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Ownership of the staffpad company

If you have paid money for StaffPad and its in-app purchases, only Apple can take that away. So even if the new owners decide to discontinue the product (highly unlikely), you still have your Apple purchases. You might not get any future updates that make the app continue to work with the latest iOS. If this happened, I would just never again update my iPad. (I have no idea how things work on the Microsoft side.)

Yes, the problem is that at some point an iOS update will invariable break that app ... and if there isn't a living company behind it to fix it, then all the investment is lost. (Not updating you iPad isn't a good or realistic either, in the updates sometimes carry essential security content).

I don't think there's any need to panic, but given the investments we have in the software (and for some, critical workflow), this really needs to be handled transparently ...
 
Yes, the problem is that at some point an iOS update will invariable break that app ... and if there isn't a living company behind it to fix it, then all the investment is lost. (Not updating you iPad isn't a good or realistic either, in the updates sometimes carry essential security content).

I don't think there's any need to panic, but given the investments we have in the software (and for some, critical workflow), this really needs to be handled transparently ...
It definitely has to. Staffpad for me is the only way to professionally produce music and soundtracks for projects since I'll never be able to "create" music only in a DAW. I need that intermediate step in Staffpad that actually let's me get creative and does all the the work with the VST instruments I was never able to do in a DAW. The only thing I have to actually concentrate on after composing everything is the mixing and mastering.

Well and also the buttload of money I invested in the libraries. If this is going to be worthless someday on top of the fact that my sole means of professional music production is gone then I'm gonna be really angry.
 
Yes, the problem is that at some point an iOS update will invariable break that app ... and if there isn't a living company behind it to fix it, then all the investment is lost. (Not updating you iPad isn't a good or realistic either, in the updates sometimes carry essential security content).

I don't think there's any need to panic, but given the investments we have in the software (and for some, critical workflow), this really needs to be handled transparently ...
This has been handled very poorly, and this in and of itself is cause for alarm, given the investments that many of us have made into these libraries. You would hope that the powers that be would see this thread and make a statement.
 
Perhaps the absence of an announcement is meant to communicate no change in the status quo.

Still, especially since Musecore is fundamentally aimed at a different type user, who's needs are not at all in harmony with the needs of the staffpad community or at least the portion of the staffed community that overlaps with vi-c, some kind of statement would be nice.

That said, there could well be benefits for both communities. Perhaps even very great benefits ... depends on the business model.
 
Yes, Musescore looks like it was written in 1998. Horrible interface.

The positives:
Quick import of Musescore vast midi library.

The negatives:
Musescore obviously made this purchase to add a reason to subscribe to their service. Since I do not do subscription services EVER, this will be a problem.
 
I think people are putting the baby out with the bathwater on this. Though public records do dispense a fair bit of info, we do not know the details of this acquisition and to what end David has active control over its development.

At the end of the day, we will have to keep an open mind and be hopeful for the future of StaffPad. the likely reason DWH didn't announce this is because he didn't want to freak out a lot of faithful users of this app. Let's not look for smoke when there is no fire.
 
I think people are putting the baby out with the bathwater on this. Though public records do dispense a fair bit of info, we do not know the details of this acquisition and to what end David has active control over its development.

At the end of the day, we will have to keep an open mind and be hopeful for the future of StaffPad. the likely reason DWH didn't announce this is because he didn't want to freak out a lot of faithful users of this app. Let's not look for smoke when there is no fire.
Oh, I think we already see the smoke. The question is whether there is also fire. When one thinks about what happened to Sibelius, it leaves one feeling a bit unsettled. Actually, the same thing sort of happened to Finale when Coda Music sold to Make Music. New ownership could mean good things, i.e. more resources to develop the platform and expansion of the platform to new devices. But it could also mean terrible things. When I consider that I bought an $1100 iPad and spent $1500+ on libraries, I am more than a little concerned.
 
The winner here is MuseScore, not StaffPad for sure. MuseScore bought StaffPad to upgrade their software tech portfolio, not to update StaffPad. The money is in the ugly, but functional MuseScore subscription model. I personally bought my iPad for the express purpose of using StaffPad. For my pitiful life, this was the past 12 months savings. I guess we can always keep our un-updated iPad version though.
 
It doesn't sound like the app is going away any time soon. Everybody take a deep breath.
Unless you have previous experience of a company you depend upon being acquired by corporate raiders and cannibalized for parts, or maybe killed by an excruciating process or starvation and neglect, or ...

Anway, no need to panic. And if fact, some cause for cautious optimism.

But we need a statement. Absent a statement, no roadmaps can have any credibility following a corporate acquisition (if that's indeed what this ... basically nothing is particularly clear here).
 
Feels like familiar territory - Avid & Sibelius.... and we know how well that went. Hopefully Musescore has a better vision and the funds to continue developing Staffpad. Certainly one can envision synergies between the two companies and there's no reason it can't be a step forward with the right direction and leadership. Staffpad is such an innovative product -- hopefully the things that make it unique aren't lost in the shuffle.
 
As others here have mentioned there is a long history of software wallowing in purgatory till finally being discontinued. I’ll add my 3D experience to the mix with SoftImage and Discreet meeting a slow death after being gutted for software patents. Perhaps this is all nothing, but history shows that there is little chance that StaffPad and it’s users will come out ahead in the end of this.
 
I know that there is a an update forthcoming with many new features. The recent update addressed some bugs and included code to support these new features. It doesn't sound like the app is going away any time soon. Everybody take a deep breath.
The wait is killing me...........
 
I always thought that StaffPad would sell, but I hoped it would be to Apple.
That might not be great. And I'm a lifelong Mac guy. Apple's not really a software company. They make software to sell their hardware. I always had faith they would support Logic because music was always the butter on their hardware bread. But in general... no. Anyway... I loved Shake. :sad:
 
I don't see why the sale indicates a merger as some have speculated. Musescore's parent company has its hands in many pieces of music software which are run by different people.

To consider that Staffpad was first developed when pen support on tablets was barely a thing, I think that this may be a play for the very long term (+5 years) when tablets with pen support become more of a replacement for computers.
 
When you buy a company, you do so because you believe in the longer term you will gain more from it than you paid. Unless you want to mothball it as you have a competing product (you see that a lot in Silicon Valley companies).

If I am being honest I don't think the growth potential of Staffpad is huge from where it is now (especially as it is focused mainly on orchestral music and requiring pretty good music theory and notation skills to use it). However the tech behind turning notes on a staff into great sounding music is worth something. The fact it does this with smaller sample sizes than the original libraries is also very impressive.

If you added more instruments to it, and have the samples play from the cloud (this would save storage and really wouldn't be difficult) you could have amazing previews of scores. Licensing the samples might be the hard part. But as the samples could only be used in the product it is unlikely to cannibalize the sample library developers main market.

Though, saying that, the tech involved would work well in a DAW with the full sample libraries using the score/notation editor. It would then do an interpretation of what's in the score, which you can then tweak in the main DAW. So they could license the tech to DAW companies (you would still need to own any sample libraries you wanted to use).

There are some good opportunities with this, that does not mean that Staffpad will disappear. However at the same time it is not improbably to suppose that it could be integrated into musescore and no longer developed as a separate product.

I was seriously thinking of getting Staffpad and the Cinesamples libraries whilst they were on sale. However I think I will hold off for now and see what happens.
 
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