I thought there might be discussion of Finale here today

@ToddWilcox @ElementsInSpace Okay, I'll contribute a little. Only hears the news when scanning latest messages of this room. Wow, first competition casualty. Have never heard / used Dorico Pro before. Used Finale and Sibelius more than 15 years ago, then a hiatus for 13 years. When I start using Notation software again, I discovered MuseScore which fills my need, especially convenient to modify scores other has made for my own purpose (adding annotation, etc.)

such as this one that I'm working on currently, to correct some notes and to add missing annotations that are present in the Violin part (from Suzuki book).

Since I had been away for so long, what are your opinion on plus/minuses of Sibelius, Dorico Pro, and MuseScore (apart from the pricing)?

I'm somewhat upset at their sunset policy (from the faq):

> What if my computer crashes? Can I redownload Finale?

> Yes, you will still have access to download registered products from your MakeMusic account page, and you can continue to authorize Finale on compatible operating systems through August 25th, 2025.

> Effective August 26th, 2025, it will no longer be possible to reauthorize Finale after installing it on a new computer. As previously stated, your existing authorized Finale installations will continue to work as long as your current computer is working.

About the "reauthorize Finale", they should provide a software update mechanism like Adobe where the reauthorize is disabled. I have been using their ancient Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional and reinstall it whenever I have a new system several times. I guess they are too insecure thinking that their customers would just use that old version forever and not upgrade to Dorico Pro.

@ElementsInSpace Wow, didn't realize you can produce pitches with it. Thanks for sharing.

How does anyone resist the urge to use Finale Finale as the headline?

@Aaron Sonicstate.com cannot resist: It's the Finale for Finale. So can't this forum thread: The End of Finale (Finale Finale?).

This forum thread has many long-time users reacting to the news. One of them suggested to make it open source like Cakewalk. I agree. I also learn from the thread that MuseScore was bought by Hal Leonard in Dec 2023 ! I hope it stays open source with v5. I notice this site is big on Lilypond. Maybe I should start investing in learning Lilypond?

@Aaron Another phrase is "Finale has finally entered its Coda" (Source)

Dorico Blog article is appropriately conciliatory and sympathetic; offers a short history of Finale as a tribute along with other notation software.

For users considering to migrate from Finale to Dorico, here's Dorico FAQ. I wish they would commit to work on direct import from Finale in the next 1 year, rather than having to go via MusicXML intermediate format. If they say that, they can win more customers crossgrading rather than losing them Sibelius / MuseScore.

Dorico also made a series of a 4-part on Switching from Finale to Dorico by professional engraver Ben Bryam-Wigfield.

@GratefulDisciple clever. Maybe this is all a deceptive cadence and there will be a second ending

@Aaron That's a good one. I do hope it's a deceptive cadence myself, and that the real ending will be in the major key in a triumphant mode where (because their customers are clamoring for it), they would follow Cakewalk to donate the source code to open source.