Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 we like to know more about our customers and how they use and purchase our software.....
 
 
 We appreciate the feedback and will use it to make better products and help improve the SONAR experience for all customers. 

I'm curious as to why you don't ask all of them then ?

My comment was directed at the observation that Gibson Brands was privately held. I don't understand the distinction between public and private companies in this case. It would appear that you don't either.

paulo

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 we like to know more about our customers and how they use and purchase our software.....
 
 
 We appreciate the feedback and will use it to make better products and help improve the SONAR experience for all customers. 

I'm curious as to why you don't ask all of them then ?

There is no need.
Probability Sampling Theory.

It has nothing to do with what users want at all. I think CW staff are being a bit disingenuous here. This was a bit like politicians raising an issue then saying "...oh it is not going to happen or it was only for discussion". The point is the comments are used to "soften the way" for future implementation which was ALWAYS going to happen and was pre-planned, the rest is purely bumpf to get the public used to the idea. 24hour news cycle means within three days the issue is forgotten, but then months later when it IS implemented you get the story "...well we did advise it was coming..."
 
The subscription model in all software creates FAR more income with far less overheads than having to release full version software. Alos removes a lot of the "piracy" aspect as well. Personally I totally disagree with it, UNLESS a user can continue using the software at its current level even if subs are no longer paid (after a 12 month initial commitment) -  IE no upgrades or improvements unless subs are paid again.
 
Although really, it is a slippery slope CW are looking at starting out on. Not everyone likes to have data up in the sky. Just look at recent events with Apple and other "online storage" that gets hacked. The security CANNOT be 100% guaranteed.

We need a crystal ball here. If companies could make far more money they might be able to improve the daw more quickly. Or would no one sign up and choose an alternate daw (which most people already have). But maybe the non cloud daws will soon be broke. It's not a huge segment of the pop that use daws and there are about 25 makes. Mix in a bit of piracy and people stuck on old versions and I imagine no one is really making much money.

Now we see Cakewalk advertising for iOS guru.

If it was a monthly thing and there were major bugs the company would have to patch urgently. Hells Bells, I'm just going to wait and see to understand how it pans out.

You can debate the issue all you like. Everything will go to subscription whether you like it or not. The other side of the coin is what will happen when it does. Nobody is going to stand for it yet, it will happen. The known is the problem of hackers and it is also the unknown for it is hacker that are driving the push toward subscription. The other push is quite simply waste. A subscription service will not be as wasteful as CDs floating around or even paper. Let's face it, the way things work now is extremely wasteful though not as wasteful as capitalism which is yet another side of the issue.
 
I say stop complaining about it and just deal with it. Software companies need to "deal with it" as well when it comes to making the user experience a pleasant one. By that I mean making it so anyone who has an  interest in using said software can actually use it. TBH, I welcome it. I'm sick to death of clutter.

When most actually opt for a download method of delivery and not CD's your argument loses most of it's impact.

Guitarpima
You can debate the issue all you like. Everything will go to subscription whether you like it or not. 

If that's true, then companies will likely compete to come up with more appealing plans than other companies in order to gain market share. And I think your point about waste is pretty astute. For example, I noticed that the new TASCAM interfaces come with no media - you get download codes for SONAR and Live, and directions to the web site for the latest drivers. Most other interface companies seem to be going that way. I suspect the concept of media shipping with software will end very soon unless the program has like 100GB of samples...in which case it will probably ship on a hard drive, like Native Instruments does with Komplete Ultimate.
 

backwoods
Now we see Cakewalk advertising for iOS guru.

 
Scratchpad got nominated for a TEC award and the Z3TZ+ iOs was the best-selling music app for a while...wouldn't be surprised if they want to beef up that end of things. Or hey, maybe an iPad control surface for the hovercraft!

Hells Bells, I'm just going to wait and see to understand how it pans out.

Hey, why spoil the fun of rampant uninformed speculation? If it wasn't for that, half the publications in supermarket checkout stands would cease to exist . Besides, I think a discussion about where the future is heading is always good and/or fun, even if most of it turns out wrong.

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

dke

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
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. 

My position is even though I answered the previous questions with no uncertainty that I would not support a subscription model, to answer $9.99/mo or 99.99/yr would imply, push comes to shove I would accept a subscription model.  An answer of "None of the Above" or skip, would have been a valid answer in keeping with my feelings on the matter and to me should have been an obvious choice. 
 
There is nothing wrong with trying to understand how users purchase software these days, and I had no problem with the questions other than when a question omits an important choice in the context of the questions, to me it is leading the user to answer in a desired way rather than actual feelings on the matter.
 
I'm not speculating on how Sonar evolves, I'm just stating my feelings on the matter.
 
Dan

So if I ask you: There's a product you are ready buy and it costs $99, would you rather pay for it up front or a little more over time, you would just say 'skip question'. Because I assume if it's a product you are interested in then you'd just buy it for $99. I don't believe subscription was part of the equation unless it's a subscription product. In that case, it's still a valid question if you want to buy it. Maybe the question could have been restated to clarify that but the assumption is this is a product you want to buy.

I don't think there is any doubt that the question pertained to a subscription, at least not in my mind.  It came at the end of 3 or 4 questions pertaining to subscription.  That or are you guys considering financing peoples software purchases? :)  1 of the answers could have been "I prefer/will only buy my software outright", if Skip and None of the Above aren't satisfactory.
 
Dan

I don't think Adobe's model has anything  do with hacking since it has not reduced hacking one bit.  It is just as easy to get hacked cloud apps.  the key difference being that they don't update as fast.  Photoshop was hacked within 24 hours of release. I think it it had more to do with ensuring customers going forward had to upgrade.  As i mentioned in another thread Adobe kept altering upgrade policy more and more to discourage skipping upgrades.  Cloud was just  the coup de grace