Many think this is being driven by MakeMusic going out of money. No... Peaksware LLC, the parent company, is worth an estimated $45B as in billions,

The cold, hard fact is that desktop notation apps are not a way for anyone to make big money anymore as Fender (Notion) and Sonic Scores (Overture, Encore) have learned — unless the business plan does not count on notation for the success of the company.

MakeMusic has tons of money but Finale is barely a decimal point on Peaksware’s bottom line. MakeMusic for Cloud (once SmartScore) and other products are paying the bills — and why they can afford to keep the Finale license server running "indefinitely" (their term, not mine)

Dorico is Yamaha but they’ve never committed the large amounts of money that some would like—no other explanation exists for version 1’s premature release other than it being a cash grab. It’s probable that Dorico is making some money but Steinberg certainly doesn’t act like it. MusicXML import is ok but export is not—they’ve had years to get it right. Steinberg’ a long awaited overhaul of their licensing scheme is 3–4 years late and has been pushed back to 2025 although incremental progress has been made. This deal that has been made with MM is brilliant — a whole lot of new Dorico customers. Some of them will stick around for upgrades and internal crossgrade to other Steinberg products.

Cyprus based Muse Group is flush with cash. Many of their apps are free but MuseScore, Audacity and others are the gateway drugs to Muse Group’s plan for total domination of the music world. The acquisition of Hal Leonard, largest music publisher in the world is the keystone to this plan. They’ve announced that MuseScore 5 is expected to be the de facto notation app for HL—for that, it will have to be good. We’ll see… MuseScore.com is a subscription site for people to upload their scores (created in MuseScore only) for people who pay $30 per year for unlimited download privileges. They understand that the notation app is not where the money is but they do let you buy sounds for it through MuseHub.

Sibelius is bigger than most people realize but part of its functionality relies on MusicXML from MM. The tools may be free to use but the engineering is not. Avid’s cash cow is ProTools and Sibelius fits into that business plan. Although permanent licenses are available, Avid does not offer a crossgrade discount. I expect them to roll with the market.

LilyPond is still out there for those who want "beautiful sheet music" that looks like it's from the 19th C. They just had an update to 64 bit binaries last week.
LilyPond News
Oh yea, give me that old time text based notation app. Yes, really. MusicXML … you're kidding, right?

My 2¢

BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5