I don't like being forced to be online to use my computer. my studio is remotely located and requires some hassle to authenticate licenses etc. and it's been getting worse lately. BTW Corel user professionally since version 3 Win 95 ( X6 currently) I have to deal with Adobe users daily

what if it was named something else? like "version [N.0] plus all [N.x] updates" - the only difference i'm seeing other than the name is the speculation that once the sub is cancelled nothing would work (if i wasn't still subscribed)

Ibanezer
I don't like being forced to be online to use my computer. my studio is remotely located and requires some hassle to authenticate licenses etc. and it's been getting worse lately. BTW Corel user professionally since version 3 Win 95 ( X6 currently) I have to deal with Adobe users daily

some kind of "offline mode" a la steam might work?

Anderton

cparmerlee
It is certainly possible to define a "maintenance plan" or "update plan" where you pay a recurring fee and are in turn provided all the patches and version upgrades that are released while you have you plan in force. 

Actually, I think that's a pretty good model.

 
CUP: Cakewalk Update Plan? No thanks.  

SUBSCRIPTION = FAILED BUSINESS MODEL

CJaysMusic
SUBSCRIPTION = FAILED BUSINESS MODEL

it depends how you judge it - what criteria do you use? if you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, etc

Haha, QED I guess.
EDIT: as for those who don't want to need internet access on their DAW, that has nothing to do with it. I have my Waves license on a USB stick, I could also have it on the HDD. You only need online access when updating or moving licenses.

So how would subscription based software know when the time is up?

If cakewalk goes to a subscription model X3 would be the last version for me.  I quit updating Audition when Adobe went to subscription based and I'd do the same with Sonar. 
Heck I didn't even finish the Survey because they didn't give an option on the pricing model of "Neither of the Above", I simply won't give a sub model any consideration at all.
 
Dan

Oh boy. There were like 35 other questions on the survey. Who wants to talk about rollbacks? :)

Seriously though, I don't think it's such a bad thing to try and understand how users purchase software these days. The more information we have, the better we can service our customers. So all these questions had a purpose...to try and understand our customers better. I've been at Cakewalk for 12+ years and one thing has always remained true... we are very customer focused. So please keep that in mind as you speculate on how SONAR will evolve.