diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 92b942ec2a..dd3441a642 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # Changelog
 
 ## [unreleased]
+
+## [4.5.0] – 2024-12-22
 * Integration of tablature customization implementation
 * Optimization of regex calls (@paul-bayleaf)
 
diff --git a/Verovio.podspec b/Verovio.podspec
index f7af8a5f8e..40a78b39aa 100644
--- a/Verovio.podspec
+++ b/Verovio.podspec
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Pod::Spec.new do |s|
   s.name           = 'Verovio'
-  s.version        = '4.5.0-dev'
+  s.version        = '5.0.0-dev'
   s.license        = { :type => 'LGPL', :file => 'COPYING' }
   s.homepage       = 'https://www.verovio.org/index.xhtml'
   s.authors        = { 'Contributors List' => 'https://github.com/rism-digital/verovio/graphs/contributors' }
diff --git a/bindings/java/pom.xml b/bindings/java/pom.xml
index 499e4e42c6..e3ce10174e 100644
--- a/bindings/java/pom.xml
+++ b/bindings/java/pom.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
   <groupId>org.rism.verovio</groupId>
   <artifactId>VerovioToolkit</artifactId>
-  <version>4.5.0-dev</version>
+  <version>5.0.0-dev</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <name>VerovioToolkit</name>
diff --git a/bindings/python/.pypi-version b/bindings/python/.pypi-version
index c1c9686d52..1b2104b455 100644
--- a/bindings/python/.pypi-version
+++ b/bindings/python/.pypi-version
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # dummy file used by setup.py for counting revisions when publishing to test.pypi
 # counting can be reset by making a change to this file
-4.5.0
+5.0.0
diff --git a/codemeta.json b/codemeta.json
index ca530a14c7..4751cc6dfa 100644
--- a/codemeta.json
+++ b/codemeta.json
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
   "identifier": "Verovio",
   "name": "Verovio",
   "description": "Verovio is a fast, portable and lightweight open-source library for engraving Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) music scores into SVG.",
-  "softwareVersion": "4.5.0-dev",
-  "datePublished": "2024-11-25",
+  "softwareVersion": "5.0.0-dev",
+  "datePublished": "2024-12-22",
   "license": "https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0",
   "programmingLanguage": [{
     "@type": "ComputerLanguage",
diff --git a/emscripten/npm/package.json b/emscripten/npm/package.json
index 4411507067..92d6be9272 100644
--- a/emscripten/npm/package.json
+++ b/emscripten/npm/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "verovio",
-  "version": "4.5.0-alpha",
+  "version": "5.0.0-alpha",
   "description": "This is the stable version of the verovio package",
   "main": "dist/verovio-toolkit-wasm.js",
   "exports": {
diff --git a/include/vrv/vrvdef.h b/include/vrv/vrvdef.h
index 750326523f..668561223b 100644
--- a/include/vrv/vrvdef.h
+++ b/include/vrv/vrvdef.h
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ namespace vrv {
 // Version
 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-#define VERSION_MAJOR 4
-#define VERSION_MINOR 5
+#define VERSION_MAJOR 5
+#define VERSION_MINOR 0
 #define VERSION_REVISION 0
 // Adds "-dev" in the version number - should be set to false for releases
 #define VERSION_DEV true