If you didn't upgrade before, I don't see any reason why they should give everyone a free upgrade to Finale 27 simply because ...

I think the bundling with the Dorico cross grade is fine.

The point is to get users OFF of Finale, not incentivize them to stay on it as long as humanly possible.  That is the point.  Keeping the Authorization servers up is needed because of how long the software existed which means lots of long-time users have huge workloads tied up in the file format, which will take more than a year to move over unless they make that their full-time job (unreasonable).

But to ask for free Finale 27 upgrades for everyone is weird.  They aren't even giving it away for free, anyways.  They're bundling it... as a value add to a $149 Dorico Pro crossgrade - to allow people to move their work over to Dorico using the most up-to-date (at this point) revision of MusicXML available.

The purpose is to facilitate transition to Dorico Pro 5, specifically - not a thank you to every user on the planet while incentivizing them to sit on Finale [27] even longer.

Anyone not using Finale 27 was already choosing to use an out-of-support product, so coming here to ask for a free upgrade to v27 that you (and others) refused to buy when it was actually in development is comedic.

How nice of you to propose that MM give it away for free because you didn’t upgrade in the last three years. A number of others have already made this ridiculous proposal, BTW.

For many years, the annual upgrade was $129. In 2014, that changed and three versions have been released over the next ten years.

You want 27? You should since MusicXML 4 is very good and will be a time saver if you move to Dorico, MuseScore or Sibelius. but the price is $149.99 and includes a license to Dorico.. Nobody says you have to use it but that’s the offer.

Please forgive me for not being sympathetic but I paid for my licenses—yep, beta testers and Community Experts did not get it for free. Worse, I’ve had Dorico since v.2 so the crossgrade offer doesn’t benefit me either. That’s life.

Well, OK, it's a "ridiculous proposal" (I beg to differ). Until V26 I was quite a loyal customer, paying for updates regularly despite so many bugs that just were left unresolved, and user support was rather lacking.  Finally a persistent crashing convinced me to get a crossgrade to Dorico.

Not a big deal for me, honestly, but with so many users out there suddenly needing a pathway to something else, I just thought with them cutting off support they might consider easing the transition even further by offering a free upgrade so that music XML generation can be as robust as possible.  

They have eased the transition by securing a 75% Crossgrade Discount, Keeping the Authorization Servers up for the foreseeable future, and bundling the latest version of Finale with that Discount to allow those who are moving on to get MusicXML 4 output.

The Dorico crossgrade is comparable to a Finale upgrade, so anyone who wants MusicXML 4 to transition to another product (Sibelius, MuseScore, etc.) can simply buy it for that purpose and ignore the Dorico License.

I am not seeing an issue with that.

MusicXML interchange depends as much on the destination application's support as the source, anyways.  Before Dorico 5, I had to export Music XML 3.x (3.6, I think) from Finale 27 for it to work well, Lol.

It's nice they did the crossgrade thing. But not everyone will want to transition to Dorico (I happen to love it).  Furthermore some already have it (like me).  

It was just a thought.  I mean, what's the harm to MakeMusic to offer V27 as a gesture of good will to their long-time customers? They're not so likely to get many new purchases anyway for a product they're discontinuing entirely, and based on their last email they make it seem that having the latest version of Music XML (4.0) is beneficial in transitioning to Dorico.

I'm confused.  My point is that the cost of the Crossgrade is the same as a Finale Upgrade, so you aren't really losing anything if you want to upgrade to Finale 27 for this.  Resell the Dorico Activation Code.

You'll probably get it for free (net) if you sell it to someone who doesn't own Finale but wants to move over from Sibelius or another product ;-)

Or you can activate it later to avoid a future upgrade cost for Dorico Pro 6.

I don't really want to upgrade Finale, personally. I just thought this might help other folks who have a lot more Finale files than I do transition to something else more smoothly, even if the gains are marginal between Music XML versions.  I have already converted all my files to Music XML, this proposal was just something I thought could engender some more good feelings among MakeMusic's long-time customers who may feel pushed into suddenly forking out another $150 for a product (Dorico) that they may know little about.  

The future upgrade cost to Dorico Pro 6 is an interesting thought, if that works. 

Really the point I was trying to make was not that everyone should have V27 of Finale (that just seemed like the simplest solution), but rather that it would be kind in this stressful time of transition to offer a simple & hopefully free method of converting files to the latest version of Music XML rather than asking everyone to fork out more money for an end-of-life product.  The crossgrade is great for many, but not everyone will want to transition to Dorico.

The money is not for an end-of-life product.  It's for Dorico Pro 5.

The inclusion of Finale 27 in there is simply to facilitate the move to Dorico Pro 5.  By intention, it's practically a Finale -> MusicXML Converter.

It exists in that deal for that reason alone, like the WordPerfect Conversion Utility in WordPerfect Office that serves a similar purpose there for people coming from Microsoft Office.

I get it, MakeMusic doesn't want to give away anything, this isn't a charity. I don't understand the fixation with Dorico here, not everyone will want to transition to that program. I did not have a good experience with the support for the major bugs I had with Finale, so I stopped upgrading and did a crossgrade several years ago already.  I was just hoping there might a pathway for Finale-owners of any version that doesn't involve forking out more money for anything. Maybe a free (or very cheap) standalone batch musx to music XML converter.

There is a pathway:  Buying the crossgrade and selling off the Activation Code for Dorico Pro 5, eliminating any costs incurred.

No one is "fixated" on Dorico (quite passive aggressive wording, BTW, but I won't bite...).  That is simply the offramp MakeMusic has offered their users, and the price (and Dorico's reputation/development track record) is such that most users are likely to go that route - which is why we see heavy discussion about it on the forums now.  That should be obvious, but I digress...

You are more than free to buy and/or use anything else you want to... or just export the MusicXML revision that Finale 26 supports and deal with it.

Have a nice day.

I did not intend to come off as passive aggressive with my wording, if that's how it came across I apologize. I am frustrated because it seemed that my intentions with my post were misunderstood, and the discussion kept coming back to Dorico. My post was really not even for me so much as for other users who are in a much worse position than I am with the sunsetting of Finale.

Thank you for your time and for the information that there is a pathway (I'm not sure how selling off the crossgrade would work, or how to find anyone who might want it, but I suppose it is a possibility).  I hope others will find it a viable option, should they not wish to switch to Dorico (or if they already have).  

There is a market for reselling software licenses and forums for doing so. Some companies require advanced permission since you will have to un-register and the buyer would then register the license; others do not require permission. The Steinberg ELUA should let you know the Ts & Cs.

If all you get is a registration code like MMs for copies bought from resellers—Apple uses them, too—then it's a lot easier. Those codes let one create a new account and register from scratch. Since I took the crossgrade 6 years ago and have no intention of buying more copies with my remaining eligible licenses, others who've made the purchase will have to weigh in on what happens.

None of this will affect your 27 license unless you want to throw it in with the deal (and why would you do that?). The 27 license includes limited tech support for another year excluding OS compatibility as they have made quite clear.

MM may or may not offer 27 free someday but that will never happen as long as any support liability exists. I used to license software and know a thing or two about this.