Review Insights · App Store
Musicnotes: Sheet Music Reader
Musicnotes · 41,845 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
41,845 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 42 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"music"
21 negative reviews mention this · 50% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Amazing app, and then….. This has been a great app. I’ve loved it. And now suddenly, the app prevents me from viewing any sheet music in the shop. I updated the app, to make sure, and it did not solve the problem." - KasperKavalaris
2
"sheet"
12 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Amazing app, and then….. This has been a great app. I’ve loved it. And now suddenly, the app prevents me from viewing any sheet music in the shop. I updated the app, to make sure, and it did not solve the problem." - KasperKavalaris
3
"sheet music"
12 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Amazing app, and then….. This has been a great app. I’ve loved it. And now suddenly, the app prevents me from viewing any sheet music in the shop. I updated the app, to make sure, and it did not solve the problem." - KasperKavalaris
4
"song"
11 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why are only certain keys available?. Absolutely absurd that songs can be transposed, but not to any key. Why?? Ridiculous. Seems like every time I or a student wants a song in a different key, it happens to be one of the few keys that is not available. Also a lot of these son…" - mktev
5
"songs"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why are only certain keys available?. Absolutely absurd that songs can be transposed, but not to any key. Why?? Ridiculous. Seems like every time I or a student wants a song in a different key, it happens to be one of the few keys that is not available. Also a lot of these son…" - mktev
6
"play"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not very flexible. I have 2 major issues with this music. One is that you have to buy the music before you can see if it can be transposed. I tried both the app and the website with no luck. Playing a song in Gb isn’t my best key; I can play it in G, but wha…" - Ohio Holly
7
"update"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Amazing app, and then….. This has been a great app. I’ve loved it. And now suddenly, the app prevents me from viewing any sheet music in the shop. I updated the app, to make sure, and it did not solve the problem." - KasperKavalaris
8
"been"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Amazing app, and then….. This has been a great app. I’ve loved it. And now suddenly, the app prevents me from viewing any sheet music in the shop. I updated the app, to make sure, and it did not solve the problem." - KasperKavalaris
9
"trying"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New update broke the sign in. I updated the app and I can no longer sign in to my account. It just keeps attempting to load the account and I have left it actively trying to sign in for 5 minutes" - Bry C m
10
"service"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why are only certain keys available?. Absolutely absurd that songs can be transposed, but not to any key. Why?? Ridiculous. Seems like every time I or a student wants a song in a different key, it happens to be one of the few keys that is not available. Also a lot of these son…" - mktev
11
"apple"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Apple pen does not work with notations. Notations" - Lower town
12
"playing"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not very flexible. I have 2 major issues with this music. One is that you have to buy the music before you can see if it can be transposed. I tried both the app and the website with no luck. Playing a song in Gb isn’t my best key; I can play it in G, but wha…" - Ohio Holly
📋 All 42 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Amazing app, and then….
This has been a great app. I’ve loved it. And now suddenly, the app prevents me from viewing any sheet music in the shop. I updated the app, to make sure, and it did not solve the problem.
New update broke the sign in
I updated the app and I can no longer sign in to my account. It just keeps attempting to load the account and I have left it actively trying to sign in for 5 minutes
Not accurate sheet music
I am learning a song on the piano for my band and I needed the sheet music to dial-in the piano solo. I decided to spend five dollars and buy the song. What I got was a simplified improvised version of the song where the left hand is doing the boogie Woogie and the right hand is actually playing the melody of the vocals. This is not at all how the piano goes in this song and the piano solo was left out entirely. The app seems to work good but the quality of the product in the app is not good at all.
Sheet Music Copies
Once I have paid for my sheet music and printed it out, there was another charge again if I needed to reprint it in the future! I don’t agree with that at all. Sheet music off of regular printer paper can easily become damaged and lost. There should never be another charge. Especially because it’s digital. I’m not requiring a company to mail out a new copy.
Worst App
This app is terrible. It gives so many errors. It doesn’t even allow you to view a simple PDF of music that you bought. I would not recommend this app or the services at all.
They lost my account
I was a subscriber to Musicnotes pro for 6 years, and my pro subscription is expiring only in August of this year. But it looks like Musicnotes simply lost my account. I was trying to connect to the customer service, and send them all the documents I have confirming that I was a paying pro subscriber for 6 years. The only reply I got so far is that I deleted this account myself (which I did not) and basically refusing the service. I am curious if I can request a full refund (6 years in total) from the Apple Pay plus compensation for unfair commercial practice from the Musicnotes.
Misleading
You purchase the app only to have to buy the music you want to play
Scam, “This song is missing”
I purchased sheet music and when I try to open it up and says the song is missing and tells me to download it again. It then shows that same error message when I try to download it again. Nonsense app, waste of money.
Deceptive listing
Not at any point, was it advertised that this app cost $5.99. But when I downloaded it, it auto charge me without any information or indication that there was a charge to this app. Also will not play audibly the sheet music I upload. Which was the purpose of me downloading this app.
DO NOT BUY, SCAM
I always have used this app, but after a recent update it changed and took money from me. I bought a song today, for 15 dollars, i tried playing it but all it let me do was scroll through the song, i had to pay and extra 3 dollars to play the actual music. Once i bought it, it would not let me use the song. I had to REBUY the song which cost another 15 dollars. The song would not load and not show up in my library. Very upsetting. The additional fee was wrong.
Music cost money
I’m broke I ain’t payin shi
Free trial would have been nice
Clunky and couldn’t search by artist requested refund right after subscribing
FIVE major flaws: PLEASE READ BEFORE BUYING FROM MUSICNOTES!!!
This is the main app I use for sheet music, but it’s too late for me; there are more flaws than perks nowadays. MAINLY, pages don’t always turn or there’s a lag, or there’s even a phantom page turn attempt, which isn’t ideal during a performance. SECONDLY, when you search, some keys stick. How? It’s a touch screen. When I search “perhaps”, I don’t look for “peee”. THIRDLY, when I try to scroll through my library, the app mistakes my finger as a song selection. FOURTH: if you have notes of any kind, once you turn to the page with notes, there’s a delay in showing them. AND ANOTHER THING: phantom page turns, but the wrong direction. You want to move forward? Too bad. Not only is there a delay, but it’ll send you backwards. That’s fun. Don’t use this if you’re performing.
These problems persist even after a reset of the device itself, so it’s not my tablet. Pleeeease fix these major issues during your next update.
These problems persist even after a reset of the device itself, so it’s not my tablet. Pleeeease fix these major issues during your next update.
Is it a museum or a shop?
The last three songs I tried to buy show a message that the songs are not available to purchase. It shows the product, just can’t buy it…….
That basically renders this app useless
That basically renders this app useless
Crashed all the time kicking me out
I have emailed numerous times in regards to this issue of the app closing out in the middle of playing a live service, takes about 1-2 minutes to fully re open and get songs back on track, I’ve been paying for over 8 years the yearly subscription and no response in why it does that
I have updated phone
I have updated app constantly and no good results
Does anyone know of another app where I can import all of my pdfs
I have updated phone
I have updated app constantly and no good results
Does anyone know of another app where I can import all of my pdfs
Poor service
I am very unhappy and plan to give you a bad review on Google. I ordered two songs Greensleeves. The songs were not interactive would not playback. I tried to cancel the orders and could not.
John Paul Dean
jdean46109@aol..com
John Paul Dean
jdean46109@aol..com
Search Bar is not working
The Search bar still not working sense the last 2 updates. Please fixed
Do not purchase this from Apple!!!
So I downloaded free trial and was immediately charged 193.00. I canceled immediately and contacted Apple. Refund denied 2 times. My app wants me to buy everything or do more trials and is malfunctioning and doesn’t work. Contacted MuseScore they don’t refund if you buy through Apple only if you buy on their website. I’ve shared screen shots with Apple support, they keep saying they can’t refund to contact MuseScore which says they don’t refund if purchased through Apple. Then I’m told to contact developer to get my app to work. My experience is shady as can be and sadly I have all Apple products and have loved Apple but they let me down hard. Warning do not purchase this app on Apple!
Broken
The latest version for iPad is totally broken on a 1st gen 12.9" iPad Pro running iOS 16.7.11.
Didn’t give the right information
I already had the sheet music to a song, but I went to buy it on music notes for the interactive part, and I could practice with the piano part, but it didn’t tell me that it was non-interactive until I had already bought it.
$$$ for everything
If you to get any song, you have to pay for it. Not only that, but you have to pay for credits as well! It should be like any other app. You join daily, one free credit! But seriously, I only got this app because I love playing the violin and wanted to play some Harry Potter music. I bet y'all Harry Potter fans are with me! Seriously though, you need to update the game so that it's one free credit daily.
Bait and Switch
“100 free songs” doesn’t mean 100 songs of your choosing. It means Old MacDonald and other schlock like that. If you want to free songs that you actually want to play, fork over $$$ for PDFs you could just as easily download off the Internet on your own. 🙈
No sync on macOS
I installed this because it has an app for the Mac. However it’s just a crippled Mac app. It doesn’t let you access any sheet music besides the default free music.
.
Didn’t say we have to buy to scan music .
Incorrect sheet music
Even the simplest songs are wrong
App Needs Update (Bugs)
For the prices associated with this app, it’s really disappointing how buggy the user experience is. I can’t use the store function at all right now without the app crashing.
I hate this app
This app is awful and paying $3 for a pdf is insane. $6 for sheet music is also insane. Also, if you’re on an iPad trying to sign in to print, there’s no option to sign in via google or apple. Such a headache and a run around and everything is so complicated. Not to mention some sheet music limit how many times you can print them. There’s a better way. I will never use this company again for sheet music.
Ripped Off
I paid for a song and it only gave me the first segment of it. Useless piece of garbage.
Hello?
How do you get it to play the song?
Why are only certain keys available?
Absolutely absurd that songs can be transposed, but not to any key. Why?? Ridiculous. Seems like every time I or a student wants a song in a different key, it happens to be one of the few keys that is not available.
Also a lot of these songs have lots of typos. They should give refunds for typos. Really sloppy, non-consumer friendly service.
Also a lot of these songs have lots of typos. They should give refunds for typos. Really sloppy, non-consumer friendly service.
Apple pen does not work with notations
Notations
Not very flexible
I have 2 major issues with this music.
One is that you have to buy the music before you can see if it can be transposed. I tried both the app and the website with no luck. Playing a song in Gb isn’t my best key; I can play it in G, but what if it’s too high for the singers? I buy the music and then have to manually transpose? I don’t have 3 weeks to wait on it to be done.
Second, I have a bad printer, so I download music to a flash drive and take it to the library to print. This app will not allow me to print from the download. I don’t want to make multiple copies- just the one I’m entitled to.
Not all of us have yet invested in a big tablet and digital music app; if you have, you are in a bit better position.
This is nothing like another site I use and prefer, which gives previews showing the available keys, and allows me to download and print it in different keys. I’m really disappointed with this site and will only use it as a last resort.
One is that you have to buy the music before you can see if it can be transposed. I tried both the app and the website with no luck. Playing a song in Gb isn’t my best key; I can play it in G, but what if it’s too high for the singers? I buy the music and then have to manually transpose? I don’t have 3 weeks to wait on it to be done.
Second, I have a bad printer, so I download music to a flash drive and take it to the library to print. This app will not allow me to print from the download. I don’t want to make multiple copies- just the one I’m entitled to.
Not all of us have yet invested in a big tablet and digital music app; if you have, you are in a bit better position.
This is nothing like another site I use and prefer, which gives previews showing the available keys, and allows me to download and print it in different keys. I’m really disappointed with this site and will only use it as a last resort.
Music notes used to be great
The new version of Musicnotes crashes all the time right in the middle of a CERT. You have to completely reboot and then find your place again and that is made it completely unusable I am trying to find something else at this point because it’s just not a good app anymore
Very poor customer service; request pending since mid Dec.
I have a MusicNotes Pro- Premium subscription from Jan 2026 to now. I sent a request in Dec. for an accounting of what I had used my Pro credits for, since I was showing zero balance and do not remember using them. In the 6 weeks I’ve been waiting, the only email I received asked for evidence of my Jan 2026 subscription. I sent a screen shot of the sub from the Apple subscription page and have not heard back. If you believe I used them all in 2026, then it’s as simple as sending or pointing me to the list of songs purchased with those credits. Otherwise, reinstate those credits and I will renew my subscription. Product is great but support needs serious attention.
Does the job but is a little awkward at times.
I use this to read pdfs and it does the job but the UI for making set lists and importing pdfs is a little buggy. There seems to be a lag between when you add a pdf to a set list or make a set list, and when it actually saves those changes. It also takes a second for annotations to show up. Just small things like that make it useable but awkward.
Crashes a lot lately
Crashes a lot, which isn’t great considering I’m attempting to play music from sheet music on the app during a concert.
Freezes up a lot
I have an old, 6th gen iPad. This app freezes up all the time.
Update.
App keeps directing me off site and not logged in. Ugh.
Keeps Crashing
The app keeps crashing. I really like the way it handles files and has some great features, but I cannot use it reliably because sometimes my music just disappears.
Amazing until recent update
Since the recent updates, I’m having trouble adding songs to set lists efficiently. Used to be I could search and select several songs and then they would appear in the set list in the order I selected them in. Now, no matter how many songs I selected, the only one that gets added is the last one I typed in and selected. That, and now page turns happen SO slowly. This used tp be my app of choice when doing gigs, but this most recent update has really messed things up for me. Especially page turns.
Very disappointed
I’m using Simply Piano. Clicked on the link for a song that was supposed to have a trainer. Paid for it. No trainer. Apparently it’s an add on. Very deceptive. I’ve been trying to get in touch with them through email and phone today but nothing. I will not use this site again unless they find a solution for my problem. I’m not paying for the song again and there’s no option to pay their up charge to add it on. What a pain. Read everything before purchasing with this site.
I just wanted to buy sheet music
very frustrated with how many steps there are to printing out sheet music. Was willing to pay the $8 for the sheet music I wanted, but didn't want to deal with creating a new account or downloading a new app. I bought the sheet music, but when I went to my emailed receipt I couldn't print directly from my receipt or from my browser. I followed the steps on their FAQ to download from safari (my default browser is firefox which apparently is not compatible to print. very frustrating!) made an account (which i did not want to do but is apparently required despite having already paid without an account) and the steps did not work. I STILL could not download. Had to then download the app, which again, I did not want to do.
after all this hassle I finally printed out my sheet music. Took nearly half an hour after my purchase. The sheet music itself was worth the price, but this process nearly made me give up and refund my purchase. Not worth the time.
after all this hassle I finally printed out my sheet music. Took nearly half an hour after my purchase. The sheet music itself was worth the price, but this process nearly made me give up and refund my purchase. Not worth the time.
Sentiment summary
98%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)