Make it more free

[Rafael Cortazio]

Hello.

I've been using the program recently and I think it's amazing! However, although the program is free, the program should be totally free... without needing activation or storing the activation in the installation package, activating offline and simply using it without needing an assistant program to activate it because I won't always have internet ... what I say is to use the program without needing internet for anything. As in the LMMS program for example. Just download it once and that's it...

[Lost Phases]

On 3/24/2022 at 8:03 AM, Rafael Cortazio said:

Hello.

I've been using the program recently and I think it's amazing! However, although the program is free, the program should be totally free... without needing activation or storing the activation in the installation package, activating offline and simply using it without needing an assistant program to activate it because I won't always have internet ... what I say is to use the program without needing internet for anything. As in the LMMS program for example. Just download it once and that's it...

U don't need internet connection to use Cakewalk, u just have to connect it with the internet atleast once every 6 months to refresh the activation, if u r on a machine which doesn't have internet connection u can use the Bandlab Assistant to export th license file from a machine which has internet connection and then copy it to ur Cakewalk machine and import the license for offline activation.

Edited March 27, 2022 by In A Week

[Lost Phases]

Also, LMMS is open source so that's why it doesn't require an activation license, Cakewalk is definitely not open source even tho it's free.

[Jim Fogle]

Cakewalk has explained in other posts that, while free they still need a way to ensure the product stays up-to-date and provide feedback to the owner approximately how many computers Cakewalk is on.

Updates occur frequently but you only have to authenticate every six months.  Authentication resets the renewal timer for another six months.  Authentication verifies how many computers Cakewalk is on.

[scook]

9 minutes ago, Jim Fogle said:

Cakewalk has explained in other posts that, while free they still need a way to ensure the product stays up-to-date and provide feedback to the owner approximately how many computers Cakewalk is on.

This

 

[Starship Krupa]

On 3/23/2022 at 7:33 PM, Rafael Cortazio said:

what I say is to use the program without needing internet for anything

Well, I guess you could wish for that, but it's not going to happen. Cakewalk's licensing model is a free subscription. I compare it to TapeOp magazine where each issue is delivered at no charge, but once a year I have to fill out a questionnaire to renew it.

In this day and age, it is not unreasonable to expect a person to be able to access the internet once every six months, especially since you must connect to the internet to download it in the first place.

There's a reason that LMMS lacks features that Cakewalk has (notably the ability to record audio). That reason is that Cakewalk was originally developed in a commercial environment and has commercial backing. And although Bandlab provide Cakewalk as a brand-building premium to encourage people to make music, they also want to know how many people are using it, which is not unreasonable. They also want to ensure that users know about updates and improvements, because it's a prestige product for them, and very dependent on word-of-mouth promotion.

Do people actually download and install a DAW then disconnect the computer and have no interest in further updates? Maybe so, but it's an alien concept to me. I like new features and bug fixes.