to tell)
 
 
It just comes down to basic respect for the people who have supported you for many years in some cases and it would have cost them nothing, which given that Noel was last heard of still advising patience in the jumping of ship and suggesting that maybe it isn't completely over and done with yet, makes even less sense. 
 
 

There's plenty of good reasons to not know that Cakewalk had ceased - including that some of their products were being pushed out to the public right at the time they stopped production. Several music magazines had stories related to Cakewalk's 30th Anniversary in the month that things came to halt. I believe Computer Music was giving away Home Studio around the same time as well. In fact, the give-away may be responsible for more people knowing about Cakewalk's demise than anything else, as they would see the shutdown announcement when they came to the main web site to activate their copy.

MandolinPicker
I believe Computer Music was giving away Home Studio around the same time as well. In fact, the give-away may be responsible for more people knowing about Cakewalk's demise than anything else, as they would see the shutdown announcement when they came to the main web site to activate their copy.

How CW marketing dept is that? 
 

paulo
 
 
Believe it or not there are still plenty of people who don't use Twitter or Facebook and never will.
 

 
Which is why I said:
 

There's the company site, the forums, Twitter feeds, Facebook feeds - pick one.

 
I certainly wouldn't have 100% trust in the developer of a program I use to email me to tell me they were stopping development. 
 
I use Adobe Illustrator and Premiere from time to time as well, and when I do, the first thing I do is head to the Adobe forums to see if there have been any updates or changes I should know about. 
 
Bottom line is that we don't know the reason for Cakewalk not emailing everyone on its email list. From what's been said it seems that the closure happened quickly and knocked everyone for six. It could be that the "skeletal staff" who remained had no access to the customer database. It's certainly not something I'm going to lose sleep over, since in the case of people who are just finding out now (or who haven't found out yet), we're talking about grown adults with internet connections who are quite capable of following developments in the software which is apparently so important to them. 
 
 

Given that Cakewalk had no marketing staff and virtually no support staff at the time of the demise, I'm not surprised that there was no outreach to individuals. There were warning signs but they were made to seem trivial by Noel and others. The tech support collapse was a major indicator. Why did the marketers and support folks leave en masse? We should have seen the writing on the wall but they kept promising bigger and better things right up to the end.

sharke
 It's certainly not something I'm going to lose sleep over, since in the case of people who are just finding out now (or who haven't found out yet), we're talking about grown adults with internet connections who are quite capable of following developments in the software which is apparently so important to them. 
 
 

 
Neither will I, but I also won't have a go at them for not knowing either. 
 
The OP states that the closure happened less than a month after they paid for a year's worth of support and updates, so I think it was reasonable for them to expect that would be the case.
 

Just Another Bloke

Anyone else feel like you were decieved and ripped off?

 
No.

Of course this was a case of deception by way of concealment of a very relevant fact. The access to continuing updates was touted as a key feature of the sales model, and by design would continue throughout the paid membership period. Someone who was involved in this decision was aware of the impending shut down, and it did not suit their plan to manage the financial crisis to allow that information to see the light of day prior to the announcement. Many recent purchasers would be expected to have not bought the product knowing that it was to be discontinued soon. Apparently no provision was made to refund money spent while the company was selling it in bad faith. Whether the company in this case was Cakewalk or the parent Gibson Brands may be subject to debate, but if anyone thinks that every employee and manager woke up one day and suddenly realized this had to happen today, then you should be aware that the Brooklyn Bridge is on sale this week.
 
Whether a purchaser was ripped off may be a bit more complicated. Some certainly were effectively defrauded of their purchase cost. To someone who had just paid for one month of membership and now can use the latest available version for some uncertain future time, might well have gotten what others would consider a good deal. Someone who purchased a year of membership shortly before the shutdown clearly suffered a loss. The latter customers were promised and paid for something that they will never receive. The law tends to look charitably on failures to deliver on a promise in the face of financial ruin, but that is as much a reflection of the difficulty of getting blood out of a stone as it is a modification of the usual understanding of fairness in trade.

whatever happened to a good ol' "press release"? then it would've popped up on all the daw news sites/lists

slartabartfast

Just Another Bloke

Anyone else feel like you were decieved and ripped off?

 
No.

Of course this was a case of deception by way of concealment of a very relevant fact. The access to continuing updates was touted as a key feature of the sales model, and by design would continue throughout the paid membership period. Someone who was involved in this decision was aware of the impending shut down, and it did not suit their plan to manage the financial crisis to allow that information to see the light of day prior to the announcement. Many recent purchasers would be expected to have not bought the product knowing that it was to be discontinued soon. Apparently no provision was made to refund money spent while the company was selling it in bad faith. Whether the company in this case was Cakewalk or the parent Gibson Brands may be subject to debate, but if anyone thinks that every employee and manager woke up one day and suddenly realized this had to happen today, then you should be aware that the Brooklyn Bridge is on sale this week.
 
Whether a purchaser was ripped off may be a bit more complicated. Some certainly were effectively defrauded of their purchase cost. To someone who had just paid for one month of membership and now can use the latest available version for some uncertain future time, might well have gotten what others would consider a good deal. Someone who purchased a year of membership shortly before the shutdown clearly suffered a loss. The latter customers were promised and paid for something that they will never receive. The law tends to look charitably on failures to deliver on a promise in the face of financial ruin, but that is as much a reflection of the difficulty of getting blood out of a stone as it is a modification of the usual understanding of fairness in trade.

Are you sure you're not a lawyer? 

Heck no, I'm producing a new tune now as we speak. Awesome tool Sonar Platinum.
The plugins I bought over the holidays are super too.