Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
David Bailey queried:
MakeMusic's own press release on their finances admits that Finale is a relatively high-margin product, so why are they spending so much energy on the lower-margin SmartMusic?
I can think of some reasons:
1) In order to create a SmartMusic file, one needs to have a copy of a Finale product; I don't do much with Notepad, so it's quite possible that one has to have a Finale Product that one paid for.
2) The potential market for music engraving software worldwide is in the magnitude of tens of thousands; the potential market for Smartmusic users is in the order of magnitude of hundreds of millions.
3) For now, many SmartMusic files are available for free with a subscription; I look for this to change, and you will have to purchase Smartmusic files, either in a compilation of some sort, or per each.
Hmm -- I was under the impression that a subscription just allowed you to use the files for a limited time, not download them and use them forever. What would keep a band director from having a couple of high school computer geek students simply such down all the smartmusic accompaniments in a short subscription and then never renew the subscription again?
I think there's more to it than simply downloading while you have a subscription and then using it forever.
I have held off on getting a subscription for that reason -- I don't want to have to keep renewing to use what I've paid for, and something on the web-site lead me to believe that the accompaniments don't become your files to use after your subscription ends. Maybe it's the program which won't run anymore, rendering your downloaded files worthless, unless they can be opened in Finale2005. Hmmm, maybe I'll investigate further!
Which gets back to the annual subscription model for Finale -- I pay my annual fee in ordering the upgrades but if the program ever makes itself a "renew by such-and-such a date or you won't be able to run it" program I'll be stuck on the current non-subscription version until it just won't work for me anymore and then I'll be using Sibelius full time, with all its warts (assuming it isn't also a subscription model.)
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
