publishing... :)

out of mostly curiosity, where in the world do you look into publishing? sheet music, that is

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Paul E.
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huh? waht you on a bout? publishing sheet music? online and in music book shops

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Love of god - God of Love

The first thing you want to do is go to kinkos and get a professional-looking score. If you’ve written a piano piece, a pop song or a piano-voice song thingy, 60# paper is good…if you’ve written something that takes more pages, a spiral-bound score is in order. Make sure you have all the intricate details of the copyright…symbols and everything.

Next you want to register your work with the patent office. When you write something, you automatically have a copyright on it—it’s just not registered. Some people like to mail things to themselves (a “poor man’s copyright”), but that rarely holds up in court. The point is to have legal proof that YOU wrote what you wrote and you had it at some point in time before the other guy claimed to have it. You can register as much music as you want with one fee if it’s all there at the same time, so make sure to send in EVERYTHING you have.

Publishers? There are lots of them on the web, and you can find plenty for whatever avenue of music you’re in. (There are even *miscellaneous* publishers) If you get a deal, though, make sure it’s a good one, because publishers put some restraints on you as well. It’s almost like getting married.

In addition there are some other ways to go about it. There are some publications that produce large annuals full of music, and if they put your piece in one of them you’ll get paid (I think) for every copy that’s sold. The downside is people are allowed to photocopy your music…which might not be a bad thing. Maybe it can help get your name out, or maybe you just want to make some bread and let lots of people be blessed.

ASCAP is another thing. I dunno exactly where their limits are on style, but their deal works like this: if you’re a member and you know of a performance featuring your work somewhere, send them evidence of the performance, like a program or something, and they’ll do one of two things:

1. If the place is registered with ASCAP and authorized to use ASCAP music, you’ll get a check in the mail.

2. If the place isn’t registered with ASCAP, they send Bruno to break somebody’s knees.

ASCAP probably isn’t the way to go for guys who want to produce music for church. It’s more for professional performances. I mean, you don’t want to sue a church because somebody sings your song in it. And I don’t even know if you could. Just know that they’re out there.

Buuuut at any rate you still want a registered copyright, because while you don’t want to sue your brothers and sisters, you do want to get paid for your work, and a copyright discourages folks (especially those who “follow the law of the land until it conflicts with the law of God”) from not paying you your just day’s wage. In other words, singing to the Lord is wonderful, but ripping off your sheet music while you starve isn’t.

Finally, there is self publishing. If you’re a starter, it’s probably a good idea to send your stuff to big publishers to get your name out there, and then when you have your ducks in a row, you can publish things yourself to eliminate the middle man. I can’t really tell you HOW to self publish on a considerable scale, though, cause I haven’t done it.

It all depends on what you want. If you want to make a little money, copyright and sell sheet music. But if you just want to share your work with others so they too can be blessed, and communicate with other churches about what you guys are singing and writing, so that you can share a pool of songs that lift praises to God, you might talk to your pastor about putting together a songbook for all the songwriters in your church to participate in, and give it away. Ok…that’s the 2nd long babble I’ve put on this forum K

POsted by HE_PUT..
You can register as much music as you want with one fee if it’s all there at the same time, so make sure to send in EVERYTHING you have.

To do it with one FEE, you would have to make it a compilation. otherwise each song would require it's own copyright.

As far as publishers - in the "sheet music" industry the therm "publisher" normally refers to the organization that administers the copyright. Which means that is who you would have to contact in order to get permission to do somethign with their music.

AScap is one...

If your music is going to be used in churches you can also use CCLI (I think www.ccli.org) but not sure of the address.

If you only use chords on your music - chords are not copyrightable - SO if you write out your Music like in lead sheet form with just piano or guitar chords - only the words will be able to be copyrighted - you submit the whole thing - but only the words will be copyrighited.

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Turn the world upside down [Acts 17:6]

Oh, it's definitely not just chords this is piano music, actually.

I knew about the copyright stuff, it's the publishing part that I don't know about... the actual names of publishers and stuff. I mean, how many publishers are really willing to even bother with an unheard of 18 year old? hehe.

And it's not church music, though I played it in church, hehe.

Thanks for the information, though, it is very helpful

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Paul E.
Friends don't let friends eat doughnuts. I support abstinence!
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I have an aquaitance who helps people get thier stuff published. He works for a company called Taxi. Look into it, they will help you step by step and most of the info and contacts you want are on thier site.

http://www.taxi.com/

Blessings

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"I mean what I say, I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful 100%" Dr. Suess
From dust you came, to dust you shall return
Do your best, let God do the rest

Don't worry about your age, man. Everybody starts somewhere. I'd say most new pieces are written by people who aren't known to most. Mozart might not have known how to tie his shoes when he started publishing.
If you're writing fleshed-out non-improvisational music, though, make it very clean. Make sure to think about dynamics and put in lots of detail concerning slurs, accents, and everything else that pertains to the sound that you want. Don't leave anything to ambiguity that you don't want to be ambiguous. It seems as young composers we're so tied up in the pitches and rhythms we forget that they are only a fraction of what music is made of. Don't worry. They won't judge you by your age--they'll judge you by how easy your music is to read (hopefully), and how much money they think it will make them.
PS--Since you're writing piano music, I've found a good way to distribute things (especially if you're willing to give up free sheets) is to give a few copies to piano teachers, if what you're writing is easy enough to play.

Oh, I've played this specific one several times, including my piano teacher and my music theory teacher at college - and I gave my pastor a copy (he was a professional musician... played with Harry James and such ) and my piano teacher also, and one other person.

It's very simple and easy to play, I think. At least, I sure don't have a hard time with it heh.

And yes, I know about music not being all in the pitches and rhythms, heh... though, I'd probably end up just writing general guidelines in the other stuff, since I think that should be left up to the player fairly well. I mean, I don't play Chopin's works the same way Chopin did, I doubt.

And sometimes not the way my piano teacher would like, either hehe

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Paul E.
Friends don't let friends eat doughnuts. I support abstinence!
Being awake generally presupposes being alive.
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