When we introduced our in-app purchase storefront back in 2012, we knew it had the potential to address the needs of our users, artists, and music publishers alike. We knew that by combining the simplicity and ubiquity of standard PDF files with forScore-specific features and enhancements, we could provide a fantastic experience without locking people in.
Our customers could quickly and easily access popular music perfectly optimized for the iPad (and would gladly pay for it). Artists could provide a much more personal product by including their own notes and annotations (we’ve had conversations with a number of musicians over the years looking to do just that). Publishers, of course, could benefit from the incredible popularity of the iPad and give their customers the chance to enjoy sheet music on their own terms.
We’ve had great support from our first few partners including Oregon Catholic Press and Janet Lanier, but our talks with major music publishers over the years have repeatedly stalled. From accounting and formatting requirements to more fine-grained logistical questions, somewhere along the line we meet institutional hesitation. Originally, the biggest sticking point was our choice to not use DRM (Digital Rights Management) since we believe such technologies most often hinder legitimate usage and make customers feel like criminals. Eventually it became clear that this wasn’t something we had enough leverage to influence and we designed a DRM system for publishers to use if they choose to. Yet here we are in 2015 and we still get emails from customers asking why our selection is so limited and if we’ll be adding more music soon.
Ultimately, this is up to the music publishers. They’ve shown that they understand the importance of making their music available on the iPad: many of them have their own apps, though the music they sell is viewable exclusively within their app. We know our customers don’t want to have to remember who supplied the music, switch apps, and then find it and play it. They want to use the music reader they prefer, and they want to have their entire collection available to them at once.
If you’re a forScore user who wants to see more music in our storefront, consider getting in touch with the publishers who sell the kinds of music you’re eager to buy and let them know. As a small company, there’s only so much we can do to convince them. If customers start giving them constructive feedback, they’ll be much more likely to listen.
If you’re an artist, consider the kind of experience you can offer through digital music that you could never offer with paper. Your music could be enhanced, brought to life, and made available to even more musicians with our powerful accessibility tools like Reflow. These musicians might never be able to play your music otherwise.
Finally, if you work for one of these publishers, please contact us. We know we have a lot to offer, and we can’t wait to work with you.
Today we’re very excited and proud to announce the release of forScore mini, the complete forScore experience for iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s been a long process and an incredibly rewarding one, and the final result is a relentless pursuit of the mission forScore started over four years ago: to remove barriers between musicians and their music.
Now, with your entire repertoire in your pocket and the world’s incredibly diverse library of music just a few taps away, there’s no doubt forScore mini fulfills its mission and significantly broadens the variety of ways musicians can benefit from digital sheet music. The music reader that so many people love and depend on every day is now more accessible and versatile than ever, and we can’t wait to hear what you think.
Available immediately and exclusively on the App Store, forScore mini is just $6.99 (USD) so be sure to check it out today!
Today we’re proud to introduce our latest creation: TuneWave. First unveiled as part of forScore 8, TuneWave is a no-nonsense tuner that uses a beautiful sine wave animation to give you a visual sense of focus by reducing amplitude as you zero in on your note. You can transpose as needed and adjust the base frequency to fit your needs, and since it’s a universal app, you can use it on any of your devices.
That’s not all, though, because today we’re also announcing our first App Bundle, the forScore Music Box. It combines each of our accessory apps into one easy package and offers them for just $2.99 (USD, international pricing varies slightly). That means you can get the brand new TuneWave app for free if you’ve already purchased the other three apps individually! Otherwise, TuneWave is 99 cents when purchased separately.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out these apps previously, now’s a great time to do so. From our slick metronome to our recently updated pitch pipe (complete with a ‘today view’ widget for instant access from just about anywhere), it’s a steal. Get TuneWave as part of the new forScore Music Box on the App Store today!
Today we’re happy to announce the immediate availability of forScore 8.1, an incredible update that includes a number of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.
To start, we’ve added support for iCloud Drive to the Services panel. Due to the way Apple has designed these functions, interactions work differently than they do with other cloud services. Instead of browsing a list of files and uploading or downloading as needed, iCloud Drive interactions are driven by purpose: you begin by choosing to upload or download a file (multiple file operations are not supported by Apple at this time). If you have any apps installed that include a storage provider extension, you can select it within the iCloud Drive interface in the top left-hand corner (called “locations”).
We’ve also made a number of improvements to forScore’s Devices panel, beginning with support for the Adonit Jot Touch and the Wacom Bamboo Fineline. Both of these devices feature hardware buttons, and with forScore 8.1 you can now configure them to invoke any of the common actions found in the “Page turners & shortcuts” section of the settings panel (just like you can currently with the iRig BlueBoard). Not only does it support the Jot Touch’s pair of buttons and the Fineline’s single button, but now also supports the button on the Jot Script.
It doesn’t stop there, though, because we can also detect the difference between a quick click and a longer press and hold (much like forScore’s default annotation shortcut), allowing you to set up two commands per button. That gives you instant access to your top two forScore features with the single-button models, up to four with the Jot Touch, and an incredible twelve on the iRig BlueBoard if you’ve got auxiliary pedals attached.
Finally, we’ve made improvements to drawing accuracy by adjusting our palm rejection algorithms and we’ve added an important new calibration setting to account for differences in handwriting style. Although not perfect, this new setting is the best way we’ve found to account for some severe and complex issues inherent to fine-tipped styli.
Thanks to the hard work of our beta testers and some long nights, we’ve also fixed a number of additional bugs that iOS 8 introduced. We’ve corrected an issue that prevented users from sending some files to other apps, resolved an issue with the Devices panel on the iPad 2, and we’ve greatly improved MIDI connectivity and stability.
Not only that, but forScore 8.1 also happens to be the 100th version of forScore! When we say “free updates for life,” we mean it, so be sure to head over to the App Store today and take advantage of these great new features and important bug fixes (and if you’re on an iPad, be sure to check out our brand new app preview while you’re there, too!)
November 11, 2014
In Depth
The iPad was designed for fingertips, plain and simple, but that hasn’t stopped countless companies from creating input devices of all shapes and sizes. Over time, they’ve gotten bigger and smaller, smarter and simpler, and this summer we sat down to see if we could take advantage of some of them to improve forScore’s annotation experience with version 8.0.
Of course, the majority of these products work right out of the box. They’re basically capacitive sponges on sticks, and that’s that. To really make a meaningful impact, though, they also need to communicate with the iPad to offer additional features like palm rejection, and the best way to do that is with Bluetooth Smart (aka Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth 4.0). That narrowed things down for us, and we identified three companies that offered something we thought could help our users: Adonit, FiftyThree, and Ten One Design. (more…)