Avid has announced that a new version of Sibelius's little brother, Sibelius First, is now available, with some new features never before seen in music notation software (including Sibelius 7).

Sibelius First is designed for home users, students, instrumental teachers, songwriters, choir masters – anybody who needs to quickly and easily produce beautiful sheet music, but who doesn't need all the power and flexibility of the full Sibelius 7 product.

The new Sibelius First replaces the existing versions of both Sibelius First and Sibelius Student, which were separate entry-level products with similar feature sets, though there were some key differences, such as the inclusion of dynamic parts in Sibelius First but not Sibelius Student, and the inclusion of Panorama in Sibelius Student but not Sibelius First. With the new Sibelius First, they've combined the feature sets of both products to produce an even more powerful and comprehensive music notation package at a reasonable price.

Some of the highlights of the new version include:

• Exclusive, professional-quality 10GB sound library.
• Simplified, task-orientated user interface.
• Export a video of your score.
• Send your score, in Sibelius or PDF format, by email.
• Publish directly to ScoreExchange.com
• Publish directly to Facebook, YouTube and Soundcloud
• Format your score for Avid Scorch for iPad

These features are exclusive to Sibelius First and are not included even in the full Sibelius 7 product. Read the Sibelius Blog for more details.

Pricing & Availability

The new Sibelius First is available today, with a recommended price of $119 in the US, £99 inc. VAT in the UK, and €119 inc. VAT in Europe. A five-user license is also available for $299 in the US, £239 inc. VAT in the UK, and €289 inc. VAT in Europe. If you have a previous version of Sibelius First, Sibelius Student (or even G7 or Sibelius Instrumental Teacher Edition), you can upgrade to the new Sibelius First for $39.95 / £29.95 / €39.

If you'd like to try Sibelius First for yourself, a 30-day trial version including all features (apart from the 10GB Sibelius 7 First Sounds library, PhotoScore Lite and AudioScore Lite) is available for download now. If you already have a version of Sibelius, Sibelius First or Sibelius Student installed on your computer, don't worry: the trial of the new Sibelius First won't interfere with your existing software at all.

To find out even more about the new Sibelius First, head on over to the Sibelius web site.