MakeMusic

In 1988, long before software became a ubiquitous part of daily life, developers Phil Farrand and John Borowicz created a product that would change music composition. Their software, Finale, was released under the company Coda Music Software, which would later become MakeMusic, Inc. Finale gave composers, arrangers, and publishers a powerful tool to create, edit, and print musical scores with a graphical interface, moving the tedious process of music writing from paper to the digital screen. The company’s journey included a significant financial milestone when it went public in 1995. This move provided capital and visibility, but as the years went on, the pressures of being a small publicly traded company became apparent. In 2013, a major shift occurred when the investment firm LaunchEquity Partners took MakeMusic private, aiming to reduce overhead costs and increase focus on core products like Finale and the educational tool SmartMusic. A year later, in 2014, MakeMusic was integrated into Peaksware, an umbrella company that also owned TrainingPeaks, a platform for endurance athletes. The shared philosophy was one of 'deliberate practice'—using technology to provide expert instruction and immediate feedback for skill development, whether in music or sports.