Sibelius is gone

[MPDmike]

Originally Posted by konradh

Just last night I read a great review of Sibelius 7 and was planning to buy it.

Probably the best solution would be to buy Sibelius 7 now, and benefit from some years of use with the best notation program available. Perhaps in the future this AVID situation will be resolved and things will not look as bad as they do at the moment.

[peter5992]

Originally Posted by MPDmike

Probably the best solution would be to buy Sibelius 7 now, and benefit from some years of use with the best notation program available. Perhaps in the future this AVID situation will be resolved and things will not look as bad as they do at the moment.

Yes -- right now Sibelius 7 is fantastic.

Obviously it is always possible to make it even better; I have my own wish list of things I'd like to see in future versions, and other people have theirs. The big question mark is right now, what is the future going to hold? And that looks very uncertain.

Think of it this way: if Eastwest were to shut their doors tomorrow, you could continue to use their products for many years, but it would still be a very sad day.

[Plasuma!!!]

All this upset about AVID's piss-poor business decisions and you guys still encourage others to buy their software?

This is why they can get away with it, and why their business decisions make sense.

[MPDmike]

Originally Posted by Plasuma!!!

All this upset about AVID's piss-poor business decisions and you guys still encourage others to buy their software?

You don't have to buy Sibelius - it is still a free market out there. But while Sibelius continues to be a great product - today - then why buy an inferior alternative because you don't like AVID? When the product really sucks, then that's the time not to buy it.

[tayloran9]

The more people that buy it and sing it's praises, the more Avid will realise how important, popular and lucrative it is. And the more difficult it would become to toss it aside and let it die. If they do intend to eventually sell, then they'll get a much better price if it is still a market leader. This is why their business decisions don't seem to make any sense...

[QUOTE=Plasuma!!!;710958...This is why... and why their business decisions make sense.[/QUOTE]

I don't think they do...

[Plasuma!!!]

So why be upset at AVID if Sibelius is still good software? They killed it while it was still good. If only Fox had the decency to do the same for The Simpsons.

Seriously though, if you continue to give AVID money for a product they've gutted, they'll think it's fine to leave it as-is and milk it 'til it's dry. As was said, Sibelius proved to be one of their most profitable products, and then they disemboweled the development team. Now you guys are going to keep buying it anyways because it's good as-is. So guess what? It's going to stay where it is. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

When it's no longer profitable, they'll start to care. The whole basis for their decision relies on people continuing to buy it at the same price for a lower overhead to them. That decision will be considered good if you keep supporting it.

[chest]

Originally Posted by tayloran9

The more people that buy it and sing it's praises, the more Avid will realise how important, popular and lucrative it is. And the more difficult it would become to toss it aside and let it die. If they do intend to eventually sell, then they'll get a much better price if it is still a market leader. This is why their business decisions don't seem to make any sense...

Suppose, for sake of argument, that the people in charge of Avid cared only about the short term, wanted to walk away with as much money as they could for themselves, and didn't care at all about Sibelius or its users: in those circumstances, it WOULD make sense to cut costs, stop developing Sibelius, and do the minimum needed to keep it afloat for a while - spend money on it only if doing so is sure to bring in a lot more than's been spent. In those circumstances, their recent actions WOULDN'T have been mistakes, Avid wouldn't have ACCIDENTALLY overlooked the harm done by the decision - rather, they'd simply be indifferent to the consequences for people's whose musical work depends on Sibelius continuing to be properly maintained and developed.

If other money-grubbing CEOs see people continue to buy Sibelius in spite of the way Avid has treated its staff and customers, they won't be discouraged from trying the same themselves.

So long as potential buyers act in their own immediate interests (just like those at the top of some organisations), ultimately everyone will lose (except the sellers). Essentially, for potential buyers, it's an example of the well-known "Prisoner's Dilemma Game" (that's "game" in the technical sense of "game theory"), where acting out of what looks like each participant's own interest actually makes everyone a loser. Avoiding the loss requires a co-operative strategy, but that can always be undermined by individuals who see a big advantage to themselves by not co-operating.

The best thing that could happen for Sibelius users, and anyone else dependent upon the products of the big corporations governed by personal greed, would be if no more copies of Sibelius were bought, and if this fact became known world-wide and quoted for years as an example of ordinary people, motivated by disgust over Avid's actions, co-ordinating to defeat the greed at the top of big companies. That won't happen - not only because it would be impossible organise a boycott, but also because (a-la Prisoner's Dilema) too many individuals will see and act upon the personal benefit they can get by buying Sibelius.

[peter5992]

Two excellent new videos by composer and orchestrator Thomas Goss (the "OrchestrationOnline" Youtube guy):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3q5azC2qwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4ZAfqPIYnY

[rikp]

The sad part about all of this is that Finale (MakeMusic) is also doing very poorly and had quite a big loss last quarter. I just hope that we have SOME music notation programs out there that can make $$.

rp

[peter5992]

Originally Posted by rikp

The sad part about all of this is that Finale (MakeMusic) is also doing very poorly and had quite a big loss last quarter. I just hope that we have SOME music notation programs out there that can make $$.

rp

The bitter irony in all this is that Sibelius is still making money, quite a bit actually; according to reliable sources, around $ 18 million per year. Avid is now milking it for all it's worth.

Finale's embroiled in a (hostile?) takeover / reorganization battle. These are wild times indeed.