The End of Finale
Greg Dell’Era (via Ric Ford):
35 years ago, Coda Music Technologies, now MakeMusic, released the first version of Finale, a groundbreaking and user-centered approach to notation software. For over four decades, our engineers and product teams have passionately crafted what would quickly become the gold standard for music notation.
Four decades is a very long time in the software industry. Technology stacks change, Mac and Windows operating systems evolve, and Finale’s millions of lines of code add up. This has made the delivery of incremental value for our customers exponentially harder over time.
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.
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Finale authorization will remain available for the foreseeable future: Please note that future OS changes can still impact your ability to use Finale on new devices.
The FAQ recommends not updating to Sequoia.
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.
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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.
See also: Adam Engst and ATPM reviews of Finale 2000, Finale 2001, and Music Press.
