MI high school choir gets check from iTunes

BY MARIE HAVENGA

mhavenga(a)grandhaventribune.com

The voices of Grand Haven High School choir students span the
globe — as well as the Internet and iTunes.

There’s a check for $46.34 sitting in the office of the school’s
vocal music teacher, Shirley Lemon, that proves it.

“We received our first check from iTunes,” Lemon said. “I
haven’t done anything with it yet because it’s just so cool to have
it on my desk. When you go onto iTunes and type us in (Grand Haven
High School Choirs), it will show you the CD and which songs are
the most popular.”

The downloads of the 2006 GHHS recording “Music that Makes a
Difference” came from Australia, Europe, Canada and the United
States.

Lemon praised GHHS student Hugo Lawton for obtaining the
necessary licensing required to have the musical selections on
iTunes.

“It’s a new generation,” she said. “I don’t think kids buy the
physical product anymore.”

Lawton, a junior bass section chorale leader, spent last summer
calling and e-mailing agents and producers for permission.

“I thought this was a good opportunity for us to make some money
and get our music out to a wider audience,” he said. “Each song has
a publisher. You need a license to be able to record a song and
sell it. We already had the license for physical CDs. We had to get
a different license for digital downloads.”