Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

subtlearts
Andrew, please rest assured that many of us have considerable faith in CW at this point, based on how things have been handled so far, for a long time and with very few exceptions... so while some of us may indulge in speculation - it's human nature, I'm sure you knew it would happen - and while there are certainly those who seem determined to find the dark conspiracy hidden in everything... a lot of us are just excited to see what's coming down the pipeline!

This is why I told you guys not to share the email or link :)

And I didn't. But I - like what seems like rather a lot of others here - wouldn't have seen that email if someone hadn't leaked it. OK, maybe I would have gotten it a couple of days later if/when you figured out that many of us who had updated this year but through some other channel, weren't seeing it. But I don't think there's any avoiding the fact that there seems to be something fundamentally amiss with your email / newsletter / list / database / server or whatever it is. You spent most of a day, along with other members of the team, updating users' settings and sending emails that in most cases theoretically should have gone out automatically. The extra effort is much appreciated, but maybe tracking down the deeper issue that seems to prevent people who have signed up for emails from actually getting those emails, might be time well spent. Just sayin'... 
 
In any case, while this episode has been instructive on many levels, and maybe could/should have been predicted, and clearly created a lot of unexpected work and management (some might call it Damage Control), it has also resulted in a bunch of people who otherwise might not have gotten the message, sending you a bunch of money. So that part worked out at least! 

I think it should be clear that CW knew full well that a pre-announcement of a big/huge announcement would create a monster thread like this. The negativity that some users show was also to be expected since it happens every time small/medium/big/huge announcements are made.
 
But why do it? Because they want to create a huge amount of buzz (fortunately mostly positive) and make sure a lot of people know about it and tune in on June 1st.
 

Sorry I think the countdown timer won't show the correct time in your timezone. Not sure how to make it detect timezone correctly. So let's just say it is an estimate...

So... paying the $100 for lifetime upgrades was a bad idea? LOL
 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
Customers who have not renewed this year or ever upgraded to Platinum will also get a very nice offer to participate. 

 
Since we can already see a discounted price in the now well-known webshop link, can we assume this is actually already that offer (except that it has not been communicated yet) ? Or is there a chance that by June 1, the offered price will be different ? At the moment, some people are seeing $149 or $199 depending on their history. I'm in the $199 camp (or Euro equivalent) as I only jumped to SPlat in December, and I'm definitely not complaining about that deal either. 
 
 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 
Pay only for optional add-ons and content
...
Clearly stated, you will not have to pay for any future updates for SONAR. Everything we put into SONAR, you receive. You continue to get the rolling updates, only they don't expire after a year. That also means you never have to pay for bug fixes (a long time gripe). You will only pay for optional stuff that we release that is not part of SONAR. We do that today as well. Z3TA+ 2, CA-2A, Rapture Pro, Videos, Expansion Packs, Third party products are all available as add-ons and for purchase separately. It was important to distinguish that so people don't think they get everything Cakewalk releases. Since we started this new model of rolling updates last year, there have always been the naysayers who had their reservations. 

 
I keep getting confused about this piece and have not seen a clear answer. If that question will be addressed post June 1, fair enough, but would at least like to get some indication.
You make it sound here as if there is no change compared to today wrt add-ons/content, and that all those will be available as separate purchases. However, until now, Sonar has always come with additional content and in fact the difference between Artist/Pro/Plat is mostly in the bundled extras. In fact a few posts higher, you acknowledge that yourself. Even in the monthly updates some stuff was thrown in and some was only available for Pro/Plat or even Plat alone. Can we expect this to happen in the future as well where some select content (even if it's just light versions) will be thrown in for free for members ?
 
 
 
 

Rocsee70

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
Customers who have not renewed this year or ever upgraded to Platinum will also get a very nice offer to participate. 

 
Since we can already see a discounted price in the now well-known webshop link, can we assume this is actually already that offer (except that it has not been communicated yet) ? Or is there a chance that by June 1, the offered price will be different ? At the moment, some people are seeing $149 or $199 depending on their history. I'm in the $199 camp (or Euro equivalent) as I only jumped to SPlat in December, and I'm definitely not complaining about that deal either. 
 
 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 
Pay only for optional add-ons and content
...
Clearly stated, you will not have to pay for any future updates for SONAR. Everything we put into SONAR, you receive. You continue to get the rolling updates, only they don't expire after a year. That also means you never have to pay for bug fixes (a long time gripe). You will only pay for optional stuff that we release that is not part of SONAR. We do that today as well. Z3TA+ 2, CA-2A, Rapture Pro, Videos, Expansion Packs, Third party products are all available as add-ons and for purchase separately. It was important to distinguish that so people don't think they get everything Cakewalk releases. Since we started this new model of rolling updates last year, there have always been the naysayers who had their reservations. 

 
I keep getting confused about this piece and have not seen a clear answer. If that question will be addressed post June 1, fair enough, but would at least like to get some indication.
You make it sound here as if there is no change compared to today wrt add-ons/content, and that all those will be available as separate purchases. However, until now, Sonar has always come with additional content and in fact the difference between Artist/Pro/Plat is mostly in the bundled extras. In fact a few posts higher, you acknowledge that yourself. Even in the monthly updates some stuff was thrown in and some was only available for Pro/Plat or even Plat alone. Can we expect this to happen in the future as well where some select content (even if it's just light versions) will be thrown in for free for members ?
 
 
 
 

These kind of questions haven't really change since SONAR 8.5 or before. There's always a cost to licensing. If we bundled everything under the sun, our licensing fee would be more than the cost of the product. So the answer is the same that has been for a long time. It depends. Of course if it makes sense to bundle a lite version of a product, we'll do it. Case in point, Rapture Pro came out earlier this year. It's available separately. We thought it made sense to put in Rapture Session so customers could experience it and decide if they want the full version. I'm sure these kinds of conversations will come up and we'll need to decide like we always have in the past. 

If you are still having issues getting emails, send me a PM. We fixed a lot of issues this week but if you are having a problem, send me a note.
 

Rocsee70

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
Customers who have not renewed this year or ever upgraded to Platinum will also get a very nice offer to participate. 

 
Since we can already see a discounted price in the now well-known webshop link, can we assume this is actually already that offer (except that it has not been communicated yet) ? Or is there a chance that by June 1, the offered price will be different ? At the moment, some people are seeing $149 or $199 depending on their history. I'm in the $199 camp (or Euro equivalent) as I only jumped to SPlat in December, and I'm definitely not complaining about that deal either. 
 
 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 
Pay only for optional add-ons and content
...
Clearly stated, you will not have to pay for any future updates for SONAR. Everything we put into SONAR, you receive. You continue to get the rolling updates, only they don't expire after a year. That also means you never have to pay for bug fixes (a long time gripe). You will only pay for optional stuff that we release that is not part of SONAR. We do that today as well. Z3TA+ 2, CA-2A, Rapture Pro, Videos, Expansion Packs, Third party products are all available as add-ons and for purchase separately. It was important to distinguish that so people don't think they get everything Cakewalk releases. Since we started this new model of rolling updates last year, there have always been the naysayers who had their reservations. 

 
I keep getting confused about this piece and have not seen a clear answer. If that question will be addressed post June 1, fair enough, but would at least like to get some indication.
You make it sound here as if there is no change compared to today wrt add-ons/content, and that all those will be available as separate purchases. However, until now, Sonar has always come with additional content and in fact the difference between Artist/Pro/Plat is mostly in the bundled extras. In fact a few posts higher, you acknowledge that yourself. Even in the monthly updates some stuff was thrown in and some was only available for Pro/Plat or even Plat alone. Can we expect this to happen in the future as well where some select content (even if it's just light versions) will be thrown in for free for members ?
 
 
 
 

In regards to the question about pricing, let me know quote the actual FAQ from the email (and yes there was an FAQ):
 
So, can I share this store link with my friends? 
Please don’t. As a valued customer, we wanted to share this news with you first. Sharing the link with friends who may not be qualified for the offer will only create confusion and frustration for them, and more work for us. On June 1st, we’ll announce details for all SONAR users. Remember, this special offer is only for you. 

subtlearts

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

subtlearts
Andrew, please rest assured that many of us have considerable faith in CW at this point, based on how things have been handled so far, for a long time and with very few exceptions... so while some of us may indulge in speculation - it's human nature, I'm sure you knew it would happen - and while there are certainly those who seem determined to find the dark conspiracy hidden in everything... a lot of us are just excited to see what's coming down the pipeline!

This is why I told you guys not to share the email or link :)

And I didn't. But I - like what seems like rather a lot of others here - wouldn't have seen that email if someone hadn't leaked it. OK, maybe I would have gotten it a couple of days later if/when you figured out that many of us who had updated this year but through some other channel, weren't seeing it. But I don't think there's any avoiding the fact that there seems to be something fundamentally amiss with your email / newsletter / list / database / server or whatever it is. You spent most of a day, along with other members of the team, updating users' settings and sending emails that in most cases theoretically should have gone out automatically. The extra effort is much appreciated, but maybe tracking down the deeper issue that seems to prevent people who have signed up for emails from actually getting those emails, might be time well spent. Just sayin'... 
 
In any case, while this episode has been instructive on many levels, and maybe could/should have been predicted, and clearly created a lot of unexpected work and management (some might call it Damage Control), it has also resulted in a bunch of people who otherwise might not have gotten the message, sending you a bunch of money. So that part worked out at least! 

You'll be happy to know that this indeed did help us tighten the process and we fixed thousands of records. And I was just kidding, thus the :)

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
These kind of questions haven't really change since SONAR 8.5 or before. There's always a cost to licensing. If we bundled everything under the sun, our licensing fee would be more than the cost of the product. So the answer is the same that has been for a long time. It depends. Of course if it makes sense to bundle a lite version of a product, we'll do it. Case in point, Rapture Pro came out earlier this year. It's available separately. We thought it made sense to put in Rapture Session so customers could experience it and decide if they want the full version. I'm sure these kinds of conversations will come up and we'll need to decide like we always have in the past. 

Ok thanks. This is more clear now and I see how stressing that core thing more had to do with avoiding people would think they would get everything, not just Sonar.
 
 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
In regards to the question about pricing, let me know quote the actual FAQ from the email (and yes there was an FAQ):
 
So, can I share this store link with my friends? 
Please don’t. As a valued customer, we wanted to share this news with you first. Sharing the link with friends who may not be qualified for the offer will only create confusion and frustration for them, and more work for us. On June 1st, we’ll announce details for all SONAR users. Remember, this special offer is only for you. 

Well, I did not get the actual mail since I'm not a SPlat+renewer, so I only saw what was posted in this thread and that appears to just have been an excerpt of the mail as there were no FAQs quoted.
 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
If you are still having issues getting emails, send me a PM. We fixed a lot of issues this week but if you are having a problem, send me a note.
 

PM sent
Kenny