We’ve always said that Dorico is so intelligent, fast and efficient that it will help you to get the musical results you want more quickly than other software, meaning that you will spend less time in front of your computer and more time doing what you really love: making music. For the next 30 days only, we’re putting our money where our mouth is, and we have cut the price of the crossgrade from Sibelius or Finale to Dorico Pro 3.5 by 50%.
A couple of months ago we asked our users to share their stories of switching to Dorico from Sibelius or Finale with us, and dozens of them did. We are delighted to be able to share some of their stories with you today and via our social media channels over the next month. Hear them say in their own words why they are among many thousands of Sibelius and Finale users who have added Dorico to their toolbox.
Here are the answers to some of the questions you might have about this special offer. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please contact us.
How long is the special offer price available?
You can buy the Dorico Pro 3.5 crossgrade at the special offer price from Monday 17 August 2020 until Thursday 17 September 2020. Because you have to submit proof of eligibility as part of the purchase process, we advise against leaving it until the last minute to make your purchase: try to order by Monday 14 September if you can.
How much is the special offer price?
The suggested retail price for the Dorico Pro 3.5 Crossgrade is €279 EUR inc. German VAT, £239 GBP inc. UK VAT, and $279.99 USD. For this special offer period, those prices are reduced to just €139 inc. German VAT, £119 inc. UK VAT, and $139.99 USD.
Please add the Dorico Pro 3.5 Crossgrade to your shopping cart on the Steinberg Online Shop to see the special offer price in your currency. There is no discount code or coupon to apply: the price you see includes the 50% reduction.
How do I qualify?
In order to be eligible for this special offer, you must have an existing professional, retail or academic/theological license for any version of the full Finale or Sibelius software. Note, however, that there is no additional discount on the Dorico Pro 3.5 crossgrade if you have an educational license for Finale or Sibelius – but see below for more information about educational crossgrades.
For Finale, you must have a full license for any version of the full Finale package from version 1.0 to Finale 26. Cut-down versions of Finale such as Allegro, PrintMusic, Finale Guitar, Finale Songwriter, and Finale Notepad do not qualify.
For Sibelius, you must have a full license for any version of the full Sibelius package. For version 1.0 through Sibelius 2018.1, the top-of-the-range version was called simply Sibelius; cut-down versions such as Sibelius Student, Sibelius First and Sibelius G7 do not qualify. After Sibelius 2018.4, the products were renamed, and for any version of Sibelius after 2018.4, you must have Sibelius Ultimate; the entry-level Sibelius and free Sibelius First do not qualify. If you subscribe to Sibelius Ultimate on a monthly basis instead of having a perpetual license, you still qualify for this special offer, provided you have been a subscriber for more than 12 months.
During the purchase process, you will be asked to provide proof of your eligibility. Please take a screenshot of the About Sibelius or About Finale dialog in your software, showing your unique serial number, or provide similar proof of purchase (original receipt, photo of your unique serial number on a manual or CD-ROM, or similar). Save this in a JPG or, preferably, a PDF, and ensure that the PDF is smaller in size than 4MB. (You can find many free tools online to compress a PDF to a smaller size without reducing its legibility, and indeed Preview in macOS has an option for this in its File menu.)
Your proof of eligibility will be reviewed by Steinberg staff and you will receive confirmation of your eligibility by email within 1-2 working days. Simply click the link to “continue shopping” in the email you receive to complete your purchase.
If possible, please try to start and complete the purchase on the same device, e.g. if you submit your proof of eligibility on your laptop, please complete the purchase on your laptop. If you switch to a different device to complete the purchase, you may find that you are asked to complete the eligibility process again.
I had a problem during the purchase process. Who do I contact?
If you are buying your Dorico Pro 3.5 Crossgrade from the Steinberg Online Shop, please submit a support ticket to Nexway, our e-commerce provider.
Can I still use Finale or Sibelius after I crossgrade to Dorico Pro?
Yes, you can. You do not have to surrender your existing Finale or Sibelius license. You can continue to use your existing software, and update or upgrade it as you usually would. However, we hope you will quickly find that you no longer want to use your existing software!
I’m a student or an educator. Does this offer apply to me?
The educational crossgrade is not included in this offer, but if you are a student in full-time education or an educator, you are eligible for the special Dorico Pro 3.5 educational crossgrade, which is always available and is at an incredibly low price. You can of course still choose to take advantage of this special offer price anyway, but you will not receive a further educational discount.
How should I go about learning Dorico Pro?
If you’ve been using Sibelius or Finale for many years, you might find the idea of learning a new music notation software somewhat daunting. But as you have seen, there are thousands of musicians who have successfully made the switch. There are lots and lots of resources available to help you become familiar with Dorico quickly. In no particular order, we suggest you bookmark the following:
- Quick start tutorial for note input, with step-by-step instructions
- Getting started with Dorico SE video series, which introduces the basic concepts of the software, which are all equally applicable to Dorico Pro
- Dorico YouTube channel, which has dozens of concise, focused tutorials covering almost every aspect of the software
- Dorico Pro Operation Manual, which is also optimised for searching via Google and other search engines: try searching for e.g. “how do i input dynamics in dorico” on Google
- Dorico Pro 3.5 Version History, which contains supplemental documentation for the new features added in Dorico 3.5
- FAQ thread for new users on the Dorico Forum, which contains links to other helpful resources
And you also have access to the worldwide community of Dorico users, including the Dorico forum and the Dorico users’ Facebook group (other unofficial groups also exist for French- and German-speaking Dorico users).
I have another question not answered here. Where can I get more help?
If you have a question about the Dorico Pro 3.5 Crossgrade promotion, please contact us here. If you have a problem with buying from the Steinberg Online Shop, please contact our e-commerce provider, Nexway. If you have a question about using Dorico itself, please try the Dorico forum.
On https://new.steinberg.net/promotion/dorico-crossgrade/, it says: “Dorico Pro 3.5 – Competitive Crossgrade from Finale (Retail, Academic. Theological), Sibelius (Retail, Professional, Educational, Academic)”. Further down, it says: “This offer does not apply to educational licenses.”
It seems the latter is correct, and the former should be corrected to avoid misunderstandings, shouldn’t it?
@Tim: Although I agree it’s a bit confusing, in fact it’s correct. When you buy the Dorico Pro 3.5 Crossgrade, an educational license for Finale or Sibelius is a qualifying license, i.e. you don’t have to have had a professional/retail license for Finale or Sibelius in order to qualify for the Dorico Pro crossgrade. But this offer does not apply to the [b]Dorico Pro[/b] educational crossgrade, i.e. even if you now qualify for educational pricing, the promotion does not include the Dorico Pro educational crossgrade. As it happens, with the promotional price, the retail/non-educational crossgrade is actually about €20 cheaper than the educational crossgrade for the duration of the promotion.
Hello,
There was a time (not so long ago) when Notion was qualified for Dorico crossgrade…
Why not now??
@Colrik: Notion is considerably cheaper than Finale and Sibelius and so the crossgrade offer was withdrawn some years ago. Sorry for the disappointment.
Hi there, I was hoping to purchase the 50% crossgrade discount however as soon as I put it in my basket it changes to the £239 price. Has the dealine passed for the discount?
@Toby: Yes, the crossgrade offer expired on 17 September, I’m afraid. However, please keep an eye on the blog for future special offers.
I am a Finale user and have been for many years. Are there any deals for me if I switch to Dorico from Finale?
@Jean: Absolutely, yes. You can buy the Dorico Pro Crossgrade and save 50% off the normal crossgrade price. The deal related to this specific post ended in September, but the crossgrade is always available at its regular (still very special) price from our online shop here.
I am a Sib 7.1 user having purchased the software outright. I hold no license agreement with sib/avid. I was refused the crossgrade discount when I forwarded a screen shot of my ser No. I’m happy to purchase at the £239.00 price. What proof is required?
@Brian: Sorry to hear you had problems with your eligibility. Please forward the proof of ownership you supplied to me by email at d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de and I’ll be very pleased to advise further.
Hi team at Dorico. I’m looking to switch. I’m a big fan of functionality, but I also want a company that takes care of their users. Part of the problem with Avid and Sibelius is that they don’t listen to user suggestions for feedback. The user experience is appalling and they don’t think it worth the trouble to change it. They charge a yearly subscription these days. If I think of the DAW company Reaper, I realise a fully functional and customisable program with good UI/UE can be made for an affordable price. What is your ethos when it comes to making changes to program functionality and UE?
I am considering changing over from Sibelius ultimate. I rely on notation software for work and I might as well have something that is easy to use. The way I see it is the gap in the market is on UE and customer service. If you can listen to customers and keep the program dynamic. Customers will come to you. Avid have been sitting on their hands for far too long.
@Lorentz: Thanks for your feedback. I think you will find us very responsive to user needs and feedback. Come and visit our forum and you will see how engaged with our customers the whole team is.
Today I just found out my Finale is going to no longer be supported and your cross grade special ended yesterday?! Just 30 days after the announcement? Help me out here! I will not pay the full price, even if that means not having the software. You have my email address.