The Death of Finale

[Updated August 27, 2024]

Hey everyone, it’s Garrett and I’m recording this on Tuesday evening August 27, 2024.

This is an important update to the podcast episode that aired this morning.  I know some people take a few days to catch up with their podcast listening and so I wanted to make sure that when they do, they have all the most current information.  I’m going to say a few additional things right now and then air the episode as previously broadcast.  So, if you did listen to that original episode hang with me for a few more minutes.

The biggest update is that in response to public pressure, Finale has announced that they WILL continue supporting new authorizations of Finale indefinitely.  In other words, there will be no limit on how many times you can uninstall or reinstall Finale in the future, should the need arise.  For example, if you purchased a new computer, or needed to reformat your hard drive, or something like that.  Personally, I hope they’ll eventually just get rid of the need to authorize altogether, but for now I’ll take the win. 

However, and this is important, this does NOT change ANYTHING I said with regards to the potential for software upgrades or iOS upgrades to cause havoc.  If you update your operating system you are opening yourself up to risk that Finale will no longer function. 

However, I should also mention that it is very common in the professional music industry to use older versions of software for as long as humanly possible.  Unless there is a significant new feature, many many composers and studios will use old software until it drops dead.  I myself am still using ProTools 11 on a regular basis, which is more than ten years old at this point.  And it continues to function despite the fact that I have kept my system up to date.  I am willing to take that risk with ProTools because I have other options if it goes down.  If keeping your system up to date is important for other reasons, if you have two computers you could always update one, see if Finale works, and then update the other.  My point is that we just don’t know.  Finale could work for another decade, or it could fail in October when the new iPhone comes out.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

The other announcement made by Finale is that they are working with Dorico to include a copy of Finale version 27 to be included with the special crossgrade purchase of Dorico Pro.  This is significant because one of the features included in Finale 27 is the ability to export files to Music XML 4.0 which includes much more data than previous versions of XML.  So, in plain English, for those of you working in Finale 26 or earlier, by using Finale 27 to export those files, you will be able to retain more information.

I’d also like to say a few more words about Music XML because I’ve been hearing a lot of questions about that today.

MusicXML was designed to be a universal file format for notation software to talk to each other, in much the same way that Mp3 is a universal file format for recorded audio.  It is similar to MIDI, but unlike MIDI, which only carries notes, rhythms, and playback info, Music XML will also transfer things like articulations, slurs, dynamics, text markings, and so on.  What is does not transfer, at least not entirely accurately is the formatting and layout of the file, although XML 4.0 does include the ability to save linked parts which is a big plus.  You will get the best results by fine tuning your templates in Dorico and Sibelius FIRST, then you can import your XML file and rather than waste time editing that file, COPY the information into your template, which, if you’ve created it to match the old style will allow you to preserve much of the information that gets lost in XML.

As I said in the main episode, you 100% SHOULD export every finale file you’ve ever made into XML and PDF, however I don’t think it will be worth the time IMPORTING all of those into Dorico or Sibelius unless you have a project that calls for it.  Although, importing some of them might be a good exercise in learning the software or help in building your new temples.

One final update, it also been confirmed by Michael Good, the creator of the XML format, that files exported in the COMPRESSED format will retain more information than those in the UNCOMPRESSED format.  I’m sure more will be coming on best practices for XML in the future and I will do my best to pass those along as I hear them.

I know that was kind of a lot, which is why I felt the need to record something new.  But with that, here is the rest of the episode, which originally aired this morning.  And just a reminder, as of right now everything in that episode should still be accurate, except for the part about authorizations  or installations after 2025.  Thanks for listening and here is the rest of the show.

Original Episode [August 26, 2024]

Hello everyone and welcome to this most UNWELCOME emergency podcast episode regarding yesterday’s announcement that Finale Notation Software, and related tools PrintMusic, Notepad, and Songwriter have officially ended development.  I haven’t talked a lot about notation software on this show, despite it being essential to sheet music, mostly because it is covered so well in other places, there’s the Scoring Notes blog, Jasson Loffredo’s conquering finale blog, as well as numerous Facebook groups and YouTube channels.  But it’s hard to overstate how big this news is, so I felt like I had to weigh in.

So today we’re going to take a look at what happened, why it happened, and most importantly, what finale users need to do to protect their music and make a successful transition to a different program.  I’m going to walk through everything in this episode, you’ll also be able to find it in written form at sellingsheetmusic.com, and I have a lot of material to share in the episode notes as well.  That will include statements from both Finale and Dorico, FAQs from both, a series of tutorial videos for those switching from Finale to Dorico, as well as the article written by friend of the show Phillip Rothman, from ScoringNotes.  All required reading in my mind to get up to speed with what has happened here.

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about my personal feelings because that’s not why you’re here.  But as a Finale user of 20 years it’s definitely not welcome news that this tool I’ve relied on my entire career will no longer be available, even if the replacement being offered has a brighter future.  I know a lot of people feel blindsided today, a lot of people feel angry today.  And although I was pretty upset with the way this was rolled out, ultimately I recognize that realistically there was never going to be a way to discontinue an institution like this, and keep everybody happy.  So maybe there is some virtue in just ripping off the band-aid.

I’ve spent the day reaching out to contacts and sources within the industry and getting their take on things.  And a common theme that I kept hearing was that things might be rough in the short term but ultimately work out better for users in the long term.  So with that in mind I’m going to share some thoughts today that will hopefully make that short term less stressful.  And as this develops over the weeks and months I will do my best to share more information and resources as they become available.

WHAT HAPPENED:

So here are the specifics of what was actually announced yesterday:

• As of yesterday, August 25 it is no longer possible to purchase a new copy of Finale.
• There will be no further updates or upgrades made to the software (we’ll talk about that more in a little bit)
• It IS still possible to authorize already purchased copies of Finale onto new devices, but ONLY until August 2025.
• Technical support for current users will also continue until August 2025.

In their announcement, Finale also officially endorsed Dorico, encouraging all users to migrate to the software and announcing a limited time cross-grade price of $149 for all Finale users wanting to make the switch to Dorico Pro (which is normally priced at $579.)

What this means is that if you are currently a Finale user, Finale will continue to work for as long as your computer allows it.  How long that is true likely depends on how long you can go without updating your operating system.  Apple releases their new iOS every fall and Windows periodically issues updates as well.  And there’s no telling how the current version of Finale will interact with future updates.  It might continue to work but just be a little buggy, or it might refuse to open at all.

WHAT DO COMPOSERS NEED TO DO:

Ok, for you finale users listening, let’s talk about next steps.

The first thing you need to do, is make sure you have automatic updates turned OFF on your computer.  Pause this episode, go do that, then come back.  Once you’ve done that, you can stop panicking.  But first you need to make absolutely sure that your computer is not going to install any software updates without asking you first.  I’ll say it again, as long as there are no changes to your operating system, Finale should continue to work potentially for years to come.  But that’s not a long term solution, because eventually you’ll to buy a new computer.

Once you’ve taken care of that.  The next step is to start looking into Dorico, Sibelius, and MuseScore.  In my mind, those are the only realistic alternatives, and for professional composers and engravers my personal opinion is that it really comes down to Dorico or Sibelius.  But depending on what you do, especially if you’re only writing for smaller ensembles, and you’ve got your settings really dialed in, then MuseScore is a great option as well.  Of the three, MuseScore has by far the most users, on account of it being free.  And it has some really nice features especially with playback.  Sibelius is the next most popular by user, and like finale it is dominant in certain industries in certain parts of the world.  If we’re looking at a head-to-head comparison between Sibelius and Dorico, there are some things Sibelius does better and vice versa.  However I also think we are a long way from seeing everything that Dorico has cooking so that is what I’m most excited about at this point.

But before you can decide WHAT you are switching to, you need to talk to your clients and any collaborators you have and see what their plans are and to make sure you are on the same page.  Whatever you decide, I would not recommend changing software in the middle of a project, so likely this means there will be a transition period of a couple of years where you are working in multiple programs.

WHAT TO DO WITH FINALE FILES:

Now let’s talk about “future proofing” your Finale files.  I looked today and I have over 20,000 Finale Files on my hard drive from past projects.  The majority of them probably won’t be needed ever again, but in my line of work there are all kinds of situations where I need to go back and reference an old file, or make edits, or print extra copies.

To make sure you don’t lose access to all of the work you did in Finale, you will need to export each finale file as an XML file.  This is the best method of transferring data from one notation program to another.  It will preserve the notation itself, and a lot of the markings, but you will also lose a fair amount of formatting and other visual elements.  So, to be safe, you will also want to print or export a PDF of each of your Finale files.  If there are things in the playback that are important to you, you might also consider exporting the MIDI files as well. 

The easiest way to do this is through the FinaleScript plug-in (in the plug-ins menu) which lets you batch export finale files to XML, as well as batch save to MIDI, batch save to graphic, and batch print.  Now, I keep saying specifying batch because what this plug-in does it take whatever folder you assign it to, and then it performs the action on that folder.  So you could put every single one of your Finale files into the same folder, batch export to XML, MIDI, and PDF, and you’re done.

Now what if you’re like me and you have thousands of finale files in different locations on your computer.  You can use the search function on the Finder Window on Mac or the File Explorer on PC to search by file type. 

So what I did was select the D drive which is where I keep all of my project files.  I typed *.mus and it pulled up every finale file on the drive.  From there I hit control-a to select all and I copied it into a new folder.  It’s shockingly painless.  The only quirk is at least on windows, you need that asterik in there so it only searches file type, not file title.  The batch export function from Finale will take significantly longer, but it’s doable within a day.  You just need to keep an eye on it because if an incorrect file type slips through it will hiccup and wait for you to manually skip the file.

I’m going to make separate posts later in the week on just this part, but I wanted to make sure you had the info now because it definitely eased my anxiety to know I could assemble all of my files that quickly.

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, ONCE YOU DO THIS YOU NEED TO SAVE IT IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.  AT LEAST TWO in the real world and at least one in the cloud.

I may also decide to buy a cheap laptop, install finale, and then never connect it to the internet and only pull it out if I need to edit an old file.  That may be overkill, but for certain quick tasks that may be worth the effort.

HOW WE GOT HERE:

Let’s end today by talking a little bit about how we got here and what it means for the industry.  And there are a few key points I want to highlight. 

The first is that Finale as a company, made the determination that all versions of Finale would be backwards compatible.  That meant that whatever the current version of Finale was, it would be able to open and read files created in previous versions.  And since its original code was written in 1988 that eventually became a bigger and bigger drag on the software.  As computing changed, more and more work was required just to keep the program functioning, they ended up with millions of lines of code, and it just got harder and harder to add new features and innovations.

The second point is kind of an ugly truth that doesn’t get talked about very much.  But the reality is that most of the tools professional musicians rely on are funded by the dollars of hobbyists.  The power users working in finale every day composing for a living are not where the company’s profits come from.  There’s just not enough of us!  The profits end up coming from students or amateur musicians.  And there was always this kind of underlying tension there, because the sometimes features that power users wanted didn’t make sense financially to implement because they wouldn’t be used by enough users. 

And then you have the rise of web-based applications like MuseScore which are open source and free and grew so fast that they eventually had more users than Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico combined.

And so you get what was described to me as this “perfect storm” where Finale had a large userbase but it was bleeding cash, and the long term prospects were not great.

And this is where it seems Dorico made a very big move.  I’m not privy to any details, but it seems obvious to me that Finale would not have moved so quickly to push its users towards another application without there being some kind of a deal in place.  And the Dorico blog is calling this announcement a “strategic partnership.”  So, I suspect there is more to it than just Dorico paying for Finale’s endorsement and so I’m very curious to see what the next couple of months will bring.

All this of course is happening against the backdrop of MuseScore buying Hal Leonard late last year.  And I don’t want to read too much into that, but clearly, we are in a time where the players in the music industry are not afraid to take really big swings.  And more often than not, it’s music technology that’s at the core of these big moves.  Buckle up folks, cause I think this is just the beginning.

I want to end with a personal thank you to the many developers that have worked on Finale over the years, as well as those who donated their time and talents creating plug-ins and tutorials and LUA scripts and moderating Facebook groups and writing blogs and doing all sorts of things that made life better for the rest of us.  This news hits them hardest of all, but we and our audiences are all better for the work that they have done.