IMSLP

[BVD Press]

For those of us who make a living in music publishing or are just interested in music publishing, this is an interesting article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/arts/ ... kin&st=cse

[olaness]

Certainly an interesting article. I am a long standing user of the web site and thinks it is a fabulous resource. Copyright protects works from copying within a set timeframe, usually to 75 years after either the composers death or the date of the work, depending on individual countries' or states' laws, and the trouble the IMSLP website has had seems to infer that a lot of existing publishing houses rely on informally extending this timeframe to base their businesses on. They state that they use the income to fund more works from modern composers, a half-truth at best. Certainly some of the money earned will go that way, but only some of it, and only from some of the publishers.

As a performing musician this website is a tremendous resource, giving me access to works that I would otherwise not had access to due to prohibitive cost compared to the usefulness of having an expensive hard copy of a work in my bookshelf. Of course, if I need the latest editions or the latest research on a work, yes I will have to pay for it, and will happily do so. On that point, I do hope that this will become a slight wake up call to the publishing industry to get out there and push their latest scholarly editions (which will be under copyright) and produce more of these editions, but more importantly to make sure that modern composers get published and their works plugged for sale and rent, and perhaps also to find new ways of publishing, and marketing. From that perspective this potential revenue drain resulting from the work that this website does could be made into something positive: a more agile and modern, forward looking publishing industry, and with a bit of luck, better chances of good deals with publishers for composers of today.

Ola

[Alex C]

I understand music publishers' concern about this site, and sites like it. I think they do a decent job of self-policing but I am sure there are copyright violations on it... too many laws and too many countries to avoid it.

I have downloaded serveral scores but they've all been pre-1900 publications, and things that cannot be bought now. I expect that it will go the way of Napster eventually.

[Dan Schultz]

I am a big fan of music publishers like Barnhouse.... who have made a sincere effort to make all of their archives available. Even though their prices seem a little high, if I see an old Karl King composition I want... or one I need just a few parts to complete... I can buy it. I would not dream of having photocopies in my master files if the material is available for purchase.

However... publishers who allow their music to go 'POP' are not doing the industry justice... and in my opinion, their works are 'fair game'. In this day of electronic 'publishing on demand', there is no excuse for some of the 'standards' to not be available. Case in point... Bob Lowden's "Armed Forces Salute" with went POP a few years back.

[Charlie Goodman]

I think it's pretty funny that the publishers make it sound as if they make any effort to correct print errors that have been known for years.