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Choral Clarity Blog Presents:
While I love the concept of online choral publishing companies, self-publishing, and instantly downloadable sheet music, I tend to order choral sheet music from traditional brick and mortar publishing companies 95% of the time.
I’m wondering if you are suffering from the same main issue as I am.
My Problem with the Online Choral Publishing Industry
A different issue with online publishing…as much as I like it…
I keep wondering why I’m paying as much for downloads from online publishers…composer sites…for their music as I do for traditionally published music. I’m now using my paper, my ink, and my time to collate and staple the pages. I may be wrong, but despite the cost of functional website distribution systems, are composers not making a considerably higher percentage from the sale of music in this way than through the “old-style” publishing system? Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad to see greater compensation for such creativity. But still…
Howard, I agree.
Composers generally make 10% from a traditional publishing company, and have to wait a super long time to receive their money. Online publishing pay somewhere between 30% and 80% and pays either instantly or within a month. Music should be less expensive through download, especially with the cost of time and money for the buyer (ink, paper, etc)!
Hello Adam and other members of this conversation, thank you for bringing this very interesting topic to directors and composers.
My case is in the middle of conductor and composer. As a conductor I want to offer to the choir pieces that work from the very beggining, that make the singers happy, and that the public applauds them a lot.
On the other hand, and as a composer I see that works on paper come to life only when they are sung; An audio mp3 is not enough to see the possibilities. It would lack the vision of the director before launching a work for sale.
That’s why as a composer I did not release a new play if I did not sing it myself as if I had the choir in front. So I had to correct awesome sound effects but not all choirs could run it. In adition to this I send to some conductors my pieces before publishing.
And as a conductor, I always like to get in touch directly with the composer or some other conductor who knows the piece well and advises me on the strengths and weaknesses.
Therefore, the solution has two sides:
A) the composer who should think about the conductor and singers,
B) the conductor who should contact the composer (if alive and available) and lets himself advise, The database of conductor’s repertoire is a good idea.
What do you think of this double approach?
Cesar
Cesar,
I couldn’t agree more. Virtually every piece I write and sell has been performed by my high school ensembles first. Within the rehearsal time, I usually make between 5-10 revisions; it is a running bet among my choir members how many revisions I will end up making. The end result is a finely-tuned piece with accessible leaps, proper repetition, minimal type-os, and something that can sound good for a high school or community ensemble. Asking other conductors to test out the pieces is another great idea. Feedback will only make pieces more accessible and successful. Too many composers today pay for a great recording, or get great singers to demonstrate their piece. This creates a recording that will be unrealistic for average singers to attain, not to mention the time-consuming issues of poorly written passages that still sound great by really fine singers.
-Adam
This comment is also posted on the main blog site.
“Why Technology is failing us” is an interesting way of phrasing what is going on. Technology does not have a motivation of its own; technology is a tool. It is the people who use it (or in this case, don’t utilize it to its full potential) who have a motivation, ambition, and goals. The technology for everything you are describing is available, but few are ready or able to implement to the extent that you are requesting. (There are also many legal issues surrounding publishing and technology which make investing the time and money in such solutions difficult). As new tools become available and technology evolves, there will not always be an apparent answer to these questions, and most definitely not a final product that will be able to serve both past and future (unknown) needs. This is why blogs and articles, like yours, highlighting the different needs of the music community, and making more tools/websites/resources are so important. It’s not possible for one company or entity to know what everyone is looking for, so keeping the conversation going is crucial.
The tyranny of choice is all around us, and it will take thoughtful people to tackle these issues and needs as they arise. Examine Netflix when it first started and Netflix now. It takes time (patience), insight, a willingness to let go of that which no longer serves our goals, an eagerness to embrace the new, and an understanding that thoughtful trial & error (sometimes failing miserably) will be necessary.
I proposed a possible solution to ACDA 10 or so years ago. The solution was to create a database of conductor repertoire. This would be repertoire that was actually performed by that ensemble over the past years. Once this was entered, it could be used to identify repertoire by other conductors to find matches based on similarities. Then the submitting conductor could look at other repertoire that the matching list had to peruse, knowing that the conductor had similar tastes. Ideally, the submission would identify multiple matches with a percentage of that match to the submitting conductor’s repertoire.
The two problems that exist with this proposal, that I see, is that there would not be (and in my opinion should not be) a way to monetize this. The second would be that there would need to be enough initial volunteers to create a database that would be viable. That is why I submitted this proposal to ACDA. As a respected organization they would have the clout and the resources to make this happen.
Each conductor would provide a different set of performed repertoire for each ensemble that person conducts (church, beginning, women’s, community, etc.)
The conductor that submits could choose to remain anonymous or not. There could even be a way for the conductor to reach out to another conductor with similar tastes, even if that other person intends to remain anonymous. Then, that other conductor could decide whether to respond or not. Think of the relationships that could be developed with this system. Conductor’s could not only share repertoire, they could commission works, visit each other, meet up at conferences, collaborate on concerts as one or the other tours . . .
As far as new compositions go, there are many conductors out there that champion new works and commission new compositions. Once those are added to that conductor’s repertoire update , then others with similar tastes will find those even more effectively.
If it were monetized, then some entrepreneur could develop it, but then it might be jeopardized by the lack of altruistic motives. I believe that only ACDA could pull this off with respect and trust that it would function in this beneficial way.
Stuart, I think it is great that you want ACDA to be on the cutting edge of repertoire. I do have to say that regarding parameters of music, many guest conductors of festivals do not know appropriate music for high schoolers. Frequently, guest conductors choose college repertoire for their All-Conference, All-County and All-State gigs. Sometimes it works quite well and other times it’s a disaster. I find that high school directors “in the trenches” frequently think it is their kid’s fault that they are struggling with music or that it’s taking too learn to learn. I do agree a database could be really helpful, if done by the right people!
Stuart, I think it is great that you want ACDA to be on the cutting edge of repertoire. I do have to say that regarding parameters of music, many guest conductors of festivals do not know appropriate music for high schoolers. Frequently, guest conductors choose college repertoire for their All-Conference, All-County and All-State gigs. Sometimes it works quite well and other times it’s a disaster. I find that high school directors “in the trenches” frequently think it is their kid’s fault that they are struggling with music or that it’s taking too learn to learn. I do agree a database could be really helpful, if done by the right people!
A database could be a good idea, but it also poses new challenges, in my opinion. It’s often hard to figure out whose music should be listed or what pieces are “good enough”. A database with 100,000 pieces would again become a lot of nothing. I think publishing companies (online and brick-and-mortar), should have editors who cull together all of their music that best fits each age/group level. More parameters should be used for search-ability : Age of singers (high school, middle school, college), vocal range, length of piece, a-cappella, divisi, etc. Editors should have the skill-set and the control to correctly choose music and then we should be able to hear quick recordings of these pieces before clicking onto the actual page of the specific piece. If all companies did this, we would hear a lot of music quickly, just like we can with the brick-and-mortar’s annual CDs, and then we can jump on to view the digital sheet music and/or purchase instantly.