What's new
These pages refer solely to the upgrade from Sibelius 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4.x to Sibelius 5. Please refer to the FAQ relating to the more recent upgrade to
Sibelius 6.
Don’t get left behind - upgrade to the most exciting new version yet.
Sibelius 5 represents the latest advance in the world’s favorite music software. We’ve listened to what Sibelius users have been asking for, and have spent many months adding fantastic enhancements for writing music, the latest technologies such as VST & Audio Units, and completely new features, such as the Ideas Hub.
What’s New Brochure (PDF, 2.7 MB) »
Whether you use Sibelius for writing music, teaching or just for fun, don’t be afraid of getting up-to-date. Sibelius 5 is better and easier than ever, and once you’ve tried it you’ll be glad you made the change!
Ideas Hub
Ideas are precious. That's why Sibelius 5 gives you the Ideas Hub - the easy way to capture, tag, find and bring together your musical ideas. With Ideas Hub, you'll never let another flash of inspiration slip by again.
As well as your own ideas, Ideas Hub comes preloaded with over 2000 ready-made ideas. They cover all styles of music and help provide useful inspiration for your compositions.
Read more »
Stunning new built-in sounds
Sibelius 5 comes with Sibelius Sounds Essentials as standard – a 2GB collection of sounds selected from top-name libraries such as Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Jazz & Big Band, Garritan Concert & Marching Band, and Tapspace Virtual Drumline.
Read more »
VST & Audio Units support
A huge variety of VST and Audio Unit instruments are available from numerous manufacturers – and now Sibelius 5 can play back using any of them! So you can hear your scores played back by the world’s most advanced sound libraries.
Read more »
Panorama
Panorama is a new, clearer way of viewing music in Sibelius. Instead of being chopped up into systems and pages, the music is shown in a single, infinitely-wide strip – far easier to read and navigate around. So now you can just think about the notes, and forget about page layout until you’re ready to print.
Read more »
Easy cues & instrument changes
Creating cues in parts is now the work of a moment. Just copy the music you want to appear in the cue, and choose Paste As Cue. Sibelius 5 does the rest for you. And changing instruments on a score is now equally simple. Read more »
Complete layout control
Sibelius 5 also offers users complete and easy layout control, covering bar and page numbering, blank pages, sheet music margins and more – making it easier than ever to produce beautiful scores.
Read more »
Power tools & undoable plug-ins
Incredible new hand written-style fonts, chord symbols, note names, functional analysis, early music and avant garde symbols, new plug-ins with undo… Sibelius 5 has it all.
Read more »
Universal Binary
As usual, Sibelius 5 supports the very latest technologies. It’s now a Universal Binary application, so it runs at top speed on Intel-based Macs. You can use it on the new Leopard operating system (Mac OS X 10.5), and it also has improved tab, mouse and scroll wheel support.
What the press are saying
“The options available are staggering, but the simplicity at your fingertips is amazing.”
American Songwriter magazine
“A notation powerhouse... Professionals call Sibelius 5 ‘the perfect notation program,’ and we’d be hard-pressed to find fault with that statement.”
Electronic Musician magazine
“Sibelius 5 is a
first-class piece of software... an outstanding program”
Overall rating: 10/10
Computer Music Magazine
“These fantastic new features make Sibelius 5 well worth the investment for composers, teachers and musicians alike.”
Muso Magazine
"[Sibelius 5's] improved playback quality means there's little reason to
consider using anything else."
Computer Shopper magazine
“An essential upgrade packed with innovation and improvement.”
Hugh John, The Guardian
“Sibelius 5 is simply staggering in its capabilities. It will do almost anything you can think of. If you’re serious about musical notation, this is the package to choose.”
Overall rating: 4.5/5
PC Advisor Magazine
"Sibelius 5 has raised the stakes...
The audio engine and playback 
enhancements are well worth the upgrade price alone"
Overall rating: 9/10
Music Tech magazine
What's new
Summary of what's new in Sibelius 5
Capture, use and re-use snippets
A new, clearer way of viewing music
150+ high-quality built-in sounds
Mix and match from different libraries
Instrumental parts made even easier
Flexible page layout and numbering
New fonts and plug-ins
Over forty other improvements
Questions about the upgrade
New to Sibelius? Take a tour
Sign up to 'Sibelius World' »
Free tips & news by email
