Do you want to find new music for yourself and your students? Consider if a Musescore PRO+ subscription is right for you.
The app has a lot of great features, but it can be expensive to get those features. Read on to learn more about the PRO+ tier.
But first, this post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy to learn more.
Musescore PRO+ Overview
Musescore PRO+ is one of the higher tiers you can pay for on the Musescore app and website. The free version gets you access to some scores that composers and arrangers upload to the site.
However, the paid tiers offer some extra benefits. If you’re a performer, you’ll want to surpass Musescore PRO since it mainly helps composers. Musescore PRO+ offers some benefits that help performers and teachers.
Here’s what you should know about this plan.
Learning and Sharing
You can use Musescore PRO+ to access more scores than what you can get on the free plan. That allows you to learn more music and to share a lot of that music with your students or fellow performers.
If you want more materials to use yourself or in lessons, it’s a great option. Sure, you can get some things for free. But if you’ve gone through a lot of the free stuff, you may want to pay for more.
Saving and Publishing
You can also easily save the sheet music you find on Musescore. The platform lets you “favorite” scores to access them easily. If you want to dabble in composing or arranging, you can also do that.
The tier gives you access to insights on who uses your uploads. That way, you can learn which uploads are the most popular. You can decide to create similar sheet music or other resources to upload in the future.
Pricing
Musescore PRO+ offers a free trial, so you can test it out. If you want to continue with it after the trial, you’ll have to pay $69.99 per year. You can also pay $9.99 per month if you aren’t sure you’ll use it for a full year.
Other Musescore Plans
If you want to use the Musescore website, you don’t have to pay for Musescore PRO+. The free version is called Musescore BASIC, and it doesn’t cost anything.
You can pay about $40 a year for Musescore PRO. That gets you most of the PRO+ benefits except access to original scores for pop and movie songs.
If you want to learn a new instrument, you can get Musescore LEARN. This comes with a free trial, and it will cost $179.99 a year after that.
Pros
- All digital
- Access to tons of scores
- Easy to use
- No ads
- Monthly and annual plans
Cons
- Somewhat expensive
- Not the best for classical music
- Some quality control issues
Why Use Musescore PRO+
Musescore PRO+ is an excellent resource for a lot of musicians. If you don’t have a private teacher and can’t take lessons, you can still learn on your own.
You don’t have to get the LEARN plan to improve your playing. The music on the site covers a lot of genres and styles, so there’s something for everyone.
Here are a few reasons I’d recommend you use the PRO+ tier.
Access Original Scores
In 2021, Musescore started uploading original scores of certain pop songs and movie songs. Until this past summer, that benefit was part of Musescore PRO, but they created a separate tier just for this feature.
The claim they did that to cover licensing fees, which makes sense. I love getting to play along to my favorite pop songs. This feature helped me do that when I couldn’t figure stuff out by ear.
Now, I tend to rely on my ear. Unfortunately, Musescore doesn’t have every pop song. A lot of what I want to play isn’t available. Be sure you go through and search for songs you want to see if they’re on Musescore before you pay.
Get Rid of Ads
No matter which paid plan you select, it can remove ads from the Musescore website and app. If you want to use the music to perform, that can be really nice.
Even just for sight reading practice, it can come in handy. Ads are how Musescore pays to run the sight for BASIC account members.
If ads really annoy you, it could be worth upgrading. That way, you just get to focus on the music.
Read Digital Sheet Music
A lot of musicians have started using an iPad or another tablet for sheet music. If that includes you, Musescore PRO+ can be great. You get access to a ton of new music right on your device.
Sure, you can download digital sheet music to print. But when you have an iPad for sheet music, you don’t have to print anything. That’s especially nice with the original scores because you can’t print them or download them outside the app.
There are other websites where you can download music. But if you want a variety of stuff, you can’t go wrong with Musescore and its PRO+ plan.
Save Money
If you like to play a lot of pop music, you have two options. You can try to learn the melody by ear, which is sometimes hard. Or you can buy the sheet music to the songs you want to play.
While having the music makes it easier, it can also quickly get expensive. I bought a couple of books of pop and movie songs. If I did that for all of the songs I wanted to play along to, I’d go through a lot of my money.
Sure, the Musescore PRO+ subscription is a bit expensive. But one book of pop songs can cost $20, so you may save money if you play enough of the songs on the app.
Why Not Use Musescore PRO+
While Musescore and the PRO+ plan offer benefits, they aren’t perfect. You should consider some of the drawbacks before you pay up. Then, you can make sure it’s the right option for you.
Here’s why you might not want to use Musescore PRO+.
Somewhat Expensive
If you don’t think you’ll use it a lot, Musescore PRO+ is pretty expensive. The monthly plan is $10, so you’d pay $120 after a whole year. And sure, you can pay for a year at once and save $50.
But still, paying $70 is a lot, especially if you don’t know if you’ll use it. I’d definitely recommend using the free trial to see if you like the plan.
Then, you can see how everything looks and feels before you pay anything. You can always cancel if you decide it’s not for you.
Changing Features
My biggest issue with Musescore PRO+ is the fact that the company can change the features of each plan when it wants. As I mentioned earlier, original scores used to be part of Musescore PRO, a step down from PRO+.
One day, I tried to log in and access some pop songs. But it told me I had to upgrade, and at the time, they hadn’t officially launched PRO+.
Who’s to say they won’t do something similar again? They might create yet a new tier to offer some benefit that you get now.
No Quality Control
Anyone can upload any score that they want to Musescore. So aside from those original scores, there’s no quality control.
You might find some good stuff on there. However, some of the music could be incorrect or have a horrible layout that makes it unplayable.
Now, you do risk that when supporting any self-published composer. But if you’re paying, you should be able to expect some level of quality.
Can’t Print Everything
Paying for Musescore allows you to print stuff that users upload. But you won’t be able to print the original scores. You can’t even export them as PDFs to reference later.
So if you don’t like using an iPad for sheet music, you’re out of luck. You could screenshot all of the pages and print them. But that takes a lot of time and could waste more ink since the pages have color.
Keep all of that in mind before you use the music or assign it to your students. They could use your iPad in lessons, but they’ll need a subscription to practice a lot of the stuff at home.
Musescore PRO+ Alternatives
If you find Musescore PRO+ doesn’t meet your needs, that’s fine. Like I said, I used to have a paid account. But I decided not to pay for the subscription again.
Here are a few other options for finding sheet music that you might use Musescore for.
Ear Training
If you want to play along to pop songs, you may just want to work on your aural skills. I was awful at ear training in college. But I’ve found that I’m much better at picking out the melody of a pop song.
The nice thing about this is that I can choose to learn any song I want. Musescore has a lot of original scores, but they don’t have every song you could listen to.
Ear training does take practice, so this isn’t the best choice for beginners. But if you’ve taken a few ear training courses, give it a shot.
Buy the Music
Maybe there’s a specific artist you like to play along to. Or maybe you know of a few songs you want to learn.
Instead of paying for Musescore month after month, get the music. You can find a lot of sheet music books on Amazon or at your local music store.
I loved a lot of the songs from Descendants 2, so I bought the book. Even though I no longer have access to the music on Musescore, I can still reference the printed sheet music.
Fluters Music
You can also use a website like Fluters Music to learn pop songs. The owner of the site only gives the note names, but that’s better than nothing. They put the note names over the lyrics, so you can follow along to the song.
I’ve used the site to learn a ton of pop songs. It’s free, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of songs on there already.
Like Musescore, though, there’s no guarantee a song you want will be available. I’ve looked for quite a few songs that I wanted to play, but they aren’t always on there. That’s fine, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Is Musescore PRO+ Worth It?
Musescore PRO+ is worth it if you use your tablet for sheet music. It’s also worth it if you think you’ll use it enough and use enough of the music on there to pay for the subscription.
However, if you’ll rarely use it, you’ll waste your money. Either way, consider the free trial to test it out.
How Can You Save Money on Musescore PRO+?
If you know you’ll use it for a year, you can pay annually for Musescore PRO+ to save quite a bit.
Alternatively, you can pay a month at a time. But use that month to memorize a bunch of songs. Then, you can cancel the subscription when you won’t use it, and you can pay again if you want to later.
Who Should Get Musescore PRO+?
Musicians who like pop music should consider Musescore PRO+. It’s a great place to learn some well-known songs.
Music teachers whose students like pop songs may also want to get a subscription. Then, you can use the tool in private lessons to help your students have some fun.
Will You Try Musescore PRO+?
Musescore PRO+ is a fantastic tool for musicians. You can find and play tons of songs, including pop tunes and movie music.
Be sure you try their free trial to see if the app and website are for you.
And if you want to learn more about using an iPad for music, download forScore and More today!