Genie -

It's a little off the original subject of the thread, but I've found a need to replace my straight notation software (due to not-quite-compatible problems with XP).

I've pretty much identified Sibelius as what I'd like to have, and I'd very much prefer to deal direct - BUT:

Sibelius 2 lists at $599.00, and Photo Score Pro at $199.00, for a total of $798.00 (plus shipping), if you order it from Sibelius.

The Midi Store offers the "bundled" Sibelius 2 and Photo Score Pro for $499.00 (with free ground shipping in the US), and ProStudioMusic.com has the same package for $490 (also with free shipping).

Sibelius wants you to prove you qualify before they'll tell you what their "academic" prices are, but academic pricing from Midi Store – "available only to qualifying schools, colleges, universities, educators, students and church representatives in the USA," gets you the Sibelius 2 + Photo Score Pro for $329.00.

I have a hard time rationalizing that a 17 MB program to notate music should cost me nearly the same as a 1.4 GB operating system and a 300 MB full office suite combined ($878 for XP Pro Windows plus Office Pro at Mickey's web shop) – even given their relative market volume.

But they can discount it by 60% if you're the right kind of person?

It's a lot like the local market that tells me milk is $3.80 per gallon without their "card" but I get it for $2.89 per gallon if I use the card. Then they have the b... to try to tell me "You saved $0.91" - but the store down the street sells it for $2.74 per gallon without the card.

I just don't shop at the store with the card, but in this case there isn't a direct replacement product - so I face the moral dilema of whether withholding my business because of their predatory pricing is worth putting up with a "substitute" that isn't quite what I'd like.

I'm not objecting to their giving educational discounts - but the difference is just too great. (Since it's illegal to sell at a loss (under antitrust regulations) the "educational price" must be somewhere close to what they figure is their cost of production and distribution.)

John