Some of you have probably already seen this:
That’s a lot of turmoil at the top. I knew Tantacrul split, but didn’t realize how many other high level execs recently left too. The head of software, the head of strategy, the product owner, the head of the engraving team, and “additional recent departures” all within a short time span seems pretty suspicious. That’s kind of the whole product leadership team. Maybe the PE departure had been in the works for a while so they all just were cashing out, but it still seems odd.
“The concluding transaction between Francisco Partners and Muse Group was supported by senior credit facilities arranged by J.P. Morgan and cash on hand.” So they took on debt to buy out the PE. Nothing particularly unusual about that, but combined with all the movement at the top I wonder if there’s a deeper issue going on there.
Was poking around a bit more to see if there was any visibility to Muse Group’s finances, and didn’t realize how awful Ultimate Guitar’s business practices were. I’ve never used the program so didn’t know much about it other than that’s how Eugeny Naidenov got started, but the billing sounds completely predatory. The Better Business Bureau gives them their lowest possible grade, an F.
Frankly, I don’t care if MuseScore goes under. I just hope Hal Leonard can survive. I mean, did HL research this horrible company before letting themselves get bought out? What an awful decision.
I’ve already commented about MuseScore’s shady checkout practices, which I’m sure are deliberately designed that way.
However, given that the content is where their money stream comes from, they should still have plenty of revenue to keep paying for the work on MuseScore.
But Private Equity always want their money back, plus interest, in the end, which inevitably means selling something or taking on debt.
As a private company, their finances are pretty opaque. There’s just not a lot of publicly available info on them. It’s possible there’s trouble, which is why there is so much movement at the top and the PE bailed, but it’s also possible that they are doing well, the top execs are cashing out, and PE decided to get out with a nice profit. Hard to know for sure without more info.
Not for MS’s sake, but I’m interested in whatever scenario benefits Dorico’s development and success. I think some competition is a good thing. I know music notation is a small field, but having a single player is probably not ideal. Of course I’m assuming Sibelius’s days are numbered, which is certainly an assumption.
At least in the US, I don’t really see anyone switching to or starting on Sibelius. Those that are on it mostly keep plugging away at it, but people generally hate subscription software. Avid of course was bought by PE back in 2023, so I’m curious how long they want to pursue such a niche product that has a strong free competitor.
They do keep cranking out updates every couple of months, but AFAIK Justin’s job was not replaced so I’m not sure who’s running things on the notation side there. With STG’s purchase of Wolftech it seems like notation might not be much of a priority for them, but it still may be profitable to keep the existing subscriber base hanging on. I would not be surprised to hear if they sell the Sibelius division off, or just shut it down in a couple of years if there’s no growth in subscribers though.
And they usually want that return on investment fairly quickly if one expects them to hang around as a financial supporter of a product.
I’m sure everything is on the up-and-up, but just exactly how did Francisco make money off all this. And is Muse any stronger than before? It’s certainly far-bigger. But it is stronger and more stable.
If we’re seeing prominent company leaders departing en-masse and the company saying “We’re better than ever!”, something is wrong, and everybody knows it.
I agree. I obviously have no evidence as they are a privately owned company, but the vibe feels like rats leaving the ship to me, rather than people cashing out with a hefty profit.
If you have Muse Hub installed (and I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t already), look at all the crap on the main apps page:
What is all this stuff? It’s just a massive mess of disorganized products they are trying to get you to buy. MuseScore is obviously a good free program, and Audacity is a nice free DAW too, but this really looks like an incoherent mess. Oddly enough, Ultimate Guitar is kept entirely separate from all this too.
If you scroll far enough, I believe it’s got a copy of Netscape and AOL. With a trial of Norton Commander.
I would likely become much crazier than I am if I had to see those pages every time I logged in…no, thank you!
Hmm… It seems that as transistors reach toward an atomic scale, Moore’s law is making a quantum shift (or entanglement) with advertising now doubling every two years! (Too bad that apps aren’t doubling in capability!) 
Yeah a couple of years back I signed up for a 7-day free trial and they charged me for a full Pro Plus 1 year subscription. After a marathon of support emails back and forth they eventually agreed to a partial refund. Beware…
Too bad it was so long ago, one can always refute charges made to one’s credit card.
Hal Leonard’s ArrangeMe program had several issues a few months back with royalty payments and dashboard problems, especially where the Musescore subscription views were concerned. It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s trickling down. You know what they say: If there’s smoke…
I would be very worried if ArrangeMe went bad. I depend on them for handling all my easy piano arrangements of movie songs.
I agree and have for a while now. I’ve been in the business for so long I can see trends. It appears to me that SIbelius is going down the same path as MM and Finale. The source engine code is old very old just like Finale is. To make changes or edits is a huge problem probably not impossible but costly. That expense has to be returned in sales and profit. And a change in code here can screw up dozens of things over there. There have been very little significant upgrades or new features to Sibelius for a very tine time. Dark mode is not a upgrade!
The very same thing can happen to Dorico as it matures. Any major or big change can be costly in more than one way.
I have Sibelius Ultimate and MuseScore 4 and Finale 27. I use all of them for certain things.
All the schools, high schools to universities, I am associated with that were Finale went Sibelius so it ain’t dead … yet. None went Dorico.
I’m finding the Sibelius subscription too expensive, and I’m glad Steinberg has stuck with its upgrade policy. I also prefer Dorico overall.
Steinberg has discontinued older versions of its software, such as Cubase, and they are no longer available. That’s probably because maintaining and updating an old codebase indefinitely simply isn’t practical. They seem to follow this approach with all of their products as they get older.
I’ve also been thinking that, in the future, it will probably become more difficult for software companies to deliver compelling upgrades, because these programs already do pretty much everything most users need. If upgrade sales decline, it’s understandable that companies may switch to subscription models to ensure a steady stream of revenue. I just hope Steinberg never has to go down that road.