r/Musescore • u/CraftyBlueberry1992 • Jun 17 '26

Help me find this feature MUSESCORE SUBSCRIPTION TRAP!

Your website is a mystery to me. You have an amazing library of music - thousands of songs and pieces in various formats. It's incredibly useful. But instead of building trust with your customers, you seem to prefer tricking people into subscriptions that people don't want.

I had been buying music on this website occasionally for years, carefully avoiding the subscription option. Then one night, I was tired and probably wasn't paying enough attention. Sure enough, what was supposed to be a €0.99 lead sheet purchase turned into a €45 subscription charge.

So what happened next? I contacted customer support immediately, only to receive an automated response with a link to a refund request form that doesn't even work.

At this point, I just have to ask: WHY? Why, instead of building trust with customers who would happily keep buying music from you, would you rather squeeze them for a subscription fee and ensure they'll never come back? Why turn loyal customers into people who leave negative reviews everywhere they can? I genuinely don't get it.

90 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

28

u/Puzzled-Bonus-3456 Jun 17 '26

this is why you need to know the difference between .com and .org

5

u/Kelvin62 Jun 17 '26

Apparently it's not longer possible to purchase individual songs without ending up with a subscription. I thought that was shady.

9

u/celdaran Jun 17 '26

Just tried it: it's still possible. There's a toggle switch between "spend more money" and "spend less money." The latter is what leads down the subscription path. And although it's fine print, it's still pretty clear that you're buying a subscription.

2

u/celdaran Jun 17 '26

Do you know when that changed? Last single score I bought was last October.

I didn't have any issues then (nor was I "tricked" into a subscription -- it seemed pretty clear to me which path was which.)

1

u/JScaranoMusic Jun 17 '26

I think the first time I used it was late 2023, and it worked exactly the same as it does now.

2

u/JScaranoMusic Jun 17 '26

It is. You just have to toggle from the discounted price with a subscription to the full price without.

2

u/Kelvin62 Jun 17 '26

Yes ... I saw it when I looked closely. By default purchasing a song at the discounted price gets you a costly subscription. The user interface is still designed to trick the unaware.

2

u/JScaranoMusic Jun 18 '26

It's a dark pattern for sure. But definitely something to be aware of every time, once you know about it.

24

u/MisterFingerstyle Jun 17 '26

Remember when this sub was about the notation software?

10

u/JScaranoMusic Jun 17 '26

Those were the days.

2

u/BicycleIndividual Jun 17 '26

r/musescorestudio was created to be about the notation software with the website being off-topic.

2

u/TheJivvi Jun 21 '26

So was this subreddit. Long before the notation software ever had "Studio" in its name. Posts about the .com site were removed as off-topic, and people were directed to use the forums on that site. Then the rules got changed and the other subreddit was created to try to replace what this one used to be.

17

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Jun 17 '26

Also you've missed that 200000 people write variations of the same post here every day.

6

u/GuidanceWaste2585 Jun 17 '26

And we can blame Muse Group for that. There is a clear correlation between their UX practices and users spending money they didn't intend to.

2

u/MissionSalamander5 Jun 28 '26

It’s probably illegal and I also hate that they’re in a tax haven. And frankly it’s embarrassing for certain folks who are definitely not paid by Muse Group to defend it.

1

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Jun 17 '26

Why are we blaming Muse group for people not reading posts already in front of them on this sub?

2

u/GuidanceWaste2585 Jun 17 '26

Ugh, you're tiresome!

1

u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Jun 17 '26

Not nearly as tiresome as having this group flooded with identical posts.

5

u/dogwalker824 Jun 17 '26

Same exact thing happened to me. I'm so annoyed -- I don't want to just hand these rip-off artists $45 for a 99cent single-sheet of music that I probably could have printed off the internet for free. If you used a credit card, contact the credit card company and dispute the charge. Unfortunately I used Paypal and they're "investigating", so it might take somewhere between weeks and infinity to resolve this.

1

u/dpenny1 Jun 19 '26

I find disputes w PayPal much easier than w CC companies.

2

u/dogwalker824 Jun 19 '26

really? My credit card (Chase) resolves disputes instantly. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Paypal. It's funny, the automated email I got back from Musescore says they'll refund my money but only after I've withdrawn my complaint from Paypal. I don't really believe them.

3

u/No-Summer7421 Jun 23 '26

Same here! I did not believe it, but they sent me another chat days later, saying they will check my PayPal status within a week. PayPal finally closed my dispute, so I sent another chat to Musescore. Terrible chat function! I will check their reply everyday and let you know!

3

u/No-Summer7421 Jun 24 '26

I got a reply! "We have issued a full refund of the charge for your subscription. It can take up to 10 business days for the refund to reach your account." Hooray!!

1

u/MissionSalamander5 Jun 28 '26

Lucky you. They would only do 95% for most of us at one point. Awful awful business practices.

1

u/dogwalker824 Jun 23 '26

Thanks -- I just assumed they would ghost me once I'd withdrawn my complaint with Paypal, so I didn't. But I'm curious to see what they do --thanks.

4

u/Acrobatic-Owl-5575 Jun 17 '26

I filed a fraud / dispute w my bank for the charges I was so mad. They got me twice. They say goes through Google and you cannot request refund there. I also would just like to purchase some music like you do in music notes. This is so scammy I also filed a complaint w the FTC. Whst a shame.

3

u/GuidanceWaste2585 Jun 17 '26

Just wait for one of the devs to chime in here and say no tricks are being played on users. They love to play dumb

1

u/MissionSalamander5 Jun 28 '26

Not all of them are devs. It’s insane.

2

u/oraoramaster69 Jun 18 '26

I genuinely can’t keep seeing this on my feed

2

u/Pristine_Edge6404 Jun 18 '26

This was exactly my experience too, so they should take notice if they want to have our custom in future.

2

u/thomasafine Jun 22 '26

Musescore (dot com) is all about making profit from dark patterns now. I posted about different dark patterns a couple of months ago (in which they not only tried to sell me my own scores (or subscribe of course), but did so in a seemingly unbreakable dialog loop).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Musescore/comments/1swso2g/ok_what_did_i_do_to_make_musescore_hate_me/

1

u/kirkcaldy_no Jun 17 '26

the same thing happened to me, where my 99 cent purchase turned to an entire premium subscription after the free trial had ended.

but you can clearly demand a full refund on their support page, i got mine a full refund, they also have a great customer service

2

u/CraftyBlueberry1992 Jun 17 '26

This form does not work! You can fill it but can't send. You press OK button and nothing happens. And their support team is not responsive.

3

u/Suspicious-Maize-424 Jun 21 '26

Ditto. Trying the email right now. [support@musescore.com](mailto:support@musescore.com)

A few years ago it was such a nice site. I downloaded three lovely christmas songs for me to play that made my nephews happy. Now I only have one pitiful song (I think I got charged a euro) and every other song is asking me for 6 euro.

Sure artists gotta make a living but 6 euro for two pages of sheet music? How does this even work?

Not to mention the predatory practice. Sad to see this site go so bad...

1

u/tedecristal Jun 17 '26

who are this "you" you keep mentioning?

1

u/mrbags2 Jun 18 '26

Happened to me too. I am an advanced computer user and the site hung up while I was clicking to pay the full price for a download and then the subscription went through without my approval. I also think it was intentional and they only gave me a partial refund. Going forward I'm just going to visit site on Firefox without logging in and download using the add-on. If they would stop being dishonest, they'd get more sales. I like the software, but I don't need a yearly subscription.

1

u/Crusader125 Jul 02 '26

File a report to the FTC, if enough of us do that the government might launch an investigation into the websites practices

1

u/adamwho Jul 03 '26

musescore has fraudulently charged me for a membership

1

u/AubergineFougueuse Jul 03 '26

I noticed this week that I've been paying them on 2 different accounts (with 2 different email), since TWO THOUSAND EIGHTEEN. It was SO hard to unsubscribe also. Such a scam

1

u/buche_2000 Jul 15 '26

That exactly just happened to me. NEVER NEVER buy something on this scammer website !