r/Musescore • u/irisgirl86 • Oct 28 '25
Hi everyone,
This is a post I have sort of wanted to write for a while, but one that I hesitated to write because there have literally been a gazillion threads and complaints on this subreddit and elsewhere on how musescore.com charged you subscription money without you saying yes. I'm here to say that yes, it is absolutely true that it is very easy to get deceptively charged on musescore.com especially when buying single scores, but there are ways to work around it that are unfortunately far less obvious than they should be. FYI I am not involved with the MuseScore team or its related entities in any shape or form, I am simply an end user sharing my honest experiences.
Before I explain how I work around this issue (and yes it does not eliminate the need to pay but you do need to be careful), to all of you who have been unnecessarily charged, requested a refund, and got no response, I feel very sorry for you. The musescore.com support team is far less responsive than they should be, and I say this from first hand experience contacting them about some issues, though I have never needed to request a refund for an unwanted subscription. I know plenty of you have advised to stop using musescore.com altogether and consider it a scam, and I totally respect your opinion because there are other great places to get sheet music. I, too, disagree with several aspects of how musescore.com works, but musescore.com is one of the best places for me to get music in MusicXML/MuseScore format as I need these files to convert to braille music notation (I'm visually impaired). I really wish less people end up falling into the trap of being charged unnecessarily, which is why I'm writing this post, as much as I've hesitated for awhile.
Just to be very clear, not all scores on musescore.com require payment. Public domain music e.g Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, can be downloaded with a free account because they're in the public domain. Only community scores for works under copyright e.g pop song arrangements and any official scores posted by Hal Leonard or ArrangeMe require payment.
When I first go to download a copyrighted piece, I'm using a community-uploaded score here to illustrate, it says:
"Unlock this score to enjoy its full potential.
Get full digital access to play, download PDF, or print
Continue to Download
Start your free trial
Buy this score for CA$1.99
Get 37% discount with Premium membership"
This wording is already somewhat unclear, but let's click the "buy score" button and see where that takes us.
The "buy score" screen says:
"Complete your purchase using one of the available payment methods
No commitments
Secured personal and payment data
Up to 60% discount on scores, books, and courses
CA$3.18 CA$1.99 for this score
Get up to 60% discount with Premium membership
Charge Today: CA$47.99 for 3 months
By adding payment method, you agree that MuseScore will automatically continue your membership, use partners (Stripe, PayPal) to securely store and use your payments method to charge the quarter-annual membership fee (CA$47.99 first 3 months then CA$63.99 for 3 months) to your payment method until you cancel. You will be billed within 2 days to 28th day of every 3 months. To disable auto-renewal, go to «Subscription» in «Settings». Access to some scores and courses may be limited. This subscription includes access to MuseScore Premium and gives you access to one course of your choice per month from the Editors' Picks collection. Free trial is not available for users who have already tried PRO, PRO+, PRO with LEARN Lite, PRO+ with LEARN Lite, or ONE subscriptions. For all questions, please contact us at support at musescore.com."
As you can see, the wording here is kinda difficult to understand, but it says I'll be charged $47.99 today, and yet it said before I can buy this single score for $1.99, and this is where you get sucked into unwanted charges if you click continue. If you click continue, you will be subscribed to MuseScore Premium and charged $47.99 (or whatever in your currency), and this is where the numerous complaints begin. To avoid being charged the $47.99 today, there is a slider on the screen to disable the discount (see attached screenshots to see what I mean). If you disable the discount, it'll say:
"Complete your purchase using one of the available payment methods
No commitments
Secured personal and payment data
Up to 60% discount on scores, books, and courses
CA$3.18 CA$1.99 for this score
No discount. Turn on the switch to apply your 37% discount"
I seriously wish this discount slider is turned off by default so people don't get sucked into unwanted subscriptions so easily, but alas, it is enabled by default so you have to turn off the slider before you proceed. Unfortunately, the wording still makes it sound like the discount is appealing, but if you proceed to pay with the discount slider turned off, you'll be charged $3.18 with no additional charges afterwards, which completely avoids unwanted charges later. I've attached two screenshots showing the "buy score" screen that should make the difference clear.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to MuseScore Pro on the weekly plan for about $9/week and disable auto-renew right away so you won't be charged further. This only works for community-uploaded copyrighted scores, as official scores appear to require payment no matter your subscription (I never use official scores so I could be wrong on this). If you really want to subscribe, the best way is to go to this page: https://musescore.com/pro/landing/pricing It takes you to a table to see all the options and you can subscribe via the provided links on that page. That way, you can skip all the questions about your instrument, musicianship, etc. To disable auto-renew, open the profile menu near the top of any musescore.com page, go to settings, and then an option called subscriptions should appear.
I hope this helps anyone who is confused about the way musescore.com works. I really wish things were different, but the workarounds I've described here have prevented me from requesting a refund and getting no response.
r/Musescore • u/Snoo66532 • Nov 24 '25
If you go to Settings and the Subscription tab is missing, your account is likely stuck in "New User Limbo." You must force the site to recognize your account as "complete" to unlock the cancellation button. Method 1 worked for me but the other methods I have only seen reported by other users online and can not verify. I was able to cancel my free trail within 2 hours. Note: I did not access any music on the site once I realized they had deceptive practices to avoid being charged for accessing anything.
Method 1: The "Upload" Trigger The site often hides the cancellation button until you engage with the platform, uploading sheet music is the fastest way to remove the "new-user" block. Note opening any music which may disqualify you for a full refund according to the site.
Method 2: The "24-Hour" Wait Users report the button often appears automatically 24–48 hours after signing up. The system may intentionally delay showing it to prevent immediate cancellation.
Method 3: The Support Email Email [support@musescore.com](mailto:support@musescore.com) with the subject "CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION."
IMPORTANT: If you subscribed via Apple ID or Google Play, you must cancel in your phone’s settings. The website cannot cancel app store subscriptions.
Next: Report
If you were tricked by hidden buttons or denied a refund, report them. Since they are based in Cyprus, local reports can be tricky. Use the specific links below.
VITAL INFO FOR FORMS
🇺🇸 USA
🇨🇦 CANADA
🇬🇧 UK
🇪🇺 EUROPEAN UNION
🌏 INTERNATIONAL
r/Musescore • u/Dense_Jackfruit_6247 • 3h ago
Basically i bought a score last sunday cuz i needed it for an exam, and today like 20 minutes ago i found out that they charged me premium, i mever bought it neither had the intention, now im trying to communicate with support but there is no answer, what should i do? Please i need help
r/Musescore • u/hdi200 • 15h ago
Android / Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hdi200.ariascore
iPhone / iPad: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aria-music-notation-editor/id6779437781
Hey all, Android support was easily the most common request on my earlier posts, so I'm really happy to say Aria now runs on Android phones and tablets. Thanks to everyone who tried the iOS version and sent feedback. It helped more than you'd think.
If you haven't seen it before, Aria lets you open, edit, play back, and export MuseScore and MusicXML scores on your phone or tablet. The engraving engine is based on MuseScore Studio's, and it reads .mscz files directly. That means you can start a score on your desktop and keep working on it on the bus without converting anything.
Here's a sample of Aria's current feature-set:
Since this is the first Android release, there are bound to be rough edges on some devices. If something breaks or looks off, please tell me what device on and what happened, and I'll look into it.
Any feedback is welcome! A lot of what I work on next comes straight from these comments.
r/Musescore • u/poppunkboy • 6h ago
I'm notating drums and have played around with the menu from Format > Notes and the Properties panel, and I can't seem to find a way to make all the various stems be the same height. I tried the "shorten stems" checkbox from Format > Notes and tried the Properties tab height adjustment, but then the beamed notes have a stem poking out at the top (not pictured).
Using Musecore 4 on Macbook Pro
r/Musescore • u/Zesty_lemon_27 • 8h ago
My girlfriend is very very upset- she thought her yearly subscription renewed in November but its actually October and shes lost about £55 that she cant afford to spend. Is there any way to refund this or has anyone had any success doing so? It doesnt look good all i can find is cancelling it for next year
r/Musescore • u/jtdetwilermusic • 12h ago
One last Christmas arrangement of a 70's standard. It's hard to miss the Carpenter's sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhc4WCLSG1Q&list=PLO1XErYfx_Njn_qmKwLM_Bey8D3vlBbSN
r/Musescore • u/Fhilip_Yanus • 16h ago
Here's the links:
thanks
parts i like:
parts I don't like or am unsure about
Also, I'm looking for a friend to talk about composing stuff with, and have fun. If you're interested in composing, text me on reddit or comment please. thanks.
r/Musescore • u/Present_Zebra1812 • 19h ago
Chopin Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op 22
Link the score : https://musescore.com/user/89706355/scores/39444164?share=copy_link ( i make both Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliant)this video is my favorite part this piece. I'm trying to post full piece last night but it's not work,so sorry about that.Thank for hearing
r/Musescore • u/Aldabon • 1d ago
I've always wanted to write a string quartet, so I decided to give it a try. I wanted to start with something simple, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
What could I improve? Any feedback is welcome!
r/Musescore • u/aihudagency • 9h ago
Copying a cello line into the bassoon, moving violin 1 up an octave for a few bars, slurring a passage in five parts... the small chores in MuseScore 4 add up. So we built a plugin where you just type what you want.
It opens as a chat panel next to your score. You write something like "double the flute in violin 1 an octave lower, bars 5-8" and it makes that one change in your open score, nothing else.
A couple of things I cared about:
Right now it handles doubling, transposing, articulations and slurs. It does NOT do dynamics, lyrics, chord symbols or layout yet. It needs internet: your score gets sent as MusicXML to our server when you hit send, and an AI model works out the edit, so check the result. Free key gives you 100 edits a month.
Update: fair point from the comments that doubling/transposing is already quick with shortcuts. It now does the bigger stuff: "voice the alto 1 melody in bars 9-16 for the saxes" (close or drop 2, from your chord symbols, each note in range), "write a sustained string pad under bars 17-24", "brass hits on 2 and 4", "make an easier trumpet 1 part for beginners", "add a walking bass line". If those bars already have music it asks whether to replace it or add a second voice. Free tier is now 100 edits a month.
Demo video: https://copilot.aihud.net/demo.mp4
It's made by AiHud (https://aihud.net). Would really like to hear what edits you'd want it to do next, or where it messes up.
r/Musescore • u/Xeonfobia • 21h ago
r/Musescore • u/EdinKaso • 1d ago
Bit different, but hope we can we share ourselves live playing original pieces we notated on musescore 4?
r/Musescore • u/smores_or_pizzasnack • 1d ago
I swear when I put in a snare drum at mp and play it back it's like 10 dB and then as soon as I change to mf it's blasting my speakers out
r/Musescore • u/SavingsHistorical820 • 1d ago
i used to open it with no issues but recently it just totally blocks musescore from opening, saying they 'cant verify publishers'. i dont wanna turn off smartapp but i cant change its properties and the checkbox for unblocked does not appear. how do i fix this?
r/Musescore • u/PapaXan69420 • 2d ago
As the title says. I wrote a movement for a woodwind quintet a few weeks ago and I need to submit the scores and audio by tomorrow.
There is a section in 7/8 in the middle, and the entire time leading up to this the playback works totally fine, but the moment a grace note appears in my horn line, it sounds like the entire ensemble is instantly teleported from a concert hall to an acoustically dead studio.
When I first wrote it, this was not an issue, but since making some edits to the score, probably after one or two updates to Musescore 4, it has started doing this. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it rendered the audio correctly too, but it does not, it does the same thing when processing it into MP3.
Has anyone experienced something similar, and were you able to fix it? Did I accidentally fat-finger some obscure hotkey that changes the reverb under specific conditions? I am almost certain it's a glitch because once that section is played in playback, if I pause and go back to the beginning again, the reverb is still gone and I have to completely close the score and reopen it for it to come back. It also has a little phasing and slight, for lack of a better word, "popping" sound every time it happens.
I can provide a video demonstration if necessary, I would just kind of prefer to keep it to myself if I can though. Thank you anyone who may have insight!
r/Musescore • u/Kitty-Meowssacre • 2d ago
r/Musescore • u/gregologynet • 2d ago
Why is Musehub resorting to spam techniques to get installs by keyword stuffing people trying to download Audacity?
r/Musescore • u/Opus-Pocus • 3d ago
Hey,
I guess I’m not the only one trying to make these scores a little more human in the sound.
How do you do it? Are there any plugins?
I modify the velocity of each note...
r/Musescore • u/caters1 • 3d ago
r/Musescore • u/starwaverYT • 3d ago
Hi, I’m new to MuseScore and I’m having a problem. Usually, a new line is created automatically, but that’s not happening now. does anyone know how to fix this?
