For a very long time now, Sibelius licenses have been available in two flavours for education. Going forward, the type of licensing we are recommending for schools to use on their school computers continues to be the network license.
This uses a centralised License Server application on a school server to be activated for a number of seats, and will hand out licenses to connected computers on the network as Sibelius is used.
This is perfect for network-admins as they only need to activate the whole license once, while cloning client machines for easy deployment across the network.
There are great features for managing which computers have access and, when Sibelius is connected, it also unlocks Classroom Control features (allowing the teachers to push/pull files, freeze machines and so on).
For schools needing Sibelius on their Windows and Mac computers, this is the type of license recommended.
Team Licensing for Student and Teacher use
(BYOD and Remote learning)
Team licensing is a new and easy way to deploy and manage licenses for students and teachers across their own devices.
Rather than buying a fixed number of seats that can only be used on school computers, team licensing allows school administrators to hand out licenses to individuals, allowing them to have their own Sibelius Ultimate license to use on any of their devices.
Administrators can set up users using their name and email address, and assign a product license to each member.
Managing users and licensing
One of the many benefits of team licensing is the ability to flexibly assign licenses to users. At the end of the academic year, say, some students will graduate, and there will be a new intake of students coming in. Within the team licensing admin console, it’s possible to un-assign licenses and reassign as needed, so school administrators aren’t chasing students for their licenses after they leave.
At the end of the subscription term, the school are able to renew for any number of seats. If they would like to reduce their initial seat-count, they only renew the number of seats they require. If they need to start the next year with more seats, then they order more renewals. They are not required to submit a complicated order with some net-new and some renewals.
Transitioning schools to network & team licensing
(Net-new schools)
For schools who are yet to buy Sibelius, we encourage them to buy a network license for their classroom computers, and a team license for their staff and students to use on their own devices.
For these schools with a hybrid learning setup, we encourage them to buy the two types of licenses
- a network license that covers the physical computers at school
- a team license that covers the number of students and staff needing Sibelius Ultimate
For schools that are completely remote, or only have iPads rather than desktop computers, we recommend:
- a team license that covers the number of students and staff needing Sibelius Ultimate
For existing perpetual license holders
Schools with a perpetual license of Sibelius have been able to upgrade and stay current with an Update and Support plan for $45 per year, per seat.
This option will remain in place, but we strongly encourage schools with these licenses to move over to a new network subscription for use in the classroom and a team license subscription for their staff and students to use on their own computers and devices.
It will not only provide them with more flexibility, but will also be more affordable.
For existing multi-seat subscription license holders
Those with a subscription already will benefit from the new pricing when they next renew their license.
As it’s half the price they are used to paying, we are expecting (and encouraging) schools to either increase the seat count of the multi-seat license, or buy a new team license to go alongside it, allowing them to have the hybrid approach of both on-prem and flexible licenses for their staff and students.
