Muse Magazine July 2017: The Evolution of MuseScore

As the music notation program, MuseScore, celebrates its 15th year since its inception in 2002, it's fascinating to look back at its journey from a small project to a global phenomenon. With over eight million downloads by March 2015 and 1.9 million downloads in just nine months after the release of version 2.0.3 in December 2016, MuseScore has come a long way.

The story began when Werner Schweer, one of the MusE developers, decided to remove notation support from MusE and create a standalone notation program called MuseScore using the codebase. The project moved from SourceForge to GitHub at the end of 2013, marking an important milestone in its growth.

By the fourth quarter of 2010, MuseScore was being downloaded 80,000 times per month. This number skyrocketed to over 1000 downloads per day by October 2009, with version 0.9.5 released just a few months later in August. By December 2008, the download rate had reached an impressive 15,000 per month.

The rapid growth of MuseScore can be attributed to its user-friendly interface and flexibility. The program is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms, making it accessible to music enthusiasts worldwide. Additionally, the accompanying online score-sharing platform and freemium mobile score viewer and playback app have further enhanced its popularity.

MuseScore has also been translated into multiple languages, including Afrikaans, Catalan, Chinese (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (United Kingdom and United States), Faroese, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

The evolution of MuseScore has been remarkable, with the program being released under various licenses over the years. MuseScore 4 is licensed under GPL-3.0 with font exception and proprietary for online and mobile platforms, while earlier versions (MuseScore 0-3) are licensed under GPL-2.0-only with font exception and proprietary for online and mobile platforms.

In conclusion, MuseScore's journey from a small project to a global music notation program is a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration. As it continues to evolve and improve, MuseScore remains an essential tool for music enthusiasts worldwide, offering a unique platform for sharing and exploring music.

Muse magazine july 2017