Cakewalk Reviews

Bandlab Has Moved to a Subscription Model and is the Farthest Thing From a Customer-Centric Company

Bandlab has moved to a subscription-only model so if you ever decide not to renew your subscription you will never be able to access any of the songs projects you made with Bandlab software currently Sonar and Next Longtime customers on their forum who politely asked if there is a possibility BandLab may offer perpetual licenses in the future -- as most DAW developers that offer subscriptions also offer a perpetual license option Apple being a notable exception Not only did the company refuse to answer a completely obnoxious BandLab employee named Jonathan berated every customer who asked the question and let everyone know that he s sick and tired of people asking lashing out again at customers for asking a question in a separate forum after he shut down the first thread A short time later BandLab created a new forum policy to censor its customers from asking more questions it didn t want to answer including -- going as far as banning any mention of any BandLab competitor DAW on their forum and instituting a policy that anyone who mentions a competitor can be banned I asked about the policy if it included merely comparing features from a competitor s DAW and suggested that BandLab would do well to allow that and my account was quickly suspended as was another long time Cakewalk Forum member It blew my mind -- and I m someone who s led digital including social media at a major brands It s pretty much unheard of for a brand to engage in those kinds of practices in the age of social media Really surprising in the worst kind of way My opinion is that BandLab s software is decent certainly not the best in its category When you can buy a superior DAW like Studio Pro One with a perpetual license or on a subscription and the software will still work even if you end cancel your subscription BandLab s practice of subscription-only and if you end your subscription you can no longer access your project files songs becomes a dealbreaker In short BandLab holds your projects hostage until you pay their fee Add to that BandLab s forum -- Cakewalk Forum -- used to be a very customer-friendly open place until recently when they switched to their version of a subscription-only model and now they have no tolerance for questions no tolerance for civil criticism or suggestions and have moved to a customer-hostile censorship oriented style on their forum that really stands out as the worst practices I ve ever seen for even a small brand Comparing BandLab s DAW to a competitor or asking a basic question about product licensing are forbidden I can t support a company that treats their customers that engages in such customer-hostile practices BandLab has strayed far from the very friendly and generous company it once was to now behaving more like a North Korean police state It s disappointing and I don t look forward to converting my files from BandLab s DAW to -- in my case -- Studio Pro One But I was recently contacted my another Cakewalk Forum member that a developer is hard at work on a tool that converts Cakewalk by Bandlab and Sonar files over to the Studio Pro One format It s still in beta but I am hoping it works well At first it appeared the company which bought Cakewalk s software owned by a billionaire trust fund kid might really care about customers That was quickly proven to be far from reality I suppose that s not a giant shock Consequently I d strongly recommend to anyone considering BandLab Cakewalk Sonar Next doesn t merely walk away from BandLab but runs There are much better options from companies that treat their customers with respect