berlymahn
I hit that Cakewalk Store Lifetime link.  My price is $525.  Others state their offer is $99.  Seriously?
 
Looked in my store account.  51 items listed since 2007, and a good majority of the items are purchase items.  Have not upgraded to Splat from X3 (yet).  At $525 as my price for this offer, now guessing I am CW persona non grata, as a result.
 

 
The current offer clearly is for existing Platinum users. So you're not even supposed to see/know about that lifetime upgrade. I suspect they will offer this also as an upgrade to X3 and older at a discount, but I guess you will just have to wait. Same for upgrades from Artist/Professional.
Right now the pricing seems to be:
* subscribed, but no renewal yet: $199.
* subscribed, and renewal in 2016 (so most likely a running subscription since Platinum was released): $99.
I'm in the $199 camp as I only upgraded my X1 to Platinum end of 2015 and am still on my 1st year of Platinum.

As usual I'm confused. I just spent $200 on my Platinum renewal in Feb. and now I have to pay another $200??
 
It seems that Cakewalk needs to generate a lump of cash on short notice. No emails here, just a sense of "WTF NOW". How will the rules change next month?
 
This takes me back to X1 and then X1 Producer and then X1 Producer plus. Just continuous change that feels like you guys just make it up as you go along. If you are going to change the rules just get on with it. Don't tease, don't release little bits of the big picture. 
 
The last year has been great but I'm getting tired of Cakewalk showing up with their hands out asking if I've any change to spare.
 
Perhaps I'll get the memo one day and understand what everyone is so happy about. Right now, not so much.

Well as the other method seems to have failed I have to say
 
No email mail here either.

So a question for a CW rep: is this 'core only' model also going to be brought to the regular monthly/yearly subscriptions such that no one will have a choice and everyone will have to pay for whatever extras ? Or will the current model keep on existing ?
I think this is an important factor in deciding to go with the Lifetime 'core only' subscription or not. Of course it in part also depends on what extras you would get with a regular subscription and how much $ it would be worth. Am wondering whether people who immediately jumped to buying the Lifetime subscription even ever considered this. 
 
EDIT: also am wondering what then will happen with Artist and Professional, because the biggest difference between the 3 versions was in the bundled add-ons : http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#start .

ampfixer
and now I have to pay another $200??

With Cakewalk you never have to pay. This is a new promotion (AFAIK) that ends on Aug 31 of this year.
 
Wait until June 1 to see what the full announcement is but I suspect if you opt in for the lifetime updates new addons (think Drum Replacer and Vocal Sync) will not be included and you pay for those IF and WHEN you want to.
 
Or you can just continue (AFAICT) with your membership as is.
 
Or you stop your merry go round and just live with the version as of your membership expiry date.

Out of curiosity I checked "My Products" and my SPlat membership expires on 25th December 2037. So I'm hoping that I am pushing up the daisies by that time, or there will be trouble! 
 
(oh... I'll be 77 years and 7 months old by then...)

No email.

synkrotron
Out of curiosity I checked "My Products" and my SPlat membership expires on 25th December 2037. So I'm hoping that I am pushing up the daisies by that time, or there will be trouble! 
 
(oh... I'll be 77 years and 7 months old by then...)

We took the liberty of determining when the apocalypse is coming.
 
In all seriousness, it's just a display thing so that we could make SONAR and the website play nice together until we roll out the next update.

So I just renewed my platinum two weeks ago.  Please tell me there's a grace period here or a pro-rated special rate, Cakewalk!  :-D

Also, while I have your attention: let's beef up the automation lanes and get better envelope tools like most other modern DAWs (including dynamically editable LFOs and splines instead of just drawing points with simple quick/slow/straight connecting lines), better per-clip automation envelope support to complement track automation, and an automation parameter chooser that doesn't make me click the "down" button 500 times to get to the bottom of a long list. :-)

thx1200
Also, while I have your attention: let's beef up the automation lanes and get better envelope tools like most other modern DAWs (including dynamically editable LFOs and splines instead of just drawing points with simple quick/slow/straight connecting lines), better per-clip automation envelope support to complement track automation, and an automation parameter chooser that doesn't make me click the "down" button 500 times to get to the bottom of a long list. :-)

This is by far the most inappropriate thread to bring up fixes and feature requests. JMO