See the Press Release here

See the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) here

Dear Recordare and MusicXML friends,

As you have seen from the press release, today is a momentous day for Recordare and MusicXML. MakeMusic, Inc., the creator of the Finale family and SmartMusic software, has agreed to purchase selected Recordare assets, including the MusicXML format and the Dolet software. I will be joining MakeMusic as Director of Digital Sheet Music, still based in Silicon Valley, California. The transaction is expected to close later this quarter, after which Recordare will wind down its operations.

I am very excited about this new opportunity. My goal when starting Recordare 12 years ago was to create better Internet music publishing and digital sheet music through the use of a standard music notation format. With the release of MusicXML 3.0 earlier this year, the standard music notation format has really matured and is in use by over 150 applications worldwide.

As we planned our next projects for musicians and consumers, we faced a big decision. Recordare clearly needed to get bigger in order to succeed in digital sheet music applications. We could either do that organically, or we could find a larger company to acquire our intellectual property assets. From day one, MakeMusic was the leading candidate.

MakeMusic has been MusicXML's earliest and largest supporter among music notation companies. It is the world's largest company devoted to music notation, practice, and digital sheet music technology. Recordare has worked with MakeMusic for 10 years now, most recently in making improvements to MusicXML 3.0 that were needed for Finale 2012. MakeMusic's new management team has brought a new level of energy to the company. I am thrilled about what we will be able to create working together more directly.

What does this mean for you, our customers and developers of MusicXML products and services?

• First, MusicXML will remain an open format. MusicXML will continue to be licensed under the same open, royalty-free terms it has today.
• MusicXML's value comes from being an open format that anybody can freely use in their products and services. That will not change.
• Community development of future versions of the MusicXML format will not change. What will change is that MusicXML will now be supported with a larger company with more resources. There are exciting possibilities ahead!

Second, some of you have shared confidential information with Recordare in the past. Some have shared information about your product or company plans. Others have shared individual sheet music files that illustrate a problem you were having with one of our products.  All of this information will remain confidential and will not be transferred to MakeMusic. Software companies will not have information from a trusted third party leaking to a competitor. Recordare and MusicXML could never have been successful without maintaining strict confidentiality, and this will not change now.

Third, we will be shutting down Recordare's online store when the transaction completes. Upon closing, MakeMusic will provide the Dolet software at no charge. We will make announcements in the future about transition plans for products that we sell.

We plan to move the MusicXML information on Recordare's web site to MakeMusic's web site. There may be some time during this transition where the Recordare MusicXML site remains separate while we work on the web site integration at MakeMusic.

We will post and update a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list about this acquisition at our web site. It will be linked from our home page and updated with more details as we go forward.

Most importantly, this acquisition gives MusicXML a larger, more stable corporate parent. There are much greater possibilities for exciting digital sheet music applications in this larger company. The future is very exciting indeed!

Thank you for all your support over the years.

Best regards,

Michael Good
CEO
Recordare LLC