A bigger issue (for me) is that the field is still extremely crowded, so I bet most of the DAWs are unprofitable or break-even at best.  That is discouraging because none of the others have really been making much of an effort to advance the state of the art.  It we had to rank them on the basis of the recent rate of progress, I'd say the big gorillas (ProTools and Cubase) would be near the bottom. 

dcumpian
Cakewalk had a great product before X1. Everyone who uses 8.5 (still) can attest to that. I don't think the skylight interface killed them, but what did hurt them (and Roland, at the time) was that they underestimated what it would cost to makeover Sonar and still have a stable, robust platform. X1 was persnickety in what kind of interface it would work with and you had too burn sage over your PC before it was happy. It became fairly common knowledge in the market that Sonar either worked for you or it didn't. X2 did little to change that.
 
By the time X3 rolled out, sales were falling due to this, as well as other market factors. Had X1 been a truly rock-solid DAW, with all of the features in X3, we may not be where we are now.
 
I think Craig is sincere in his belief that Gibson tried to extend Sonar's life in the hopes that it would become self-sustaining, but it was probably too late. You can't be the #9 or #6 (depending on where you look) DAW in the market with an unstable product for long.
 
Platinum finally got really great in the last 9 months or so. The rolling updates early on were a little rocky, at least for me. It's a shame that it took so long to get here and that it cost the company to make it happen.
 
Dan

 
+1  ...these are key points....
 
X1 came out and, with its different workflow and misses, disappointed, alienated and put off a lot of long time users... that's history well documented on this forum...  
 
I strongly believe that SONAR's downfall actually began with the "X" series...
 
My experience is I still bought all versions, X1 (surely not my favourite...), X2, X3... yet indeed I sticked to 8.5.3...
...until SONAR Platinum came...
Things got definitely better with SONAR Platinum... yet the damage was already done...
...and the activation stuff possibly put off and kept away even more users...
 
 

In 2010 Avid opened up ProTools to third party interfaces.

I think Avid and Gibson are probably tied for internet vitriol but I would bet you anything that Sonar lost a ton of folks to Avid, who aren't doing all that well these days.

mister happy

 
SONAR X1 was repeatedly excused as the most successful version of SONAR ever. That year ended with a gain in losses of 220,000 dollars for a total year end loss of $426,000.
By the time X1E had furthered this great success the total loss for the year was $891,000 and the companies assets had been scuttled.
 
The fact is that Gibson, probably the infamous CEO himself, stepped in as an ANGEL INVESTOR and provided Cakewalk with several more years of opportunity to balance the situation.
 
Cakewalk then proceeded to execute a litany of transparently desperate attempts to secure revenue at minimal expense, but it seems to have cost too much to do so. 
 
Gibson is a privately held company so the facts about Cakewalk disappeared from public view. Meanwhile, the minister of propaganda lambasted anybody that commented about the business and the obvious situation with insulting rhetoric.
 
The perspective, as I see it, is that Gibson saved the day for Cakewalk, but that was several years ago, and Gibson can no longer afford to prop up a operation that will not support itself.
 
I still rely on SONAR 8.5.3 for my work, but paid my way through to Platinum Lifetime updates hoping that someday someone would emerge and lead the company with common sense. It always seemed to me that if Cakewalk merely focused on the DAW, and not a smorgasbord of free goodies that cost a lot of resources and money to serve up, the company could find efficiency and prosperity by serving the customers who realize how dependent they are on timely and effective service. Users such as myself, who want to continue to capitalize on the skills they have learned using SONAR and will gladly pay to support an operation focused on maintenance rather than bloating.
 
Witnessing Cakewalk's downward spiral caused by its insistence on catering to, and cultivating the patronage of, a community of cheapskates has been disappointing. I am not surprised by the vile backlash targeted at Gibson which is being voiced by this community. It was focused on getting something for next to nothing and now it has panicked at the realization that there is nothing more to get.
 
I have also been and continue to be perplexed by the myopic focus on a popular myth that electronic music has replaced traditional forms of music. Guitar and acoustic piano sales remain strong and the sales numbers for those categories dwarf the sales activity of electronic music devices by twenty fold. Digital audio software companies that entertain the interests of musicians that use staff notation seem to be doing as well. Presonus is a good example. Electronic music may seem popular on the "charts", but It has seemed obvious that any business in the music instruments industry that chooses to ignore the opportunity to serve the millions and millions of people who already know, and continue to learn, how to play traditional forms of music is operating with an easy to identify opportunity cost.
 
In any event, Gibson was an angel investor that saved Cakewalk and gave it a chance to survive. It bought Cakewalk when no one else could afford to touch it. It must have been a great struggle to justify a sponsorship such as this. We will never know how much money Gibson wasted in an attempt to keep Cakewalk afloat while users continued to enjoy receiving product.
 
I appreciate Gibson for having tried. 
 
Thank you.
  
 
 
 
 
 

Yeah it has now become apparent this is more than Gibson just being a-holes. Given their evidently precarious financial situation, it wouldn't have made sense to close down Cakewalk had they been making a profit. 

jamesyoyo
There haven’t been any rock stars made in the last twenty years, so millennials don’t get the whole appeal of being a rockstar.

I think it's been longer than that.  I was just talking to my dad about an Alice Cooper show I saw recently on AXS, and he told me about back in 70's when Alice Cooper came to town, he had just hit it really big and was making some serious money and a reporter asked him what he was going to do with all this money and Cooper said "I'm gonna buy your wife!".
 
They don't make them like that anymore...
 
 
 
 

Noah330
I would bet you anything that Sonar lost a ton of folks to Avid, who aren't doing all that well these days.

Personally, I don't think I know a single person who has moved to ProTools in the past 3 or 4 years.  I do know long-term ProTools users who are still using ProTools.
 
In my area, it seems to me most of the people who talk ProTools are rappers who did the ProTools thing because "That's what serious artists do."  I don't think they are particularly advanced in the use of the DAW, or even all that active anymore.  It seems to me like a fad that has mostly passed.  My experience may be completely different than the next person's I don't claim this is at all typical.

Guitar sales have plummeted,  Both Fender and Gibson are in dire straights due to this one single fact. bottom line is, millenials wont pick up an instrument that you actually have to spend time to practice on
 

mister happy
Guitar and acoustic piano sales remain strong 
 
 

Mystic38
Guitar sales have plummeted,  Both Fender and Gibson are in dire straights due to this one single fact. bottom line is, millenials wont pick up an instrument that you actually have to spend time to practice on
 

I bet they would if somebody would make a guitar that had a built-in cell phone they could stare at for hours on end.

Amongst all my friends, all of us who are musicians of some sort, our kids all play. My son's looking forward to a big jam session with all his old school friends as they will all be in town for Christmas. His generation, he is 38, had the punk and alterative rock  which was sort of a re birth of real rock and roll. Rapp and all that DJ stuff slowly killed this but now his generation is having kids and they will all play too. 
 
Guitar sales have always been on a rollercoaster ride. And what is killing Gibson and a little bit of Fender, is the price point. I was trying some acoustics in a big store and the Gibsons price was stupid expensive and they are no better made or playable than most offshore brands. Taylor has the market right now and you can see why.
 
If you were in the market for a high end acoustic, you would only buy a Gibson because you "thought" they were a name brand, not because it was actaully worth it. Anybody with common sence and knowledge of what makes a great acoustic will walk out the door with a Taylor or one of the other many better guitars made here in Canada under the Godin company. 
 

Cactus Music
If you were in the market for a high end acoustic, you would only buy a Gibson because you "thought" they were a name brand, not because it was actaully worth it. Anybody with common sence and knowledge of what makes a great acoustic will walk out the door with a Taylor or one of the other many better guitars made here in Canada under the Godin company. 

We all have our preferences but this broad generalization of yours is so completely ignorant that I must assume you don’t even play guitar. Regardless of their business practices, Gibson makes superb acoustic guitars.