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On the Mac from 1988: “Finale is no longer the future of the music notation industry”

02/09/2024

Ending after nearly four decades: MakeMusic’s music notation program Finale will no longer be available, whether for macOS or Windows. The developer announced it last week on his blog to. “After more than 35 years, we have decided to discontinue Finale and all of its products – PrintMusic, Notepad, and Songwriter. We would like to express our deep gratitude to all of our loyal users,” the company writes. Finale is no longer “the future of the music notation industry” – this is a reality that needs to be faced honestly after 35 years. “Rather than releasing new versions of Finale that will provide marginal value to our users, we have decided to discontinue development of Finale.”

MakeMusic points to alternatives

MakeMusic president Greg Dell’Era now wants users to switch to other programs. This should be especially Dorico Pro Regardless, it comes from Steinberg. Finale and PrintMusic customers can get a discount – instead of $579, a license costs just $149. There are also plans to make Finale v27 available for download for users crossgrading to Dorico Pro so they can export their Finale files using MusicXML 4.0 – “the most robust version of MusicXML”.

MakeMusic’s president wrote in an update to the original announcement that authorization of Finale should be possible “forever”. However, it may happen that changes in the operating system cause problems. Originally, authorization was to be allowed for one year only. The Finale installer for the package once purchased will also remain available for download from the MakeMusic “eStore” – probably at least until August 2025. No further technical support is planned for Finale or PrintMusic.

The long story is even longer

Development of Finale began in the mid-1980s, with the first version appearing in 1988. It was initially intended for the Macintosh II, SE, and Mac Plus. A Windows version was later added. Since then, the application has evolved regularly.