This is to the Finale/Dorico transition team:

As a user since 1992 (WFNA 104148), and PraiseCharts publisher of thousands of Finale charts and their accompanying files since 2001, I am sad to see my trusty work companion go, but completely understand the need to move on into the modern software coding era with Dorico.

However, my primary concern with your future plans has to do with future authorizations.

We have thousands of customers using Finale as a result of buying Finale files from us, and we will continue to sell existing Finale files for the years to come for those who own the Finale package, even though we will be migrating our production into Dorico.  However, as you know, computer systems crash, need upgrades, OS reinstalls, etc over time.  Sure we could hope to keep Finale installed on a working system forever, but inevitably, we will need to reinstall it from time to time.

Churches and individuals will want to retain the package they purchased in Finale as a tool for editing their older files, or even just wanting to keep using it for years to come, despite the lack of upgrades.  (I used 2014.5 until late in the ver. 26 cycle).  Version 25-27 is plenty sufficient for many of their needs, and they may not want to change software packages.

As a matter of principle, though, Finale was not purchased on a subscription basis, and the license was never time-limited in the purchase contract.  As such, you really need to have a mechanism for perpetual license for customers!  Perhaps Steinberg could just maintain an authorization module that services previous Finale customers.  Honestly, with them asking a majority of music publishers, college music departments, and professional engravers and composers to migrate to a completely different paradigm in music engraving, it’s the least they could do!

All the best,

Daniel Galbraith

PraiseCharts - editor/arranger/orchestrator