Give Format Developers Good Support
Closely related to marketing to software developers is supporting them once they choose to use your format. We work to be very responsive to developers using the format and software, replying as quickly and accurately as possible to developer questions.
The MusicXML developer lists have provided an opportunity for discussions to happen at an open community level, with developers helping other developers. But many development activities must be confidential until a product is released, so we provide private e-mail support as well. This technical support is free for MusicXML developers. Trying to charge for either the format itself or format technical support in the music software industry is a sure path towards irrelevance. Recordare does offer consulting services for more complex tasks, including adding MusicXML support to third-party products, or adding features to Recordare’s Dolet translation plug-ins that are needed for a particular project.
This active developer community is an enormous benefit for the MusicXML format. During the MusicXML 1.1 development process, many of the best ideas for how to solve complex problems came from MusicXML developers from all over the world, who need MusicXML solutions in order to take advantage of business opportunities for their applications.
