There is a moment in every musician's career when something goes wrong at the worst possible time.
I watched mine happen from the audience.
Most companies start with good intentions.
A founder identifies a real problem, feels genuine urgency to solve it, and builds something that actually helps people. That mission is what drives early decisions — the product, the pricing, the experience.
Then the money comes in, and something shifts.
My wife used to carry an enormous backpack to every lesson, rehearsal, and gig. Books, scores, loose pages — the kind of weight that reshapes your posture over time. Meanwhile, I had an iPad and a laptop. Together, they held more music than her entire bag, and weighed a fraction of it. That contrast stuck with me.
My wife is a gifted pianist. Over the years, she has accumulated hundreds of sheet music scores—some purchased, some inherited, and a few that are genuinely irreplaceable: pieces passed down through generations of her family that exist nowhere online. When we decided to go fully digital, I assumed the process would be straightforward. It wasn’t.
When musicians ask me what device to use for digital sheet music, they usually expect a quick answer. The reality is that the right choice depends on a handful of factors — and screen size is the one that matters most.
Here’s how I think about it.