If you’ve ever needed to open a Finale file in Sibelius, or a scan music in SmartScore and bring it into Dorico, or write something in StaffPad and upload it to MuseScore.com, you’ve relied on MusicXML to make it happen. MusicXML is the standard interchange format for music notation applications, and it’s what makes such robust interoperability possible between hundreds of programs. We might take it for granted now, but that doesn’t mean we should.

MusicXML was invented by Michael Good, and on this episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk with Michael about how he came to create such important technology more than two decades ago. He tells us the inside story of what it took to get it off the ground, and puts us in the room at pivotal moments in its development, from its humble origins all the way through to its current incarnation as part of a thriving worldwide community. We also learn what to expect in the next version, MusicXML 4.0, and how this now-ubiquitous established format is keeping pace with the newest technological changes.

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