There are several ways to share your Finale and Sibelius files with others. Of course you can submit your scores for publication the traditional way by contacting music publishers and submitting your scores to them for publication. If you go this route, a good place to find listings of most of the major music publishers is via the Music Publishers Association’s website: www.mpa.org

If you are a Finale or Sibelius user, there are options for posting and sharing your work with others that does not require securing a publisher of your work. Files posted to these sites must be original music or music arranged by the composer that is in public domain. Both sites review the posts and will refuse music posted that is a violation of the copyright law.

Finale Showcase
For Finale users, and users of any of the Finale family software, including the free program Finale Notpad, there is the Finale Showcase. To access the Showcase, go to www.finaleshowcase.com and click on the Showcase tab.

It is free to set-up an account with Finale Showcase. Once the account is setup you can create a personal area to upload and post your files. Files are offered for free to others. The search options on the Finale Showcase are somewhat limited and there is no composer search option. I did a search for Pachelbel Canon, and received several hits. The total number of files on the site is not listed. There is no commercial option on Finale Showcase, but it is a good option for sharing your files with others and download files posted by other users.

Sibeliusmusic.com
If you use Sibelius or Sibelius G7, you can participate in the largest website for posting notation files for others: http://www.sibeliusmusic.com. As of February 3, 2008, there are more than 75,000 files posted on the site.

Sibeliusmusic.com uses Sibelius’s Scorch technology, which allows Sibelius files to be posted on any website for viewing, saving, and printing. Sibelius users can post files for free or sell them on the site for a profit. When you post files for a fee, you split the profit 50/50 with the Sibelius site. Music can be perused by style including Classical, Pop/Rock, Educational, Worship and Other. You can also find composers alphabetically and search for individual song titles.

Once you register your site on Sibeliusmusic.com, you can include a personal photograph and information about you and your music and links to other sites.
Sibeliusmusic.com offers an enhanced site for monthly cost of $30.00 per month. In return you get a much higher return on sales of your music and merchandise (70% – 80%) and a completely customizable online store to showcase your music, in addition to all the benefits of a self-publisher.

So, take advantage of these two sites to download files from other composers and post your own files.