Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:34:00 +0200
To: John Paulson Chief Executive Officer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Ron Raup President <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Mark Dunn Chief Technology
Officer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Karen VanDerBosch Chief Financial
Officer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Mary Schneider Chief Marketing
Officer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Richard Llewellyn
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Alan Shuler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Bill Wolff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Alan Shuler
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Jeff McGuire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Anne
Bartsch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: "Johnson, Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [email protected]
Dear Board of Directors, Development Team, Marketing and Sales Team
of Finale (MakeMusic),
I was EXTREMELY disappointed that some MAJOR outstanding issues were
not resolved in F2008, in particular issues around linked parts. The
impression that I got (and I hope I am wrong on this) on this
particular issue was that the development team reps fielded a few
questions knowing it was a hot topic but ultimately had no plans to
do any real work on the tool, which, in my opinion, is one of the
major reasons since F2005 for existing users to upgrade. I know I am
not alone in my disappointment, as MM would be if it monitored the
Finale email list. There are many people who are really dissatisfied
with the incredibly incomplete implementation of linked parts, and
many users who seriously doubt it is even worth the effort to
upgrade, given the number of things which do not function nearly
properly (I have written at length about this).
I do also understand issues of "marketing" and the need to seek out
new buyers of Finale, but I hope the administration and marketing
teams understand that many long-term users may be in a position to
choose which company their department will purchase multiple
software licences from for the university computer / music labs they
run... and I know of people who have suggested Sibelius to new
notation programme users (I am part of this group) while remaining
themselves Finale users in some cases only because of the time they
have invested in the programme, and the time it would take to get up
to the same level of use with a new or unfamiliar programme.
I find it deplorable that I should have to even mention this as a
form of argument, but repeated requests to provide a
properly-functioning programme or to at least provide updates to fix
things between versions -- rather than forcing the user to pay for
an upgrade to get the fix, possibly touted as a "new feature"
(dubious, very dubious marketing practice) -- don't seem to work as
efficiently as one would hope. Quite honestly, the impression
amongst a number of long-term users of Finale have is that MM does
not really value them and is far more interested in "newbies"; how
else can one explain how so many significant shortcomings of the
programme, shortcomings that a novice may not even notice but which
can have significant impact on the workflow of professional users of
the software? Maybe this is in fact the case, and my entire argument
is then moot...
In all honesty, I have seriously considered other options (i.e.
switching to another notation programme) more than once, and looked
seriously into moving over to Sibelius, Score, or Noteability. In
part for the reasons above (time and investment) I decided against
it in the end, but I will say that I have found that Finale
nevertheless offers -- and I have commented on this in public forums
-- a far higher level of sophistication for the higher end
publication quality (and beyond) work to be done with notation
programmes than Sibelius, and Score is simply a way of thinking that
is really not enticing to me. While you may appreciate this
compliment, it can't be a great feeling to know that part of the
reason some of your most talented, dedicated and most faithful users
are still around is because they don't have the time to invest in
other options, or worse, that they are continually forced to upgrade
to keep clients who have newer versions than they do.
There are other long-standing issues (aside from linked parts) which
the support team is aware of, and I assume these concerns have been
passed onto the development team, so I will not list them (the email
is long enough already). My concern is not so much the individual
incomplete feature development, but more the practice of abandoning
the "errors" and the arrogance of continuing to release software
with insufficiently-developed features, and expecting your clientele
to somehow be happy with paying annual fees for Finale's numerous
insufficiencies.
I sincerely hope you will take my points in all seriousness, that
you will consult the people who are buying your software, and
perhaps more importantly, the people who refuse to (continue to) buy
your software.
Kind regards,
jef chippewa
Composer, Copyist.
--
shirling & neueweise ... new music publishers
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] :.../ http://newmusicnotation.com
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