Finale, a music scoring software used by much of Broadway and Shutters, is sadly being retired after 35 years.
Music technology company MakeMusic has revealed that it is discontinuing its professional software program musical notation Finale, which is widely used in the professional theater industry, including Broadway.
The move will likely begin a troubled time for music departments on Broadway and beyond, with all Finale files having to be converted for use in other software programs.
The Finale was one of the few music notation software platforms. Another important platform includes Sibelius (a product of Avid).
Musical notation or musical writing is any notational system through which the various types of music are recorded. The most widespread such system is the Western one, while the corresponding systems of Byzantium, India, and Ancient Greece are considered to be of great importance - among others.
Although it is impossible to know the exact market share that Finale enjoyed in the theater industry, the software is widely used by many major stage music preparation houses.
Finale president Greg Dell'Era reports on this: “Today, Finale is no longer the future of the notation industry – a reality after 35 years, and I want to be honest about that. Rather than release new versions of Finale that would offer only marginal value to our users, we have made the decision to end its development.”
Dell'era goes on to explain that this means Finale (and its smaller spin-offs, including PrintMusic, Notepad, and Songwriter) will no longer be updated and available for purchase.
They will continue to work on devices they are currently installed on. Starting in August 2025, it will not be possible to authorize or reauthorize Finale on new devices.
The company recommends that customers move to Dorico, a competing notation software available for Mac, Windows and iPad. MakeMusic has arranged for owners of any version of Finale or PrintMusic to purchase Dorico's flagship version, Dorico Pro 5, for $150, a saving of around 75% (although Dorico Pro 5 now costs 290 dollars)
The problem is that files created using Finale will only open in Finale. There is no easy way to fully convert Finale files to other platforms. Finale can export files to an open format called MusicXML, which is readable by most notation software, but many parts of the original file (mainly including page layouts for print and PDF versions) are not included.
This likely means that many music departments across Broadway and around the world will have a long road to file conversion ahead of them.
