Make MIDI/XML exports free again!!

• Jun 3, 2020 - 08:14

Skip to the last paragraph if you don't feel like reading all of this, but just know that my reasoning and justifications for my request are laid out IN said paragraphs. Thanks!

I've always liked visiting MuseScore because I can find hundreds of arrangements of gaming songs made by fans just like me that I could export as MIDI files and import into various programs that I used to make remixes of those songs. MIDI files of songs (ESPECIALLY gaming music or lesser-known bands) aren't always available online, so having sheet music of them arranged by hand from fans of those songs that could be used was INCREDIBLE. I'm not necessarily great with music theory and/or arranging, but I'm pretty good at remixing with MIDI files.

When MuseScore started charging money for a subscription service in order to export scores as MIDI files, I was honestly devastated. I've always used Noteflight instead of MuseScore for composing music simply because I like their editor better...just personally preference there, my music theory teacher is actually the opposite...but I would still always come back to MuseScore just so I could listen to songs I liked, export them as MIDI files, import and remix them. With MIDI and XML exports being locked behind a paywall, I have absolutely no motivation to come back and visit the MuseScore site ever again. I'm going into college this year as a freshman studying music and game design, and I can't afford to pay $30 yearly just for MIDI exports that I use to make remixes for fun. I can write all of my original compositions using another program that I prefer better, and the one thing I enjoyed about MuseScore is now gone, so...why even bother?

Having exports as .mscz (MuseScore editor) files locked behind a paywall TOTALLY makes sense to me. It helps to reduce piracy and shameless reuploads of pieces that people have worked on, and it's focused solely on a system that you people at MuseScore have worked on and created from the ground up. Heck, I even think that MP3 exports being locked up makes sense, because at least it uses the same instrument soundfonts as all basic MuseScore pieces do. But MIDI and XML files weren't created by the MuseScore team and aren't owned by MuseScore, and they honestly don't have much to do with the actual process of composing pieces in MuseScore itself. Not only do I not think it's necessarily fair to limit someone who may want to use a pre-existing format like MIDI files to share their pieces with fans, but

I know I started to ramble a bit- sorry about that, I'm extremely passionate about this- but the TLDR here is this: Please, do limit .mscz and .mp3 exports to being locked behind a paywall. I think that's totally fair, MuseScore does own and/or has created most of the contents of those two things. MIDI and XML files, however, need to be opened back up to the public for free. (See my reasoning above.) There are countless amounts of times when I've looked online for a MIDI of a game song and been unable to find one, and I've gone to check MuseScore to see if anyone had arranged it themselves, only to find a reminder that I'd now have to pay $30 a year for something I've been doing for free for 4 years now. Please, if you care about your users and your fanbase, then I think this is something that needs to be done, regardless of costs. I really do hope you'll reconsider, you guys are the only resource on the entire internet for a lot of these things. We're counting on you. Thanks.


Comments

MusicXML and MIDI export is free. As far as the MuseScore Edit software is concerned. And only that is topical here on musescore.org.
See https://musescore.org/en/faq#faq-20657

And if anything the contrary of what you say is true, mscz could be free, as that's the format of this very software, MIDI and MusicXML whould only allow to 'steal' and reuse in other softwares. But that's not the point, which is copyright violations and the threat of the copyright holders to take down the site if not participating in the pay, which in turn means musescore.com needs to collect money.

To be clear: you are talking about the score-sharing website msuescore.com, so best to post over there, not here on the support site for the MuseScore software. But for the record, downloading music is free over there, if the music itself is. That is, original and public domain music is free to download, because no one needs to be paid. If you want to download music that is copyrighted by someone else, though, there is no getting around needing to pay the copyright owner. That's just how the law works. The site tried to skirt around the law for a while, but at some point there was no getting around needing to pay the copyright holders. No amount of complaining to MuseScore will change that.

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