Thirty-five years ago, the Finale notation software became one of the defacto industry standards for music notation and composition.  Regular updates to the software have kept Finale relevant and usable on rapidly changing computer hardware and software platforms.  Unfortunately, with MakeMusic's August 26th, 2024 public decision to end development and support for Finale, the future of countless musical scores is in question.

MakeMusic's plan for current Finale users is to sell discounted crossgrades to the Dorico notation software.  Users with later Finale versions can export their projects in the XML format and attempt to import them into Dorico with varying levels of success.  However, not every score can successfully make this transition due to score content and formatting.  In addition, users with older versions of Finale cannot export to XML and MakeMusic will not allow these users upgrade to a version capable of XML exporting.  These users are stuck.

What's at Stake

35 years of music, a significant body of works created by musicians around the world, may become inaccessible in the future.  One year from now at the end of August, 2025, MakeMusic will no longer permit the activation of Finale on new computers.  With the average computer having a lifespan of 5-8 years and major operating system updates every 2-4 years requiring application fixes to work, Finale may cease to be functional on any computer within the next 10-15 years.

Simply put, 35 years of music (and their associated draft files with importance to future musicologists) may forever be lost.

MakeMusic should release the source code for Finale on a public database (such as github) so that the open-source community can maintain the code to ensure Finale is useable on future platforms.  MakeMusic has already decided they will no longer sell the software so this solution will not cost them any revenue.  This will ensure that Finale files are always viewable by future musicians and musicologists while preserving a tool that was pervasive among musicians from the 1990s through the 2020s. 

UPDATE ON AUGUST 29

MakeMusic's recent announcement to extend the Finale activation server life is good news, as is the free Finale 27 upgrades for all purchased Dorico crossgrades.  It should help with file conversion from Finale to a newer, and still supported, notation software.

Unfortunately, there is still the great potential for a vast catalog of music to simply vanish.  MakeMusic's solutions still don't address the repertoire of composers who will not be able to convert their work before Finale becomes unusable through computer and operating system updates.  As an example: what a treasure it is to find works of a beloved composer sitting in a virtual "drawer" (hard drive, CD/DVD, etc) years after their death.  Also, what about drafts of works that show the score-in-progress?  These are important documents that warrant preservation and are a gift to future musicologists.

This petition to open-source Finale isn't about continuing the use of the software as a composition tool.  Even if, by miracle, another company or group of dedicated programmers decide to continue Finale as a composition and engraving tool, the music community has lost faith in the software.  MakeMusic is right: Finale is dead.  The goal now is to maintain Finale as a preservation tool so we don't lose a body of existing and undiscovered repertoire. 

No artist should ever have to worry that their creative output is at the mercy of a business's financial decision.  And no community should ever have to grieve the loss of so much art.