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Backstage Pass and Sonar Pricing


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7 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

I seriously doubt that is the case. Just my opinion of course. It's like you pay to try it out and when they come up with a price you pay again.
Now, I have said many times, I am READY to pay (NOT for ANY type of subscription). IMHO, the subscription BS to use Sonar now is just another way to GET $$$$. Yes I said that!
Why? Well they state it's NOT a beta-then come up with a price. Period!

I also have been getting familiar again with Reaper and sincne I forgot most of what I know I can buy another DAW product and really nothing lost for me. Does make me sad though-after32+ years!

I don't mind paying for Sonar, either. But, I have a sour taste on subscription plans, here or anywhere else, To me, it's just a constant money grab.

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I do not mind the subscription or plan idea at all.

I have asked some questions for clarification - such as - does bandlab membership include Sonar - with no extra fee?  Just want to know.  I do think it is time for Bandlab to start clarifying pricing, whatever it is.

There are often critiques on this forum and almost always they are made to make sure the product and presentation of the product improves.

Imho, no one should abandon Cakewalk or Sonar.   It is a great, deep, reliable program and for me, it is especially important because I can open files from decades ago in various iterations of Cakewalk/Sonar.  And good luck finding a DAW with as helpful people as the Bakers with this forum, etc.

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24 minutes ago, Alan Bachman said:

I do not mind the subscription or plan idea at all.

I would rather have a perpetual licence - a similar way that Sonar Platinum was offered (before the lifetime licence was offered). 

Making 12 consecutive monthly, or one annual payment, gives you a version that keeps working.

If any updates are released while you have an active membership, you have access to those updates.

If, after the 12 consecutive monthly, or the one annual payment, you decide to stop renewing your membership, then you keep the version you had when you stopped renewing.

What I definitely would not like is for the only way to keep using Sonar is via membership.  I think that would annoy a lot of users.

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53 minutes ago, Alan Bachman said:

I do not mind the subscription or plan idea at all.

I have asked some questions for clarification - such as - does bandlab membership include Sonar - with no extra fee?  Just want to know.  I do think it is time for Bandlab to start clarifying pricing, whatever it is.

There are often critiques on this forum and almost always they are made to make sure the product and presentation of the product improves.

Imho, no one should abandon Cakewalk or Sonar.   It is a great, deep, reliable program and for me, it is especially important because I can open files from decades ago in various iterations of Cakewalk/Sonar.  And good luck finding a DAW with as helpful people as the Bakers with this forum, etc.

It includes both Sonar and Next at no extra fee which is a great value if you do the math. Also included are all the standard BandLab membership perks like distribution promotion etc.

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22 minutes ago, Promidi said:

I would rather have a perpetual licence - a similar way that Sonar Platinum was offered (before the lifetime licence was offered). 

Making 12 consecutive monthly, or one annual payment, gives you a version that keeps working.

If any updates are released while you have an active membership, you have access to those updates.

If, after the 12 consecutive monthly, or the one annual payment, you decide to stop renewing your membership, then you keep the version you had when you stopped renewing.

What I definitely would not like is for the only way to keep using Sonar is via membership.  I think that would annoy a lot of users.

We’re looking into other package options. Anything like that involves back end, and has a lot of other moving parts which is why there is a delay in information being made available.

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4 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

We’re looking into other package options. Anything like that involves back end, and has a lot of other moving parts which is why there is a delay in information being made available.

I am very confident that this is a case of “All good things come to those who wait”....

I have no doubt that this whole thing has many moving parts....  there is also change management to consider...

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33 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

It includes both Sonar and Next at no extra fee which is a great value if you do the math. Also included are all the standard BandLab membership perks like distribution promotion etc.

Thank you Noel.  So the bandlab membership includes Sonar, with no extra fee beyond the bandlab membership.   And if one is a bandlab member, then there is no additional fee for Sonar.   All good inho.  That is fair pricing.  And no one has to use the other membership perks.  

And as you said, if later they figure out other Sonar pricing that does not include the membership, great.

 

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I have been following the posts regarding the new (???) Sonar and would like to make some suggestions regarding the pricing of the product.

I believe it would be very interesting, including from the perspective of Marketing and Sales strategy, to propose different prices for the continents. I think this would be very interesting for propagation and even reaching more users.

All of this is due to the exchange rate relationship that exists for us in Latin America, Africa, etc., causing the exchange rate difference between our currency and the dollar.

For North Americans, Canadians, Europeans, etc. to have this perception, to compare $1.00 (one American dollar) we, Brazilians, have to pay R$5.26 (five reais and twenty-six cents) today.

Imagine if the price already stipulated in dollars today in all situations were multiplied by 5.....

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@Milton Sica  

Not sure what you are saying as we are a global community as well as most people these days purchase items directly from many countries. 


I live on the border and Washington USA is 10 minutes from my house. So we often even go grocery shopping there. 
 

But over the years we keep a close eye on the exchange rate. We have always looked at prices and had to calculate that into the cost. 

Right now is pretty bad as Canadian dollar is down to $.73 so if I see an item for $1. it is as actually costing me approximately $1.27. 

It is entirely up to your chosen payment method what you will be  charged as an exchange rate. And many credit cards also add on a fee for foreign transactions. We found a card that doesn’t. This saves us 1.4 %.
 

So pricing is based on US dollars for Bandlab and it  is not up to them to offer different prices for different currencies. That’s not how things work. 
 

I just bought a plug in from Germany so it was listed in Euros.  That’s even more @ a $1.48 Can right now. 

Im not sure why people are going on and on about the pricing? Is that the only reason people liked Cakewalk was because it was free? That’s not why I use it. I used it because it’s still the one I like the most.
So to me it’s simple. If you like it you buy it, if you don’t like it then please stop thinking about what it will cost. Move on.  

 

Edited by John Vere
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1 hour ago, John Vere said:

@Milton Sica  

Not sure what you are saying as we are a global community as well as most people these days purchase items directly from many countries. 

 

 

I live in Brazil where the Real/Dollar exchange rate is 5/1.

In other countries in our Latin America the exchange rate disparity is even greater. If we talk about African countries, certainly even more so.

So, for those who live in a first world country like you, the exchange rate variation is not significant, but for those of us in the third, fourth, fifth world, pricing is something important in our options.

You ask: Did they stay at Cakewalk because it was free?

The answer is a resounding YES!

Therefore, I am completely sure that, as citizens of countries on this side of the world, we always produce our work with free plugins, free applications, etc.

I don't know if I understood the topic, but I tried.

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1 hour ago, John Vere said:

 

 . . . . not sure why people are going on and on about the pricing? 

From what I have seen there are a number of reasons covering a wide range of motives.  But I'm saving up my thoughts for an April Fools' Day post.  🤪 

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1 hour ago, John Vere said:

Not sure what you are saying as we are a global community as well as most people these days purchase items directly from many countries. 

well, bandlab are in singapore so why don't they use the local currency like most companies? then you'd have to deal with the conversion from $$ (at the time of this post = $0.75) although this often (especially for small companies) relies on a third party "shop" provider

not sure what we're arguing about here? 🤔

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Obviously, at this point in time, we can only speculate. But it seems a reasonable assumption to me that Bandlab's core business is in driving membership signups. And therefore they're going to want Next and Sonar to contribute to that.

There is of course a bit of a tension between that and the value to customers who want to use Sonar, but have no use for any of the Bandlab features. That certainly describes me; I'm not involved, and not planning to be involved in the distribution of any of the stuff I work on. And I'm not in the market for the kind of collaboration tools Bandlab provides.

So the question is two-fold, I think. Firstly, is Sonar going to be available outside of Bandlab membership? And secondly, does that matter to you or not?

I'd say for myself, I don't really care either way, as long as the cost is reasonable for what I use. Which the current membership is to my mind. ~$15 a month is fine by me.

My current guess is that they're going to launch as membership-only and see what happens. But of course, that's only a guess.

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3 minutes ago, John T said:

is Sonar going to be available outside of Bandlab membership?

i'll bet a shiny euro that no, it won't be, at least not for some time and hoo-har

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Yeah, that's my gut feeling.

I think that makes more sense for Next, which doesn't have an existing user base, and seems more suited to integration with the overall Bandlab thing. But for Sonar, I think it would certainly ruffle some feathers. I suppose we'll see.

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Here is a way I am looking at it for now:

I am purchasing Sonar by buying the bandlab membership.  And I am considering that the bandlab membership is basically of no cost.

The price for Sonar, including its continued sustainabability with enough funds, and updates, is all worth it for the price of the bandlab membership.

(I am not saying this for "Next."  And I certainly support those that want other pricing.  But if the price is too low and the Bakers cannot make a decent salary, etc., then eventually we have an unstable platform.)

Edited by Alan Bachman
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I wasn’t arguing I was just trying to explain international trade. @Milton Sica does bring up a sad truth about what will happen to many people that started relying on the free version.
I can tell by the names of my subscribers just how global Cakewalk has become. 

As we all know a huge population of this planet live in absolute poverty. But big business is big business and so these people in a way will be victims of a marketing strategy that has now become very apparent. 
They will be cut off with only choice being something like Audacity. 
This has given me an idea! Hmm. 
 

As a note I logged into the Next Discord chat room and all of a sudden some of those people are wondering why they are being asked to activate. Seems the beta testing of Next has also ended.
Anyhow if you were only interested in Next and not Sonar then $15 a month is a little steep. I rate Next as being worth around $50 -$100 based on its simplicity. Not based on quality, just features. 

Edited by John Vere
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