The activation process for BandLab Cakewalk (and the new Cakewalk Sonar) has undergone significant changes following the software's transition from a free standalone product to a model integrated with BandLab Membership. Users must now maintain their activation status roughly every to retain full functionality like saving and exporting. Common Activation Feedback
Cakewalk by BandLab is free, but it isn't "abandonware." It uses a legacy licensing system to verify that the software hasn't been tampered with. Every few months, the software "phones home" to BandLab’s servers to renew a token. bandlab cakewalk activation