Music notation platforms: an industry perspective

For the first time ever, MOLA, An Association of Performance Librarians, devoted an entire day to technology that featured vendor exhibits, presentations, discussions, and meetings. Bookending the day were two panel discussions; one moderated by David MacDonald on the subject of music reader tablet experiences, and one moderated by Philip Rothman with representatives from the music notation software platforms. The concluding discussion, heard here, is entitled “Music Notation Platforms: An Industry Perspective”. It brought together the representatives of a cross-section of notation software solutions: Adrian Holovaty of Soundslice; Bradley Kunda of MuseScore; Daniel Spreadbury of Steinberg (Dorico); and Chris Swaffer of PreSonus (Notion). These “ABCD”s of the music notation software field engaged in a lively back-and-forth interchange about the philosophy behind their product development, their relationships with their user bases, and how their programs co-exist in a crowded space. More from Scoring Notes: The tech trek to the 2023 MOLA conference Half Notes: A comparison of tablet music reader technology experiences