At 07:31 AM 7/24/05 -0400, dhbailey wrote: >My point about Sibelius as a company working hard to create a presence >for itself while MakeMusic is just trudging along in the same old rut >still stands, regardless of the low-brow quality of the comparison in >question.
David is right. Sibelius came from relatively nowhere in the U.S. to start whupping Finale. They struck agreements for sponsorship. Look at ASCAP's programs in new nonpop, all with Sibelius sponsorship -- how'd they do that? Where was MakeMusic? And Sibelius took the out-of-the-box features right to the educational market, gaining for what was an essentially inferior product both visibility and income -- enough to get it up to version 4, which to many musicians and engravers, is the program of choice. The marketing of Sibelius was impressive. By highlighting one area -- ease of use -- and providing discounts and lots of giveaways, presentations, and active involvement in the community, they took away a market that was flat-out owned by Finale. And while the Sibelius team was doing competent and aggressive marketing, they also improved the program so that it actually starting meeting the expectations they had raised for it. Finale, meanwhile, continues to send out its uninteresting brochures, depends on its past for market leadership, and is playing catch-up with features -- all the while leaving a trail of bugs and confusing features unremedied. Other moves might have helped them along the way. They could probably have bought Graphire last year for pennies on the dollar, securing and incorporating its incredibly fast display code, lovely fonts, and clear toolbar/pallette system that worked consistently and without a freight train of dialog boxes. To me, MakeMusic looks like a passel of marketing putzes. Numerous times I've approached the company for some sponsorship of our highly visible nonpop show. For practically nothing they could have sponsored our radio show and website (which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2000) -- getting a positive image in front of 300-plus composers (many of whom have since gone to Sibelius). The only response from MakeMusic was after several requests for sponsorship of our 2001 Ought-One Festival -- which they negotiated down to a half dozen copies of Finale ... and then failed to send them, ignoring all my followup messages. If I didn't already have experience with Finale, you can bet I'd have bought Sibelius first. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
