dhbailey wrote:
So what is your suggestion as to what sort of bargaining power we have to use against MakeMusic? We could all switch to using Score, I guess. Except that it wasn't a Mac program, as I recall, so Mac users would be out of luck, and none of us have machines that have DOS installed anymore, so the rest of us would be hard pressed to make that switch.
I am very interested in what sort of leverage we have to force MakeMusic to stop tethering their software. I would love to have it untethered but I can't see what alternative I have, nor what power I have to make MakeMusic listen. Their premier product these days is SmartMusic, so it seems they have already stopped caring very much about the Finale user.
Here's a suggestion: if a group of power users (participants in this forum, for example), with a nice round membership number (100), were to publicly indicate via a petition that they would all refuse to buy the next upgrade unless (a) EPS/PDF were fixed, and (b) the protection scheme reverted to that used in Version X. These are the days when internet actions and blogging have influence, and a bit of that influence potential could be well used. How would market analysts react, for example, if they were to learn that the top of the line product of a small commerical software firm was being boycotted by the top users pending changes (one of which suggests a fundamental flaw in the product)?
Further, what is the advantage to Finale in having the same authentication scheme as its leading competitor? If Finale is indeed losing ground to Sibelius, then a more flexible authentification scheme is one area where Finale can easily regain market share, and is totally in keeping with the more flexible character of Finale in general.
Daniel Wolf
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