# Sibelius



## SamGarnerStudios (Aug 28, 2013)

So what's the situation with Sibelius right now? I can't find any current articles on the financial situation. I've been a Finale user for years but the school I'm at right now is a huge Sibelius school, wondering if it's something I should go ahead and invest in since I'm due for a Finale upgrade anyways, I can just use the competitive upgrade to Sibelius. 

Thanks,


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## composeradrian (Aug 28, 2013)

Avid's Sibelius is pretty much sitting idle at the moment. Before they got ousted by the CEO, I believe Daniel Spreadbury's team developed one more update (if it ever comes out) to keep the customers happy until Avid's outsourced coders are able to learn enough of the programming to continue making their own updates. Thankfully, Spreadbury's team is currently working under Steinberg for their own notational software not due to come out for some time. They have a blog and there are some great ideas floating around over there, but it will take some time to execute them.

People have been giving Avid a lot of flack for the move, and while it was a crappy move as a business for their customer base, I still use Sibelius 6 and it still does what I need it to do. I'll upgrade at some point, but no rush. I'm not going to move over to Finale out of principle when I'm happy with my current workflow/product (as well as my clients who are happy with what I produce).

FWIW, Sibelius has a been a very flexible program and I'm not looking to change over completely to Finale anytime soon. I think Finale is a great program and IMHO, charts look more "published" through Finale than Sibelius. However, I don't publish music through any big publishing company (of course, I think Hal Leonard uses Sibelius... ). I just turn out charts. I've done over 170+ arrangements in Sibelius and while it's not perfect, I've always felt more control over everything I've completed within the program and been able to streamline my writing process.

It doesn't hurt to know to know both programs though. I don't care for finale, but I can churn out a chart if need be. It's good to be flexible and to have options. Hope that helps!


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