Is there a free Musescore-format file sharing platform?
Hi,
It seems Musescore, whoever thay are, are trying to cash on user generated content by paywalling downloads on musescore.com. I do wish all the best for the service and for the software, but as I download something like 4 times a year, as I mostly use IMSLP and Ultimate Guitar, I don't see the benefit for subscribing to Pro. And after reading how f.ex. UG Pro subscription has let down so many users, I'm not very confident about subscribing to services that try to convert ugc to company's output. Plus, it's only the platform they're running, taking very open approach to running the community into something more exclusive.
Since Musescore does not own the content (I hope, I haven't checked the agreement of user uploads), has anyone set up a site that helps people share Musescore files as they were intended - free and open?
BR.
OP
Comments
Not clear what you mean. MuseScore isn't trying to "cash in", they are merely trying to work out license agreements and pay the copyright holders who are threatening to sue and shut them down. So if are looking for a pirate website that does not have any such license agreement and does not pay the copyright holders, I think you will find those tend to get shut down pretty quickly, and rightly so. MuseScore and their parent company Ultimate Guitar are pretty unique in working out these sort of license agreements.
If you are limiting your interest to only public domain and completely original material, then licensing is not a concern. musescore.com continues to allow that to be downloaded freely, and uploaded up to the limits of your account. If you're looking for a place to upload without limits, or at least with higher limits, see Dropbox. Google Drive, etc. If you are looking for someone to have invested the thousands of hours of effort to build a platform that provides the online player and organizational aspects of musescore.com, and somehow do all of this and given unlimited usage without charging for it, good luck with that :-)
In reply to Not clear what you mean. … by Marc Sabatella
They're owned by UG, huh? Should've known, as soon as I logged in I could download the sheet despite the platform telling me first that downloading is a pro account feature.
I don't need any pirated material, thank you.
In reply to They're owned by UG, huh?… by AlQuzMar
To be clear: downloading of copyrighted material is a Pro feature, because that is how the copyright owners get paid. Download of original or public domain material is free.
For further discussion of the MuseScore.com website specifically, though, best to continue it over there.
In reply to To be clear: downloading of… by Marc Sabatella
Huh, there's a separate forum on musescore.com? That's just super confusing, especially since they cross-link all the time without prior notice.
Thanks for splaining what copyrights are for. The site doesn't tell you that, it says downloading in general is a pro feature. That is clearly designed to mislead the user.
In reply to Huh, there's a separate… by AlQuzMar
No forums on musescore.com but groups and group discussions
In reply to They're owned by UG, huh?… by AlQuzMar
@AlQuzMar
Please don't overlook the huge effort by the MuseScore team to clearly label public domain works as PD.
This gives everyone a clear signal that the score is public domain and can be downloaded, printed and performed without any charge.
Take a look at the scores in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus collection - over 370 scores, each one transcribed from a named IMSLP public domain score:
https://musescore.com/openscore-lieder-corpus/sheetmusic
In reply to @AlQuzMar Please don't… by DanielR
If adding a possibility to label something as pd is huge effort, building the whole site could be likened to expansion of Roman empire. In all seriousness, it's mandatory for them for being able to continue their business, and just common sense to have that functionality. The Musescore team has nothing to do with OpenScore Lieder Corpus, as one can read from https://openscore.cc/blog/2018/8/19/launch-of-the-openscore-lieder-corp…. It's a project where two music academics collaborated with Musescore community. The ones running the platform can just enjoy the influx of misled Pro users and laugh their way from the bank.
I do appreciate everyone's work. It's just that telling users that they need to pay to enjoy things other people are giving them for free when that's not even the fact drives me up the wall a bit.
In reply to If adding a possibility to… by AlQuzMar
@AIQuzMar
"The ones running the platform can just enjoy the influx of misled Pro users and laugh their way from the bank."
Pause... rewind...
The "ones running the platform" have actually spent a lot of time (and their money) in setting up the PD system, so that anyone can download Public Domain (PD) scores without any charge i.e. without having to pay for a Pro membership. So I think your comments are a bit harsh and quite unfair to the MuseScore team.
And by the way, I am not a MuseScore employee.