MakeMusic has announced that Finale is being discontinued. After 35 years, the company has ended the development of the long-running notation and composition software. With Finale being discontinued, what options do users have?
Finale Discontinued
35 years is a long time in the world of software. Originally released in 1989, Finale has been around for longer than many of its users and is right up there with some of the longest-running music software titles like Steinberg Cubase. But now, that era is abruptly coming to an end. MakeMusic has announced that Finale is being discontinued, effective immediately.
When I was in college a little over 20 years ago, Finale was the industry standard for computer-based music notation. There simply wasn’t any other software that allowed you to craft professional-looking scores with a comparable level of detail. But even then, Finale had a reputation for being a bit convoluted and hard to use. Anything was possible – if you could find it in the many submenus and dialog boxes, that is.
Over the years, several competitors that were perceived as being easier to use started to eat into Finale’s market share. First came Sibelius (now an Avid product). Later, companies like PreSonus and Steinberg began offering professional notation software of their own, namely Notion and Dorico. Some DAWs now also include fully-featured notation editors with professional capabilities. Suddenly, Finale was one option among many, and compared to its competitors, it was looking more and more outdated.
Now, the developer seems to have come to the conclusion that maintaining Finale’s “millions of lines of code” isn’t worth it anymore. As Greg Dell’Era, President of MakeMusic, puts it:
“Today, Finale is no longer the future of the notation industry—a reality after 35 years, and I want to be candid about this. Instead of releasing new versions of Finale that would offer only marginal value to our users, we’ve made the decision to end its development.”
While Finale is being discontinued immediately and there won’t be any further updates, the software will continue to run on devices where it is currently installed. Beginning one year from now in August of 2025, you will no longer be able to authorize Finale on any new devices or re-authorize it.
Finale Discontinued: What’s in Store for Users?
With Finale discontinued, what options do you have as a user? Simply put, the time to migrate to a new software has come. To sweeten the deal for its loyal customers, MakeMusic has teamed up with Steinberg to offer an exclusive discount on Dorico Pro 5. Users of any version of Finale or PrintMusic can purchase Dorico Pro for $149 through their MakeMusic account (retail price: $579).
Steinberg Dorico 5 is also available from Thomann*.
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