forScore on Android: A no-go, for the time being

Credit: forScore

A lot of people arrive at my blog after doing a web search on forScore and Android.  Well, I’m sorry to say that the prospects of forScore being released for the Android platform are pretty bleak at this time.  The forScore website used to have a section in its FAQ stating that they had no plans at the current time to develop an Android version (although that FAQ section has since been removed; I don’t know if there’s any significance to that).  A musician colleague and I independently contacted the forScore developers last December to press them on Android and they gave both of us essentially the same response:

Thanks for your feedback, I definitely understand where you’re coming from. Unfortunately, it’s more than just a simple matter of wanting to create an Android version or not. The developer tools themselves are completely different, and not nearly as easy to work with. For now, I hope you and your colleagues will understand that it’s not an intentional snub, just a matter of our own capabilities.

The state of the art for PDF music score reading apps on Android has been lagging behind the iPad for some time, and still does as of this writing.  However, if you want to use your Android tablet for reading music, you might consider these options:

• MobileSheets – PDF music reader app.  As of this writing, it does not support annotation, although it is on the product development roadmap. [UPDATE 10/23/12: MobileSheets supports annotation as of version 3.5.]
• ezPDF Reader – A general-purpose PDF reader with good annotation capabilities.  I know of musicians who use this and have found it satisfactory. [UPDATE: Read a musician-oriented review of ezPDF Reader here.]
• Musicnotes Sheet Music Viewer – Allows you to view sheet music purchased from Musicnotes.com on your Android device.

[UPDATE 10/31/12: You can also read forScore’s response to another musician’s Android query at this post from 2011, “Where are the Android Tablet Music Readers?”,  in the Technology, Music, Life blog.]

I have to say, though, that the difference in the playing field between music reader apps on iOS versus Android is in large part what forced my hand with respect to purchasing an iPad – although I took my time deliberating over the options (see “How I chose between an iPad and an Android tablet as a music reader,” parts one, two, and three).

Related Posts:

• BIG NEWS! MobileSheets PDF music reader for Android now supports annotation
• A choral singer weighs in on using an Android tablet for music
• How I chose between an iPad and an Android tablet as a music reader: Part 1
• How I chose between an iPad and an Android tablet as a music reader: Part 2
• How I chose between an iPad and an Android tablet as a music reader: Part 3
• Interactive App Recommender for music-reading apps [via AirTurn]
• More posts tagged “forScore”
• More posts tagged “Android”