I’m sorry to hear about that. My wishes for success and aspirations soaring.
In my opinion, Sibelius should be taken out of Avid. as it was originally. Its nature doesn’t fit with large Avid-type companies. I have nothing against Avid, which has some fine success stories, but its philosophy is not for Sibelius, indeed unprofitable by its measures. A smaller company would undoubtedly be satisfied with current sales and could develop freely.
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Sure, but MuseScore being free isn’t going to change, and students will always try free software first before moving to paid. This is a generation that thinks a $10 app is expensive so notation software companies need to give them strong reasons to convert to paid notation software. Many students don’t need condensing, don’t care about spacing or finer engraving issues; they just need something to do simple theory assignments or write a lead sheet. Obviously Steinberg and Avid do market research and know the numbers for this market better than I do, but I don’t think there’s a simple solution here. MuseScore will likely continue to dominate the educational market for the foreseeable future.
Thanks! I hadn’t seen that.
This seems like a passion project to me that will have virtually no impact on the notation market. Look at what he leads with:
That’s great I guess, but who cares? I briefly used Encore back in the early 90s. Encore has been dead for so long, why bother keeping compatibility with ancient code, when he has a chance to build something from the ground up? I’m sure there will be a few nostalgic fans, and he may come up with some novel features and approaches to notational issues, but I can’t imagine it will have any effect at all on the paid notation market.
Then put together a group and bid for it! That’s the whole issue with companies purchased by private equity. They will try to grow divisions that they deem profitable, enforce patents and other valuable intellectual property, and sell the rest off for scrap.
I don’t have the slightest clue how many are left on the Sibelius team, but Avid could probably fire the entire team, and just sell the current product as is for another three years or so for a reasonably hefty profit. That’s why I used the phrase “the beginning of the end.” I don’t think the demise of Sibelius is coming imminently, but from all publicly available documents and STG’s current business moves, it just doesn’t seem like a division that PE will want to bother with.
There may be profitable IP tied to Sibelius, or that IP could be currently also used in Pro Tools or other software. It’s really impossible to know without more inside info. I suspect there would be serious IP issues that would need to be resolved with any attempt to purchase the Sibelius division. I’m just suspicious that there is any scenario where Sibelius could be profitable as a standalone company, when it is based on ancient code, has to compete with Dorico in the paid market, and MuseScore and a zillion other options that are available free.
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And maybe Sibelius will return to the fold, because sixteen years ago, it was Steinberg who was hosting Sibelius (I have mails from Daniel Spreadbury at this time attesting that).
But, but… how can Dorico and Sibelius be accommodated without them fighting? It would be a war of thrones!
Lannister-Dorico angainst Dæneris-Sibelius ! 
I think at one time Steinberg France was acting as distributor for Sibelius Software Ltd, but we’re talking many, many years ago now. Steinberg France was a separate entity to Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, though obviously there was some relationship between the two entities.
In any case, there’s never been any significant connection between Steinberg and Sibelius. (Unless you count Steinberg hiring as many members as possible of the original Sibelius development team in 2012 to start work on Dorico.)
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Far before : these mails are from 2004
I am working with Sibelius since his version 3 ; which doesn’t make us any younger !
You wrote to me on 27/09/2006 (@sibelius.com) and I have many mails in 2004 and 2005 from Riccardo Serra (Steinberg).
It doesn’t really matter anymore (except historically), now that SB has created Dorico.
Todd really articulates my thoughts on this better than I ever could, despite Sam Butler’s reassurances in the blog comments. It saddens me though. I used Sibelius for 18 years very happily. I was gutted when they terminated the team; I almost took it personally. Of course, I am very much of the persuasion that Dorico designed a better mousetrap, so it’s not like I ever had any intentions of going back once hooked - I’m very committed to Dorico. But I do prefer when companies do not merely see their products as nothing but assets. Dorico is already like an old friend to me, and I feel a great deal of satisfaction at seeing this fine garden being watered. No water, no garden … sad …
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I agree with Todd that this looks like a critical turn for the worse in the health of Sibelius. If I were an investor seeking to make money, then taking on Sibelius, an old app that lacks some important design elements that would be very hard to add to the old codebase, would not be top of my list.
For the health of the market, I do hope that a competitor to Dorico does appear, but I think it unlikely that Musescore will fill that gap.
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We shouldn’t be too quick to announce Sibelius’s end. It may wither for a long time before dying. And Avid, as I was saying, may pass the buck. There are certainly little programming geniuses, in an SME somewhere, waiting for this kind of opportunity. There are several possible scenarios, and it’s very early to speculate, even if it’s normal for everyone to express their views.
Sorry, who is Todd?
He is @FredGUnn
Jesper
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Ahh… I didn’t connect that because I thought his actual name was Fred.
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Fred G. Unn is just a jokey pun on Phrygian. It was my handle on the old Finale forum so I just kept it here.
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Todd was in a punny mode that day. So What? He made quite the Impressions. Indeed, it was a Milestones moment in Finale Forum history.
Okay, now I’ll see if I can go introduce some changes into this Thrice Upon a Theme/Minor Intrusion…
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Most people assume that’s his name. I did too many moons ago.
Jesper
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You know, people named Phrygian happen to be the best music engravers in the business 
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I still do most days, even though I know better. A screen name is a powerful thing.
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I can’t believe I never noticed this. When you say it out loud it makes sense. I think part of the problem is I was ignoring the capitalized U and thinking of you as “Fred Gunn” like Peter Gunn or something.
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