’Tis the season to be thankful for all of the products and services in the world of music notation software and related technology, and for the Scoring Notes audience who comes here to learn about them!
Before, after, or while you read about all of the deals in the world of music notation notation software and related technology, you can also listen to our podcast episode where we summarize updates to Dorico, Sibelius, and MuseScore over the past year. Then, we do a little shopping to find some Black Friday deals and make a few recommendations for fun and productivity, discuss our take on the hottest deals, help make the most of your holiday spending budget, all while still leaving plenty of time to take advantage of some serious savings.
Support Scoring Notes while you shop
First, a bit about Scoring Notes. We can’t do it without you, the reader and listener. Thank you for coming here to get your fix on the field of music notation software and technology. Stay informed with all the latest news, tips, reviews and more — if you haven’t done so already, please subscribe.
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A note to our readers and listeners
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Thank you! Most importantly, please be safe and healthy during this holiday season, and we hope you are finding new and exciting ways to make music.
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Also, if you do your holiday shopping on Amazon, here’s an easy way to support Scoring Notes without it costing you anything extra. Simply start your shopping by clicking this special link for Amazon’s Black Friday deals, or click the image below. Then, add your items to your Amazon cart and make your purchase. For any purchase you make after clicking the link or image (even if it’s not a Black Friday special), Scoring Notes will receive a commission fee, at no cost to you. It’s as easy as that!
Listen to the podcast episode
On the Scoring Notes podcast, we show our appreciation by bearing good tidings in the form of a summary of all of the updates to Dorico, Sibelius, and MuseScore over the past year. Then, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald do a little shopping to find some Black Friday deals and make a few recommendations for fun and productivity. Listen now:
All prices listed are in US dollars unless otherwise noted. Prices may vary by country or region, and may not all be available in your area. Be sure to verify pricing with the seller.
Sibelius and other Avid products
Avid is taking up to 40% off annual subscriptions through November 30, 2025 as follows:
Sibelius
- Sibelius Ultimate: $133 (reg. $199)
Pro Tools
- Pro Tools Ultimate: $359 (reg. $599)
- Pro Tools Studio: $199 (reg. $299)
- Pro Tools Artist: $79 (reg. $99)
Media Composer
- Media Composer Ultimate: $362 (reg. $540)
These same discounts will be available to those renewing their subscription in my.avid.com.
However, if you already have a previous version of Sibelius Ultimate as a perpetual license and want to get current, we recommend that you not get the subscription, but instead purchase the “Sibelius Ultimate – Get Current” product, which will be similar to the subscription price, and will additionally allow you to keep your perpetual license.
Finally, if you have a qualifying competing product like Finale, you can get a subscription to Sibelius Ultimate for just $99, through the competitive crossgrade offer, or a perpetual license of $149.
As always, your best source for Sibelius reviews, tips and news is right here on Scoring Notes. Here are all of the updates released since this time last year:
- Sibelius updated to 2025.10
- Sibelius updated to 2025.8
- Sibelius 2025.7 brings note spacing control, UI updates
- Sibelius 2025.4 released
- Sibelius 2025.3 released
- Sibelius 2025.2 introduces decondensing parts with staff filters
Dorico and other Steinberg products
Steinberg has often had excellent “Cyber Deals” promotions, and 2025 is no exception, with savings of up to 50% off of many of their products, with no coupon code needed, through December 8, 2025.
Dorico
We don’t always see Dorico included in the Cyber deals event, but for 2025, Dorico is in the mix in a big way.
Dorico 6 is available at a discount of 40% off during this time. This applies to new licenses, crossgrades from Sibelius, updates from previous versions of the product (e.g. Dorico Pro 5 to Dorico Pro 6, or Dorico Elements 4 to Dorico Elements 6), and upgrades from other variants (e.g. Dorico SE to Dorico Elements, Dorico Elements to Dorico Pro). Education licenses are not included in the promotion.
If you already have Sibelius (but not Finale; see below) and haven’t ever purchased Dorico Pro, your best option is the competitive crossgrade to Dorico Pro 6, which brings the $300 crossgrade price down to just $180 for a full Dorico Pro 6 license. Proof of eligibility is required.
This is also the best time for existing Dorico users that haven’t yet updated to Dorico 6 to get current with the most recent version of the software; the ordinary $100 price to go from Dorico Pro 5 to Dorico Pro 6 is now just $60. The price gets higher the further back from a previous version of Dorico you go, but they’re all still discounted 40% off the usual rate.
You’re also able to buy the Lifetime Unlock in-app purchase in Dorico for iPad at 40% off during this promotion.
Dorico crossgrade from Finale
If you have a Finale license and haven’t yet taken advantage of the special $149 offer for Finale users to purchase Dorico Pro through the MakeMusic store, you’re in luck. In addition to this price, which is already heavily discounted from the regular $579, for Black Friday, MakeMusic is offering an additional 25% off of this special crossgrade, bringing the price down to around $112. Use the code CYBER25 during the promotion period, which runs from November 26 through December 5, 2025.
(If you’re wondering why MakeMusic is selling Dorico in the first place, see this Scoring Notes article.)
Other Steinberg products
These include:
- Cubasis (iOS/Android/ChromeOS): 50% off
- Cubase iC Pro (iOS/Android): 50% off
- SpectraLayers 12: 40% off
- WaveLab 12: 50% off
Many HALion-based instruments and sound packs are included in the promotion at 50% off, including HALion 7, Artefakt Guitar, Iconica Opus, TGuitar, Olympus Choir Elements, MGuitar, and Groove Agent Expansions.
Missing from the Cyber Deals promotion is Cubase 15, which was released earlier this month, with new features. (You can read our review of Cubase 14, which added a Dorico-powered score editor.)
Dorico 6 came out in April of this year and has already been updated several times:
- Dorico 6.1: Select more
- Dorico 6.0.22 extends proofreading capabilities [updated]
- Dorico 6.0.10 update is available
- Dorico 6 review: Proof positive
MuseScore Studio and other Muse Group products
MuseScore Studio is free, but if you like the idea of paying something just so you get a discount, there are other ways to get deals on MuseScore offerings.
MuseScore.com is used by musicians to share their work with the community, for music teachers to share tasks with their students, and for performers to find digital sheet music, and a MuseScore Pro+ subscription unlocks scores that are licensed from print publishers. MuseScore Learn is a repository of online video course that run the gamut from learning how to play musical instruments to learning how to use MuseScore itself.
It seems that these products are regularly discounted, but at the moment a “Black Friday” sale is advertised for 90% off. Their regular pricing page is located here, so be sure to confirm your discounted price.
MuseScore is part of Muse Group, which also controls Ultimate Guitar, and that site also has a sale that is advertised to be 80% off. We find the pricing and discount scheme to be somewhat opaque, often requiring a login or other steps to be performed before the price is revealed, so do confirm these amounts before purchasing a subscription.
Muse Hub has standalone apps, plug-ins, Muse Sounds, loops, and samples. Products there are marked down to varying degrees at the moment.
Here are all of the MuseScore Studio updates released since this time last year:
- MuseScore Studio 4.6 adds full SMuFL support, other engraving and playback updates
- MuseScore Studio patched to 4.5.2
- MuseScore Studio patched to 4.5.1
- MuseScore Studio 4.5 adds engraving, percussion, input features
- MuseScore Studio 4.4.4 update available
Noteflight and other Hal Leonard sheet music products
Now that Hal Leonard has been acquired by Muse Group, we have started to see more integration of the two formerly separate companies; for instance, MuseScore now includes the Hal Leonard catalog.
The online notation editor Noteflight is still a separate product. Noteflight Premium, which affords users the full range of features in Noteflight’s web-based notation software, has a regular annual price of $49. In the past, we’ve seen Black Friday deals for Noteflight, so if it goes on sale, we’ll update this post.
Muse Group has shared the details of some of the other deals in the Hal Leonard family of sheet music products rolling out over the holiday sales period, which run from November 22 – November 29:
- Black Friday: 20% off sitewide
- 30% off one-time score purchases
- 30% off a monthly SheetMusicDirect PASS subscription
- 40% off an annual SheetMusicDirect PASS subscription
Notation Central
At NYC Music Services we’re joining the Black Friday party this year with some deals of our own, on our marketplace for music notation technology. Notation Central is the place to make the most of the music notation software you use.
This is our biggest sale of the year, with 20% off nearly everything in the store, through December 16, 2025.
This includes items like:
- 20% off all Scoring Express templates for Sibelius and Dorico
- 20% off all Notation Express profiles for Sibelius and Dorico
- 20% off all music and text fonts
- 20% off ebooks and video tutorials like SWA Masterclass Sibelius Ultimate, Dorico Basics, and Using Sibelius Effectively
- 20% off the Sibelius plug-ins Graphical MIDI Tools and UltraMix…
- …and more!
Just use the code BF20 at checkout to see the discounts applied.
Stackable savings
There are some extra savings to be had, too, and you can stack these codes with the BF20 discount for some super savings.
Use the code MTF25 to get 25% off when you purchase two or more SMuFL fonts from Music Type Foundry together. This includes MTF-Arnold, MTF-Beethoven, MTF-Cadence, MTF-Gutenberg 1939, MTF-Haydn, MTF-Improviso, MTF-Ross, and MTF-Scorlatti — all just updated very recently for use in Dorico, Finale 27, and now MuseScore 4.6+.
Use the code SMUFLME to get 25% off when you purchase two or more SMuFL fonts from NorFonts together. This includes BlueNotes, BopMusic, CapoScore, Concerto, Da Capo, Graphira, Groove, Mezza, Mezzo, RealScore, Rhapsody, Scherzo, Scordatura, Soli, The Copyist, Tutti, and Vintage BH, for use in Dorico, Finale 27, and MuseScore 4.6.
Use the code SEDOR25 for 25% off when you purchase three or more Scoring Express for Dorico template suites, and SESIB25 for 25% off when you purchase three or more Scoring Express for Sibelius template suites, with eight professional templates for stand-alone use.
What’s new and recent at Notation Central
Music Type Foundry
The re-release of the Music Type Foundry fonts earlier this year, and the big update just two weeks ago, was a major milestone. It marked the first time in three years that these legendary fonts were made available to new customers.
Each of the newly available fonts, originally designed by Abraham Lee, was first updated and revised by Dan Kreider, and further expanded by Nor Eddine Bahha, and are now only available in the SMuFL format, for use in Dorico and any other notation application that supports the SMuFL standard — including MuseScore 4.6. Each MTF music font now comes bundled with a complementary text font and an accompanying font metadata file containing the recommended engraving settings for crucial elements that are not stored within the font file itself.
Scoring Express
This year saw the launch of the Scoring Express Choral & Vocal suites, packaged separately for Dorico and Sibelius, but made to look as similar as possible to each other, and to attain a high level of aesthetic beauty and functionality.
If you’re new to Scoring Express, check out the playlist of approximately a dozen short videos, one each for Scoring Express for Dorico and Scoring Express for Sibelius, that demonstrate Scoring Express features and tips for using the templates. Some of these are specific to the Theatre & Studio collection, but others are applicable across the Scoring Express line.
Further, we’ve made use of the commenting feature in each program to update one of the example files that comes with the Theatre & Studio collection in Dorico and Sibelius. The “Rock band + strings landscape” example file is now annotated with comments that provide contextual tips for many of the features found in Scoring Express, along with links to the corresponding help videos from the playlist.
These resources are helpful, whether you already use the software or are coming anew to it from Finale.
Notation Express
Last year we rolled out Notation Express Keypad for Dorico and Sibelius, priced regularly at $19.99 but only $15.99 with the code BF20. Notation Express Keypad uses familiar numeric keypad layouts on your phone to make using Dorico or Sibelius quick and fun. The Stream Deck Mobile Pro app on iOS/iPadOS or Android is required. Because there is no concept of the keypad in Dorico, Notation Express Keypad closely follows the arrangement and order of the Sibelius Keypad in both applications — perfect for when you’re working on a laptop, on a computer without a numeric keypad, or just want to add more power and speed to your existing setup. Whether or not you already know how to use the Sibelius Keypad, you will be right at home in Notation Express Keypad.
Finally, we covered the end of official support of Finale on Scoring Notes this year, in a three-part series, which you can find on the Conquering Finale page of our site. Still, we know that many people still use Finale, and want to use the Scoring Express templates for Finale. While those are fully updated for the latest (and last) version of Finale 27, the won’t be updated further, and so we decided to permanently reduce the prices of those versions, plus the bundle. Those are still available at the reduced prices, and eligible for the same BF20 discount.
Elgato
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Elgato offer a Black Friday sale directly, but they’re back this year with discounts of up to 30% off, through December 1, 2025. Although some products went on sale on November 20, others — like the Stream Deck XL — won’t go on sale until November 28, so you may wish to mark your calendar.
Elgato’s product line has proliferated recently. We count nine — yes, 9 — versions of the Stream Deck, and that’s not counting color variants. They also offer a wide range of mics, cameras, stands, accessories, lighting products, and more. And that’s not even counting the Stream Deck Mobile app for iOS and Android, or the Virtual Stream Deck.
Keep in mind, it’s possible to run two or more Stream Decks at once — including the mobile version!
Purchase at Amazon
If you’re looking to pick up the two versions of the Stream Deck consoles that work with Notation Express, which are the Stream Deck and Stream Deck XL consoles can be found at Amazon, and often for lower prices than even the sale prices that Elgato offers directly. Those prices can vary, but they have typically been on sale during Black Friday:
In addition, Amazon sells:
Many other retailers carry the Stream Decks as well, so shop around to see if you can find a good deal.
Newzik
Newzik, the collaborative music score management and reading app, has a very special offer for Black Friday. Their Newzik Premium Lifetime option will be discounted 30% through December 2, 2025.
To receive this Black Friday offer, you have to download the Newzik app on the App Store before using the offer.
Newzik Premium Lifetime includes:
- Unlimited LiveScore conversions
- Unlimited collaborative Projects
- MusicXML and MIDI export
- PDF score transposition
- Page-turning with face gestures
- One-time payment
Newzik incorporates Maestria, a technology that Newzik introduced in 2021 that allows it to not just display a score, but also to understand it musically. The resulting score is a LiveScore, which includes the ability to view the score as with any other, and also the ability to play it back and export it to other software for further use.
PDF Expert
PDF Expert is a Mac and iOS app with robust PDF editing, annotating, and enhancing features, without the visual clutter and higher costs of other products. It’s developed by Readdle, a company specializing in useful, attractive software for Mac, and it aims to strike the balance between simplicity and utility.
They are running weekly deals that can only be accessed via a special link, like this one, here. See, reading Scoring Notes is worthwhile!
PDF Expert has all of the PDF tools that are “table stakes” these days for a PDF application: editing; annotation; markup; easy conversion from other formats; signing (but not secure e-signing like Adobe Sign or DocuSign); page organization; merging PDFs; and optical character recognition (OCR).
I reviewed PDF Expert earlier last year, with its Enhance Scan feature, found amidst its other useful scanning tools, like Split Pages, Crop Pages, Clear Margins, Recognize Text, and Content Selection.
The PDF Expert Black Friday deal:
- 10% off an annual subscription of PDF Expert ($72, reg. $80)
- 10% off the perpetual (lifetime) license ($126, reg. $140)
To get the discount, enter the code BF10. This coupon is valid through November 27, 2025.
Acon Digital
Acon Digital, purveyors of cutting edge audio editing software and processing tools, has a Black Friday special on the entire wide range of products they offer, from audio editing, restoration, mastering and effects processing — all conceived with ultimate audio quality and usability in mind. This year’s sale is the biggest we’ve seen from Acon.
We rely on their Restoration Suite to help produce our Scoring Notes podcast. Whether you are an audio production neophyte or a top-flight professional producer, you’ll want to have their tools at the ready.
Onto the deal: Acon products are on sale during the special period for anywhere between 30% and 70% off their usual price. This includes new purchases as well as any updates to any products, such as the Restoration Suite, the Mastering Suite, the audio cleaner AudioLava, the Acoustica Premium Edition bundle, and various other plug-ins.
Acon’s sale period runs through December 3, 2025.
Rogue Amoeba
Rogue Amoeba may have the funniest-sounding name of all the companies here, but they’re serious about making high-quality, award-winning audio tools for Mac. Their small but powerful suite consists of their flagship recorder Audio Hijack, which David MacDonald and I both use to record our “sides” from our respective studios every week.
There’s also Audio Hijack’s little brother Piezo, if you don’t need all of the fancy options that come with Audio Hijack; the virtual mixer Loopback; the home streamer Airfoil; the soundboard app Farrago; the editor Fission; and the control utility SoundSource.
Their apps are distinguished by their ease of use, beautiful interfaces, and already low prices. (Sadly for Windows users, though, they’re a Mac-only shop.)
They have a special sale from now through November 30, 2025, for even further discounts. Use the code PUMPKINSPICE for 11% off any purchase from their store. Just don’t call it “Black Friday”!
Sample libraries
Audio Imperia
At Audio Imperia, their Black Friday sale will run through December 4, 2025. Each of their products have a discounted price, where you can save up to 75% off individual products. These prices will be shown when you are not logged in to your account, or if you are a new customer. They also offer loyalty discounts available to returning customers, on top of Black Friday pricing. All returning customers who spend a total of $35 or more will be entitled to an extra 10% off.
Cinesamples
Over at the Cinesamples web site, they are offering up to 60% off sitewide, through December 2, 2025.
EastWest Sounds
EastWest Sounds is making their products available for up to 80% off the usual price in their Black Friday sale.
In addition, new subscribers to ComposerCloud+ can obtain access to the entire collection of 42,000+ virtual instruments for just $99/year, during their Black Friday sale.
Best Service
Dozens of Black Friday deals can be found at Best Service on more than 1,000 products such as sound libraries, plug-ins, and other music production software, but mostly, we’re delighted to see the return of their gobsmacked dealmongers after several years in exile.
Vienna Symphonic Library
The entire list of deals is at the VSL Black Friday Deals web site. The sale runs through December 2, 2025.
Native Instruments
An enormous catalog of sample libraries, sounds, and effects is on sale at Native Instruments.
Spitfire Audio
The Spitfire Black Friday sale will start on November 27, 2025.
Musio
Musio’s Black Friday deals are in effect now — save up to 70% in the Musio Marketplace and 40% on Musio+ Annual. This ends December 2, 2025.
A Sound Effect
Independent sound community marketplace A Sound Effect has a number of deals on thousands of premium sound effects libraries, plugins and virtual instruments.
We can’t possibly keep up with all of these offers and more — but fortunately others can, at the Audio Production Deals subreddit.
Affinity by Canva
It’s not music notation software, but we’ve discussed Affinity‘s applications before, for their affordable and powerful alternatives to pricier vector, pixel, and layout suites.
Now that Serif, the company that made Affinity, is part of Canva, they’ve made the decision to combine what was previously three separate applications — Designer, Photo, and Publisher — into one application.
Moreover, that application, now called Affinity by Canva, is totally free. You need to sign up for a Canva account to download it, and if you want to take advantage of the premium Canva AI studio features, those will cost money.
But for creative software that has the capability to complete the work done in notation software applications, Affinity is the ideal starting place, at the right price.
Magix
Among the offerings that Magix has on Black Friday is Sound Forge, the digital audio editor that has been around for nearly three decades. Probably the best offer is the Sound Forge Pro 18 Suite, which is on sale for $239, which is 60% off the usual price of $599, through December 7, 2025.
The Sound Forge Pro suite includes a number of plug-ins; among those are Melodyne essential and Steinberg’s SpectraLayers Pro 11.
Magix has a number of other deals on their audio and video editing products, which run through December 3 and discount some of their products by more than 80% off.
Mindful Harmony
Mindful Harmony, a music theory and composition web-based application, is having a sale, through November 30, 2025, where you can get 40% off the usual price of a lifetime purchase (reg. $120, discounted to $71.40) by using the code BLACKWEEKS25 at checkout.
Dell
Dell — yes, Dell — has a Black Friday sale where you can save up to $750.
In addition to Windows laptops galore, the best Dell products, in my opinion, are their displays, and you can often find better prices on Amazon than you can on the Dell site, so it’s work checking both.
Gracing my desk are two new Dell UltraSharp 32 4K U3225QE Thunderbolt hub monitors. I don’t have any other Dell products, but I’ve been a big fan of their displays for a long time. These displays cost $756 each, which is an amazing deal — in July the price was $1,000. I really feel that, on a bang-for-your-buck basis, increasing your screen real estate is the best thing you can do to enhance your productivity. Who wants to spend time scrolling and switching between windows all day long?
Fun and practical stuff
On the Scoring Notes podcast, we mentioned items a little outside of our usual wheelhouse, but highly recommended nonetheless.
David’s picks
Setapp
Although we’re not seeing any Black Friday pricing (yet), Setapp is David’s favorite way to get access to hundreds of Mac apps for a low regular subscription of just $9.99/mo for one Mac, $12.49/mo for 1 Mac and up to 4 iOS devices, or $14.49 for up to 4 Macs and 4 iOS devices, and you can save 10% by committing to an annual subscription. The best part about their catalog of powerful applications is that it’s curated, so the time savings alone searching for the “thing that can do the thing” may be its best feature.
Rock Paper Pencil
Amazon has a Black Friday deal on Rock Paper Pencil: $36, which is 20% off the usual price of $45. Rock Paper Pencil, which David reviewed last month, a screen protector and pencil tip combo for the iPad that improves writing ability and reduces glare, making the device feel more like interacting with paper. Their v.3 is better than ever.
TRMNL
If you need a break from staring at your fancy multi-color hi-res iPad screen — even with the Rock Paper Pencil overlay — David has another suggestion: TRMNL, a lower-tech “e-ink companion that helps you stay focused”. It’s designed for your desk, wall, fridge, or anywhere else where you might need a glance at a few things to help you move about your day and pick up useful tidbits of information, with hundreds of plug-ins and integrations to help customize it however you like.
Although they don’t appear to have a Black Friday sale at the moment, at $139 it’s a great gift idea nonetheless, for yourself or someone else.
Philip’s picks:
Behind Bars
This will always be at the top of my list: Elaine Gould’s book Behind Bars, and the slimmer Behind Bars: General Conventions: Available from Amazon for $94 and $35, respectively.
Anker MagSafe 3-in-1 Charger
I recently ditched a bunch of cables in favor of the Anker MagSafe Charger Stand, and it’s great. It’s solid on the desk without being heavy, doesn’t take up much space, and charges my iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro very fast. Plus, having the iPhone propped up makes it work very nicely as an input device for, i.e., Notation Express Keypad.
Also pictured here are products I use daily and highly recommend (besides the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro):
Logitech B100 Wired Mouse
It’s a wireless world — until one day, when you least expect it, it isn’t. If, or when, that day comes — whether it’s your computer, Bluetooth, or a solar flare that’s causing problems — you’ll want a trusty wired mouse to stick into your machine so you can navigate past the home screen.
For $8, the Logitech B100 Wired Mouse is all you need. Buy it, and put it out of sight — but not out of mind.
It seems that the newzik offer is not begun yet.