Finale has Ended!

[AB9]

Just got an email that Finale is final.  Sounds funny but it really is not.

For us folks using Finale for a decade or decades, it is super bad news.

And buy the way, these products were purchased.   

Anyone else here affected by this?  I assume so.

[Shane_B.]

I just checked out their website. 

They are really putting the final nail in the coffin.

You won't be able to reactivate it as of 8/25 if you need to reinstall it, get a new PC, etc. etc..

They are offering a massive discount to crossgrade to the competitor they recommend though. If I were in Finale owners' shoes I'd do that immediately and get it over with to nip that learning curve in the bud as soon as possible.

Sorry to hear this is happening. ☹️

[AB9]

Yes - August 2025 is when it can no longer be authorized on a new install or new machine.

Finale was such a pain to learn, perhaps it is time to learn a different program.  But it would be nice if another program could read finale files.

[mettelus]

That is a real bummer... I thought they were actually closing shop so wondered why they didn't just unlock the last version to be perpetual, but alas they are still around and this blurb is right near the top of their page: "MakeMusic has partnered with Steinberg, the makers of Dorico, to offer exclusive crossgrade pricing on Dorico Pro." Since they are still around, the disabling of the activations of paid for versions is a bit odd to see, but they are forcing a new product onto people.

[Notes_Norton]

It's sad when a software you depend on, and especially when you have system exclusive files with, goes belly-up.

I'm still limping with Master Tracks Pro  on an XP computer. 

I try to avoid anything that isn't permanently purchased. Even then, it's not safe. Once a product goes subscription, you know they are fighting for their life and it's time to start making a Plan B.

[TheMaartian]

Steinberg? No thanks.

Take a look and MuseScore Studio v4. It's much improved from earlier versions with an all-new UI. And it's FREE. They have ways to monetize it, like sub'ing access to written scores, but for new personal score creation, it's free. Also, the have a download link for the app in addition to Muse Hub. To start with, I'd suggest Muse Hub. There's a lot there, plenty of it free.

MuseScore Studio

 

Edited August 28 by John Maar

[AB9]

Another email today with changes to the Finale Announcement:
 

Dear valued Finale customer,

Earlier this week, we announced the end of development on Finale. Based on your feedback, we have these important updates to our original announcement:

Finale authorization will remain available indefinitely

We've heard your concerns. They are valid. We originally announced that it would no longer be possible to reauthorize Finale after August 26th, 2025. But as a result of our community’s feedback, Finale authorization will remain active for the foreseeable future. Please note that future OS changes can still impact your ability to use Finale on new devices. 

Finale v27 to be included with Dorico Pro Crossgrades

We are currently working on a solution for all customers who have purchased or intend to purchase a Dorico Pro crossgrade to be able to download Finale v27. This will ensure that you can export your Finale files using MusicXML 4.0, the most robust version of MusicXML available. Thank you for your patience, we will provide more information soon.

We hope these updates will help make your transition to Dorico even easier. We will continue to provide updates about the Finale sunset as more information becomes available. 

For the latest information and all updates about this change, please refer to this letter from MakeMusic President Greg Dell’Era:

[Leizer]

I'm an active Finale user since 1995. The worst thing for me isn't learning a new program, it is the 3000+ Finale files that I can't open in another program than Finale, you need to have them in XML-format. And import it as XML will only do half the work...

I'm glad they changed there mind so you can authorize it in the future. I use the latest version now, but until last year I was using Finale2011 with no problem. Hopefully I can use Finale v27 for another 10 years at least. 🙈

[craigb]

So, like most band gigs, the Finale decided to have an encore? 🤔

[AB9]

Bandlab - here is an opportunity!  Buy Finale!  Then figure out how to incorporate it in Sonar!!!

[Notes_Norton]

Many years ago, before standard MIDI files, I used a primitive, floppy disk drive, sequencer in a Yamaha keyboard. It wrote MIDI files in the Yamaha proprietary language, as there was no standard.

Standard MIDI files came out, but I was already invested in this keyboard with hundreds of songs. Then one day, the keyboard died, and I lost about 300 songs. Once standard MIDI files came around, everybody adopted it, and abandoned the old proprietary languages.

From then on, I have never purchased anything that didn't save in a standard format. I bought Master Tracks Pro that saves in proprietary mtp format, but also saves in .mid, so everything gets saved in standard MIDI files. Audio gets saved in WAV or for on stage, high rez mp3. 

This month I am redoing a few of my older songs that were saved in Standard MIDI but an early version, before General MIDI, so I'm changing drum note numbers, and making them better. I've learned a lot about making music since the 1980s.

That's also the reason I tend to rely on hardware MIDI instead of software synths. I have songs with sounds from the TX81z, MT-32, i3 and other old machines. Some of them are as old as Windows 3.1 and DOS 5. Operating systems have improved, and just about everything from those days won't work on a modern computer. But I still have those songs and those sounds. Sure, some of the sounds are dated, and a lot of them sound lame today, but others still sound stellar and can't be reproduced by more modern synths. 

So my sympathy goes out to all who are using the soon to be orphaned Finale. If the files are proprietary, start exporting while it's still working.

 

Notes ♫

[kitekrazy]

19 hours ago, AB99 said:

Bandlab - here is an opportunity!  Buy Finale!  Then figure out how to incorporate it in Sonar!!!

Now that notation is in Studio One they never bother with Notion.

I guess the market for scoring apps isn't as big as it use to be if that's the only thing you develop,

Two  of the most popular DAWs don't have notation.   

[mettelus]

1 hour ago, kitekrazy1 said:

Now that notation is in Studio One they never bother with Notion.

Yeah, I am not sure if Notion has been touched at all since it was absorbed beyond the initial streamlining. Notion 6 has been static for years now.

[kitekrazy]

Transitioning between scoring apps is far more annoying than switching DAWs.  Everything you do in Finale is a habit and then the others don't work the same way,

[Bapu]

Nver had Finale. I have Notion. But just picked up Dorico 5 Pro on sale.

 

All I need now is the smarts to use it.

[jesse g]

2 hours ago, Bapu said:

Nver had Finale. I have Notion. But just picked up Dorico 5 Pro on sale.

 

All I need now is the smarts to use it.

Bapu,

Did we see Installed !!! for the Dorico 5 Pro??

Edited August 30 by jesse g

[ptheisen]

I'm probably going to purchase Dorico 5 Elements, also 50% off. Elements has a surprisingly high percentage of the pro features, missing only some of the things that people creating scores for publication might need. I don't need those things, so I think Elements is a great value at the sale price.

You may also want to check out NotePerformer, which works with Dorico Pro/Elements, and uses AI to interpret the score and automatically translate the markings into all kinds of  manipulations, resulting in very expressive performances when playing back well marked scores. This reduces the amount of smarts needed to achieve that 😉. Think of it as an alternative to spending hours and hours on midi editing,  envelopes, articulation maps, etc, in a DAW.

[paulo]

On 8/28/2024 at 11:12 PM, craigb said:

So, like most band gigs, the Finale decided to have an encore? 🤔

I hate the way bands do that......I always wish that everyone would just leave really quickly after they say goodnight and leave the stage having deliberately not played the song that everyone knows full well they are going to play at some point. 

[Bapu]

7 hours ago, paulo said:

I hate the way bands do that......I always wish that everyone would just leave really quickly after they say goodnight and leave the stage having deliberately not played the song that everyone knows full well they are going to play at some point. 

Free Bird!!!!!

[craigb]