Musicians to lose Finale notation app after 35 years

Mac

and Windows notation app Finale has been used by musicians since Macs had nine-inch black and white screens, but now its developer is shutting it down and directing users to alternatives.

No app for writing music scores and notation would ever have become exactly mainstream. But Finale's passionate users have been talking about the app on the AppleInsider forums since at least 2002.

"Today, Finale is no longer the future of the notation industry -- a reality after 35 years, and I want to be candid about this," writes Greg Dell'Era, president of the MakeMusic development company. "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 development has come to an end, we know your musical journey has not," continued Dell'Era. "I want to sincerely express our warm and deep gratitude to all of our loyal and passionate users."

That development of Finale began in the 1980s, and the first version came out in 1988. It required a Mac Plus, Macintosh SE, or Macintosh II, and preferred those Macs to have 1.5MB of RAM.

To put this in historical context, Finale soon gained a competitor whose name is better known today -- but whose original function is forgotten. Apple's current digital audio workstation app Logic Pro began as the third-party Notator Logic in 1990, and was a rival scoring app.

Dell'Era says that over four decades since then, the constant development of the app has resulted in millions of lines of code. Making more than incremental improvements has become exponentially harder.

As of now, then, neither Finale nor its related PrintMusic app can be bought. Existing users can continue using the app, and until August 25, 2025, will also be able to re-download it.

After that date, the software will not be downloadable even for existing users, nor will there be any support. It will not be possible to authorize Finale after installing it on a new computer.

MakeMusic and Dell'Era are recommending that users migrate to Finale's major rival, Dorico Pro. Normally Dorico Pro 5 retails for $579, but users of any version of Finale or PrintMusic can buy it for $149.