Open Source Music Notation has come so far!

It is so cool to see how far MuseScore has come.

When I was in college, using the open-source MuseScore was fully not an option between its bugs, and the quality of playback and the fiddliness of making anything legible. The idea of using it for anything serious was practically a joke. Even for simple stuff like I was doing, it would have been a huge time sink, so I saved up for a copy of Finale.

I suspect that MakeMusic, the company behind Finale, know that the alternatives are getting good too. The academic price is apparently now $99 for the software. When I bought it in 2013 it was more like $300 if memory serves.¹

Its great to see this video break down the design challenges, and how they were overcome. I would definitely use this the next time I need music notation software.² I really hope making these tools easier to get your hands on and easier to use will lower the barrier of entry for budding composers!

Ok, so actually I looked it up on the Wayback machine, and it used to be $350 for the academic discount! ↩︎

Admittedly, I don’t need notation software very often anymore, but my point still stands! ↩︎