Revolutionary New Sibelius 2 Music Notation Software Now Available for Mac OS X

Business Wire, March 11, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2002

The Sibelius(R) Group, developer of market-leading music software, announced today that Sibelius(R) 2, the revolutionary new version of the world's fastest-selling music notation software program, is now available for Mac OS X, Apple's powerful, UNIX-based operating system. Sibelius 2 is the first music notation program to leverage Mac OS X's advanced capabilities.

"Sibelius is more elegant and beautiful than ever, with a new look which complements Mac OS X's stunning Aqua interface," said Ben Finn, CEO of The Sibelius Group. "Sibelius 2 for Mac OS X represents our continued commitment to meeting the requirements of music educators, students, and professional composers using Macintosh computers. Users will be amazed at all the new features that have made Sibelius easier to use than ever."

"Mac OS X delivers an incredibly powerful and intuitive environment for users to listen to and create music," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "Sibelius 2 is a valuable music notation application and we're delighted to have their support for Mac OS X."

Faster and easier to create music using Arrange(TM)

Sibelius 2 for Mac OS X integrates more than 200 new features and robust feature enhancements, making it one of the significant upgrades of any software ever. Among its groundbreaking new product features is Arrange, a function that enables the use of artificial intelligence to arrange and orchestrate music automatically. Sibelius 2 for Mac OS X is the first commercial program capable of such power. Arrange was partly designed by Sibelius user Michael Price, whose orchestration credits include the recent Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks HBO special, "Band of Brothers."

Sibelius 2's Arrange feature dramatically reduces the time it takes to produce arrangements and orchestrations for any ensemble. For example, Arrange enables users to rapidly orchestrate a complete piano piece for concert band. This feature saves hours of time for composers, arrangers and educators, and is ideal for students learning instrumental writing.

Faster Music Input and Improved Playback

Note input has been reengineered and is now significantly faster. Users can now use almost every feature of Sibelius -- including copying and pasting, and moving lines and staves -- without ever touching the mouse. Playback is even more natural and realistic with enhanced Rubato(TM) and Rhythmic Feel(TM), which adds human-sounding playback to music.

Graphics and Color

With Sibelius 2 for Mac OS X, it is easier than ever to import color graphics into the music. Users can create professional looking covers or add color graphics to worksheets. It is easy to color notes according to their pitch, which is great for teaching note names to beginners or color according to voice to make music easier to read. Users can also highlight areas of a score, e.g. for marking up sketches, marking coursework, and highlighting tricky passages to practice.

PhotoScore(TM) Professional 2 Now Available

The Sibelius(R) Group also announced today the availability of PhotoScore Professional 2 for Mac OS X; an improved version of the optical music recognition software developed by Neuratron(R) that allows users to scan printed music into Sibelius 2 software.

Neuratron PhotoScore Professional 2 is the advanced version of the PhotoScore Lite scanning program that is provided free with Sibelius 2. PhotoScore Professional 2 scans and reads music faster, and with greater accuracy than PhotoScore Lite. Once music is scanned, read and sent to Sibelius, it becomes a fully editable Sibelius file that can be transposed, re-arranged, played back and printed.

For pricing information, please contact Sibelius USA at phone 925/280-0600 or via email at infoUSA@sibelius.com.

About Sibelius

The Sibelius Group is based in Cambridge, England with offices in London and Sydney, Australia. Its U.S. subsidiary, Sibelius USA, Inc., is located at 1407 Oakland Blvd., Suite 300, Walnut Creek, California, 94596 and has offices in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas and Nashville. Sibelius products are available worldwide in more than 100 countries. For more information, contact Sibelius USA at phone 925/280-0600; fax 925/280-0008; on the Web at www.sibelius.com; or via e-mail at infoUSA@sibelius.com.