Black Friday 2018 deals for music notation software and related tech [updated]

Black Friday, the Friday after the US Thanksgiving holiday, was first named after the congestion it caused in retail outlets and other shopping areas. Later, an explanation surfaced that it was the day that companies turned profitable for the year, thus going from “in the red” to “in the black”.

Whatever the origins, you don’t have to concern yourself with fighting massive crowds or fretting over corporate profits. You can be content with Black Friday — as well as Cyber Monday and all of the other days in the holiday shopping season — being an opportunity to find some good deals and become more productive with music notation software and related tech products.

We’ve assembled the offers we could come across in that world and pass them along to you, in the hopes that you’ll find one or more to your liking. If we hear of any more after we publish this post, we’ll add them.

But first: On this week of thanks, a word of thanks, to you, our reader. What an exciting and fun year it’s been at Scoring Notes.

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Sibelius and other Avid products

There are several offers for Avid products, including Sibelius, Pro Tools and Media Composer. There are separate promotions for Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

Black Friday:

• 20% off on all 1-year subscriptions using coupon code BF2018
• Valid from November 23, 2018 to November 25, 2018

Cyber Monday:

• 20% off on all 1-year subscriptions using coupon code CM2018
• Valid from November 26, 2018 to November 27, 2018

As always, your best source for Sibelius reviews, tips and news is right here on Scoring Notes. Here are all of the updates released in 2018:

Sibelius 2018.7
Sibelius 2018.6
Sibelius 2018.5
Sibelius 2018.4 and 2018.4.1
Sibelius 2018.1

And check out our “Eight since 8” post and tutorial video for our take on the top eight improvements made to Sibelius since Sibelius 8.0 was released.

Finale and Garritan libraries from MakeMusic

This year, MakeMusic isn’t running a Black Friday special, but they are doing something new for Cyber Monday.

From Monday, November 26th until Friday, November 30th, you can get a free Garritan virtual instrument library when you purchase, trade up to, or upgrade to Finale v26.

This deal applies to users that upgrade from any previous version, trade up from Finale PrintMusic or SongWriter, or buy Finale for the first time.

You can choose among these Garritan libraries:

• Instant Orchestra (a $180 value)
• Personal Orchestra (a $150 value)
• Jazz and Big Band (a $150 value)
• Concert and Marching Band (a $150 value)
• World (a $150 value)
• Harps (a $100 value)
• Classic Pipe Organs (a $100 value)

The CFX products are not included in the promotion.

To own both Finale v26 and your choice of a Garritan library, add both to your cart, then enter promo code CYBERWEEK18 at checkout.

The offer begins at 8 am EST on November 26, and ends at 2 pm EST on November 30th. Limit one per customer. US only.

Read our full review of Finale v26, which was released last month, along with a major update to NotePerformer, which greatly improved support for Finale.

Notion and other PreSonus products

PreSonus has a worldwide offer that started earlier this week and is running through Monday, November, 26, including its Notion music notation software:

• 50% off Studio One 4, Notion 6 and Progression 3
• Products include upgrades as well as Studio One + Notion bundles
• Excludes crossgrades, educational, and add-ons

Fun fact: The Black Friday promotional price for Notion 6 is $75. If you own Sibelius 7.5 or earlier, or have a Sibelius 8 perpetual license but haven’t upgraded in over a year, you could purchase Notion for $75 and use that to be eligible for the $199 Sibelius Ultimate crossgrade price — netting you a savings of $25 from the $299 Sibelius Ultimate upgrade price, and you’d have two products instead of one. (If you were thinking of purchasing Sibelius for the first time, the net savings is a whopping $325 off of the $599 price.) Just saying…

PreSonus is also discounting its monitors and loudspeakers:

• 33% off the Eris E5, E8, E44 and E66, through December 31, 2018
• $200 off the AIR12 loudspeakers for customers in the US and Canada, through November 26, 2018

We covered the Notion 6 release and the 6.2 update on Scoring Notes.

Noteflight

The online notation editor Noteflight is running a couple of specials for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday:

• $29 off a year of Noteflight Premium (regularly $49) with the code BLACKFRIDAY
• Valid from Thursday, November 22 through Monday, November 26, 2018

Cyber Monday:

• An even better deal gives a year of Noteflight Premium for every $20 spent in Noteflight Marketplace, with no limit to how many years can be earned
• Valid on Monday, November 26, 2018 only

Newzik

The folks at Newzik are running a special Black Friday contest for Scoring Notes readers.

Newzik is a cloud-based music reading app on iPads tailored for collaboration. Newzik enables musicians to import, read, annotate and share the markings in real time to any Newzik users.

For the chance to win the app for free (a $9 value), send them an e-mail at contact@newzik.com with “Newzik & Scoring Notes Black Friday” in the subject of the e-mail. They’ll randomly select five winners.

We spoke with the Newzik team earlier this year at the MOLA conference and plan on more coverage of Newzik and other iOS score readers soon.

Nicechart

NiceChart is offering 10% off all purchases starting today along with their always free standard shipping on non-digital products. They are now offering standard titles from Alfred, Belwin, Hal Leonard, FJH, and Carl Fischer, to name a few, in addition to their flagship customizable products.

The coupon code is TURKEY10 and is valid now through Saturday, December 1.

NiceChart officially launched last year and creates custom, on-the-fly arrangements that can be ordered with a few clicks and delivered digitally to your inbox.

We spoke with Nicechart’s founder and CEO Steve Morell earlier this year at the NAMM Show.

MuseScore

The MuseScore scoring program, of course, is free. But there are a couple of offers worth noting here.

At MuseScore.com, from November 22 to 25, there is a discount of 60% off a MuseScore Pro subscription (reg. $83.88). No code is needed. MuseScore Pro allows for more mixing tools, print options, and storage compared to a free account.

There is also Black Friday / Cyber Monday discount for the Mastering MuseScore School online course taught by Marc Sabatella.

From now through Monday, November 26, use the code BLACKFRIDAY to receive 30% off of the course’s price of $25.

Marc is a contributor here at Scoring Notes and is the foremost expert on teaching MuseScore. He’s the author of the comprehensive guide Mastering MuseScore, and you can read his posts on recent MuseScore updates right here on Scoring Notes:

MuseScore 2.3
MuseScore 2.2
MuseScore 2.1

Dorico and other Steinberg products

We confirmed with Steinberg that no promotions are planned for Dorico on Black Friday / Cyber Monday.

However, Steinberg is offering up to 60% off of selected products in their Black Friday Sale. going on from November 23 through November 30.

Included in the sale are HALion 6, HALion Symphonic Orchestra, The Grand 3 and updates or upgrades to WaveLab Pro and WaveLab Elements. The coupon code BLACKFRIDAY18 is needed at checkout.

You can also save up to 50% on the Cubasis app for iPad and available in-app purchases in Apple’s App Store.

If you own Dorico, you already have HALion Symphonic Orchestra, so no need to take advantage of that deal, but the others may well be of interest.

Read our extensive reviews of Dorico 2 and subsequent updates:

Dorico 2.1.10
Dorico 2.1
Dorico 2

Other deals

Music Type Foundry

Available on Monday, November 26 only, Music Type Foundry is making a number of coupon codes available for some fast and lucky customers, in limited quantities, for its third party music fonts:

CYBERLUCK: Any one font free (1 available)
CYBER90: 90% off any one font (1 available)
CYBER80: 80% off any one font (1 available)
CYBER70: 70% off any one font (1 available)
CYBER60: 60% off any one font (2 available)
CYBER50: 50% off entire purchase (2 available)
CYBER40: 40% off entire purchase (2 available)
CYBER30: 30% off entire purchase (3 available)
CYBER20: 20% off entire purchase (3 available)
CYBER10: 10% off entire purchase (3 available)

You may use one code per transaction, and only once each. If you try a code and it’s already been used, try another one!

Codes are valid only from November 26, at 2:00 am EST to November 27 at 1:59 am EST.

Type designer Abraham Lee has created some really nice-looking music fonts at Music Type Foundry.  We recently reviewed Jawher Matmati’s HP Diagram font, which makes it intuitive to enter harp diagrams in any program, and is also available on the MTF site.

EastWest / Sounds Online

EastWest / Sounds Online has announced up to 60% off in their November Super Sale through the end of November, and 30% off a ComposerCloud X subscription.

Best Service

Best Service has discounts on many of their products with varying expiration dates.

Vienna Symphonic Library

Vienna Symphonic Library is offering up to 50% off on many of their products, including Vienna Ensemble Pro, Vienna MIR Pro, and Yamaha CFX, from November 22 through 26, 2018.

Sheet Music Direct

Sheet Music Direct has a discount of 40% off PASS, their online subscription service for online sheet music. The service includes unlimited access to their sheet music library and 50% off prints and downloads. No code is needed, but the offer expires on November 27 at 2:59 am EST.

Henle

Henle has announced 25% off when you purchase credits in the Henle Library app “only this weekend”.

Elgato

Elgato’s customizable 15-key Stream Deck controller is 33% off (reg. $150) and the 6-key Stream Deck Mini is 20% off (reg. 100).

We’ll have a review of the Stream Deck on Scoring Notes in the coming weeks, focusing on how to use it with music notation software.

Others?

If you know of other Black Friday deals in music notation software and related tech that would be useful to readers, feel free to share them in the comments.