BobXX

I'm asking a suggestion to decide whether is feasible to remain in the Bandlab world after ~20 years of Cakewalk/Sonar/CbB In my band I'm the main user of Cakewalk, I'm not happy to have ANY rented software, but I could anyway consider temporarily the new Sonar pay per use solution. I have other 4 band's member that used free CbB for rare remote contributes on the projects (mainly pre-production). What's the best solution could be for them - staying within Bandlab - considering that a Sonar payed licence for all of them is it totally out of the question? Thanx for help

One thing is that free CbB "support and development is discontinued", a totally different thing is the fact that it will be on purpose stopped working. Why do this ?? Just eliminate the activation and leave CbB working at user's risk ! A good marketing choice could be to have a downgraded free version (e.g. less tracks) and a Premium complete version, but not pay per use. I'm using Cakewalk @home since it was just "Cakewalk" ~20 years ago, then Sonar Producer & Platinum (free and purchased updates) with a lot of plugins added. Not for professional use. Within my band I used to use the "Top" version for myself to organize the main job (mainly preproduction and intros) and the free version for the other components of my band, just for their occasional remote contributions when working on the same preproduction songs. I was going to purchase the new Sonar Premium, to get more features and contribute to its development, I'm happy to, but I stopped because I don't accept it will become a pay-per-use software and free/purchased versions will no longer work because of bad marketing choices. It never happened in the whole Cakewalk history !! It's a short-sight marketing boomerang, it appears to be blackmail that I don't want to submit to. Hope to have misunderstood something.

I'm using Cakewalk since it was just "Cakewalk" ~20 years ago, then Sonar Producer & Platinum (free and purchased updates) with a lot of plugins added. Within my band I used to use the "Top" version for myself to organize the main job (mainly preproduction and intros) and the free version for the other components of my band, just for their occasional remote contributions when working on the same preproduction songs. Now it appears that the free version will no longer be usable with a sort of "trick" saying that it's perpetual but: "Cakewalk by BandLab will no longer offer activation renewal after 1 August 2025. Existing installations will continue to function until their activation period ends." so after 1 month of last activation Cakewalk Sonar free version will be totally unusable !?! 🤐 Am I wrong? I was anyway thinking about purchasing the new Sonar Premium, to get more power and contribute to its development, but I don't absolutely like the fact that any version (free/purchased) will no longer work, I can understand that I won't receive updates, but I need to invest my money on software that remains usable. The last messages I have received make me very upset: if all 5 components of my band have to pay the licence I will be simply be forced to move to another DAW. Please help me clearing what will be the future of Cakewalk Sonar versions. Thank you.