Originally Posted By: Jim Fogle
Originally Posted By: MarioD
FWIW - Cakewalk's upgrade policy, around $100 for lifetime upgrades, was great for the consumer but an absolutely a killer for the company. How can a company make money giving away free upgrades forever? IMHO none!


On the other hand, the lifetime updates for free model has worked well for +++ Image-Line +++, otherwise known as FL STUDIO.

I can't agree free updates was what done Cakewalk wrong as long as a competitor can offer the same feature and it works for them.

Nope. There is something else that no one from Cakewalk or Gibson has disclosed. Don't know what it is but there is a part to the "downfall of Cakewalk" that hasn't been made public yet and may not ever be made public.


Good point. But imagine-line also sells a lot of plugin-ins, both effects and synths. Cakewalk did not go that route. Yes they did have a few for sale but they gave more away with the free updates.

I agree that there was something else behind the scenes, maybe Gibson's big debt problem, that we may never know but I still think the free updates without selling plug-ins was a big cause. YMMV

PS- also note that this is not the first sequencer/DAW Gibson ruined. Remember Vision? I was a huge fan of Vision. When Gibson killed that one was when I went to Cakewalk.

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