Hi Martin and Kirill, Martin, MusicXML is pervasive in the music preparation business, whether it is preparation for print music, film, or TV. It is not yet used very widely as a consumer format for sheet music, but this is starting to change. You can see the list of sites offering MusicXML scores at:
http://www.recordare.com/xml/sites.html The list of software supporting the MusicXML format - over 120 programs so far - is available at: http://www.recordare.com/xml/software.html MusicXML itself is a free format, and as you can see is used widely in both commercial and free software. We support developers in all areas. But to stay in business, and keep developing the MusicXML format and its related software, we have to charge for our plug-ins. Kirill, I appreciate your position regarding free software, and your frankness. One thing that I hope you will consider doing - once your current Sibelius plug-in is completed - is to work on a converter from LilyPond to the MusicXML format. LilyPond may be free software, but it has more lock-in than nearly any current commercial music notation product. Scores can only be imported into LilyPond format. They can never be moved effectively from LilyPond to another notation program. MusicXML was invented to get rid of this type of proprietary format lock-in. Most commercial products added MusicXML export years ago, either directly or via plug-ins. It is unfortunate that LilyPond users cannot take advantage of the same data freedom that Finale and Sibelius users can. We hope in the future that LilyPond will be as supportive of the open MusicXML format as most commercial software. If there is already a converter from LilyPond to MusicXML that I have missed, please let me know. If my objections are out of date, that would be excellent news! Best regards, Michael Good Recordare LLC _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
