Musescore dot org versus dot COM
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    I needed a PD hymn score which was clearly labeled as such on musescore.com. You theoretically don’t need a subscription for PD music, but in any case, I thought that I was signing up for a free trial which I would cancel once the PDF was safely downloaded.

    I’m appalled. It is scummy and gross to make me click through trying to upsell like that, and they hide between a combination of EU jurisdictions and Cyprus to hide from the American authorities. So far they are refusing to totally refund me and prefer a “special offer” of an extra six months to the Pro nonsense or a 25% refund.

    Musescore.org is the site for support if you use the notation software now known as Musescore Studio. Which I like. But I am very hesitant to recommend it to anyone after this — if they need money, they need to find a better way to acquire it, because this reeks of desperation, and they don’t even really need money now that Muse Group purchased Hal Leonard. Or maybe they do, but rent-seeking behavior like this is also antithetical to the software model that they adopted. (I promise, I’m not even that libertarian. I just have principles and honor.)

    I should also point out that the distinction between the websites isn’t at all obvious, and I am fairly sure that it is a recent one — a stupid one too.

    oh yes, PS: the reason why this matters for us users is because they are explicit about using Musescore dot com money to fund MS Studio development, and at every turn, the dot com entity of the same name chooses the wrong, bad, indefensible thing to do.

    They should never have spun off the support forum for the app to the dot org website all while connecting linked accounts for the two websites, as all too often people find the dot com site first.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    I don’t know if I’ll ever get my refund.

    Marc Sabatella who is essentially the public face of Musescore has this to say:

    Mistakes happen; we're all human. I don't hold that against you. But nor should should try to hold others responsible for your own mistakes.
    Unfortunately the law doesn’t work that way, and the banks tend to prefer that you be upfront in the first place. Musescore is not upfront and honest, and even their devs, who largely speak through Marc, have thoroughly disappointed me even without money being involved. I will continue to use the software for now as it’s a bit of a sunk cost, but I don’t think that I can recommend musicians switch to this in good conscience. I certainly won’t make the “mistake” of getting a score quickly from musescore.com.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,912
    FWIW—you shouldn't have had to put in any credit card info or any such things...

    But in future, check hymnary.org first. Or PM me; there's a good chance I have a version of it I could send you. I have hundreds of hymn files.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    Yeah. I know. But haste etc.
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