Bob Shuster wrote:
What I have seen of the new Finale - it looks pretty much the same as
Finale 98, except with Aqua-looking buttons
I can't speak for Sibelius in this regard, but there is the ability in
Finale, to set the "look and feel" to much closer to the way the look
and feel operated in FIN 98. It's the first thing I do upon installing
an upgrade.
I considered switching to Sibelius a while back and did not, mainly for
philosophical reasons.
1) The architecture of the Finale software, and the data files are
considerably closer to "open" than Sibelius. While S~ claims to have
plug-ins, they are not plug-ins in the sense of Finale, but rather
scripts written with a scripting language. Sibelius will not release the
information on program or file structure to permit independent
developers to develop true plugins; there is no "Plug-in developer's
kit" available from Sibelius as there is from MakeMusic.
2) Disparity in pricing between the US and UK. Sibelius was sold in
the UK for about the same number of Pounds (595, from the Sibelius
website) as the number of dollars for it was sold in the U.S (599, also
from the Sibelius website). However, considering the exchange rate of
dollars / pounds, this means that users in the UK paid
substantially--about 89 percent--more than users in the U.S. On the
other hand, Finale sells for $600 in the US, according to the MakeMusic
website, and sells for only a little more in the UK from the local
distributor (399 pounds, according to
<http://www.musicroom.com/Search/gsearch.aspx?searchtext=Finale>). For
S~ to sell for nearly double in the UK (its home country), than in the
U.S., despite export costs, sounds to me a bit like dumping.
3) Finale is part of a company which has two product lines of music
software: Finale and Smartmusic. Sibelius is now part of a group with
more diverse lines, having been purchased a few months back by Avid, and
now having at least five sister product lines.
4) MakeMusic is a publicly traded firm in the U.S., and as such is
required to publish financial information on the health of the finances
of the company. As part of a larger organization, the same information,
or rather information with the same level of detail, may or may not be
available with respect to Sibelius.
Finally, don't overlook the cost advantage of upgrading Finale.
According to the site, <http://www.sibelius.com/shop/professional.html>,
the price to purchase a Sibelius upgrade is $199.00, 33 percent more
than the $149 it will cost to upgrade from FIN 98 (according to
<https://www.finalemusic.com/store/products.aspx>).
ns
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