ARRANGERS’ & COMPOSERS’ GUIDE
E-MUSIC PUBLISHING
(TRIAL PHASE)
How to get your Scores and Arrangements to a
world-wide market and get paid for them!
24 September 2011
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INTRODUCTION
Most Jazz and Popular musicians have to work hard to make money and get their income from a range of
sources; performing, teaching, recording , writing, composing and arranging, etc.
With the advent of mass internet access, it is clearly getting more difficult to sell CD’s and recorded music.
Some popular bands are selling ‘music downloads’ directly from their own web sites. This is an option but the
technical difficulties to prevent ‘illegal’ copying are significant and way beyond the reach of most musicians.
However, there are thousands of professional, semi-professional and amateur bands and ensembles around
the world who would willingly pay for good written arrangements/scores. Some research has shown that the
following are typical prices currently quoted:
CONCERT BAND Collection from show or film. £100-£150
Conductor + 20 instruments.
BIG BAND Full arrangement of Standard. £70
Conductor + 16 parts
JAZZ ENSEMBLE Three horn lines and rhythm £35
section. Concert/Eb/Bb
TEACHING SCORES Booklet. £10
Further research has shown a very mixed and ineffective approach to the use of the internet by music
publishers. On the whole, they seem very worried about copyright and will respond to an order by sending a
‘physical pack’ of paper (often 100+ pages for a big score). The customer (band/ensemble) then seems to
spend endless hours photocopying the parts (probably illegally?) and distributing them by e-mail among band
members. Anecdotal evidence suggests this is normally pretty chaotic!
Those publishers that do try and offer ‘downloadable’ scores but, generally, rely on very amateurish and
difficult to use home-grown web sites. They have no idea how to protect copyright of material once it is
released electronically.
The cost of production, distribution and version control for such physical material must be horrendous for the
publishers and will continuously drive up costs and must reduce the ’profit margin’ … available for either
author or publisher … to trivial levels.
On the other hand the ubiquitous spread of home computing means that most people now have access to high
speed internet and the ability to print 1-10 pages at home. The availability of mass on-line storage means that
bands and ensembles can now look to keeping all their material in electronic libraries and pass the
responsibility of individual members to provide their own paper parts.
It is also apparent that players are moving to the use of i-pads/i-phones, etc. to carry their material. Many
bass players these days stick their i-‘thing’ on the music stand and read chords from that. At a recent summer
Jazz School, it was observed that about 25% of the attendees brought larger I-pads with the REAL BOOKS
loaded and used that throughout the week. This trend can only continue … but it does open up huge
opportunities for the “world-wide mass marketing” of e-scores by musicians for musicians.
This is what HCL e-MUSIC PUBLISHING is all about!
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HOW DOES IT WORK?
There are two fundamental aspects to our approach:
1. The total absence of any “physical production’ keeps our costs minimal. Indeed, the main cost
involved is in the ‘initial setting up’ of the score in the HCL system. Once in our system, there is no
further ‘transaction’ costs; the whole ordering, downloading and payment processes are fully
automatic and not sensitive to ‘volume’ (i.e. the cost of selling 1000 scores is the same as selling 2!!)
This means we can price at a level that makes copying pretty pointless and still generates decent
income for author and publisher. We typically think a Big Band score could retail at £8 - £15; smaller
works at £5.
2. All individual copies of scores delivered against an order have a ‘watermark license’ to the buyer on
EVERY page. This allows the copying of the material within a band but makes it very difficult to pass it
on beyond that boundary. This difficulty linked to ‘low pricing’ means that, on the whole, it is easier
for someone to come to the HCL site and order their own licensed version than it is to have it
photocopied/scanned and emailed! This should help generate volume sales.
The LICENSING SYSTEM is the clever bit! We have written special software that takes output from
SIBELIUS (Music Publishing software), inserts the watermark license on every page based on the
customer data in our orders database, and then produces ADOBE .pdfs that are then delivered to that
customer. Once an order is in the system and a Credit Card/PayPal payment made, everything else is
automatic.
The diagram below outlines how it is done:
The original score/arrangement is received from the author as a SIBELIUS file. We then ensure the layout is
the best possible for publication and that the music notation is entirely clear. We then load into our
LICENSING SYSTEM.
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When a paid order is received we enter all the details into the customer database. The system then produces
a full set of ADOBE .pdf files; usually transposing and non-transposing conductor’s scores and a full set of parts
for individual instruments. In a large score this may typically be 50-300 pages of music.
Each page has a watermark LICENCE panel on it unique to that customer.
These .pdf files are then zipped into a single 'downloadable' file. It can them be e-mailed to the customer for
their use. However, most scores will be bigger than e-mail attachment limits so it will be loaded into a
customer web space and the details sent. The material can then be downloaded at the click of a
mouse. Further orders from a customer are added to the space so that it can form the basis of a band library if
required.
TRYING THE SYSTEM
We have been trialing the system with Frank Griffith. Frank is an internationally renowned Clarinet and
Saxophone player and Head of Performance at Brunel University. Over his long career he has written many
great scores for Big Bands and other Jazz Ensembles.
We have loaded some 15-20 of his scores into the system and linked it to his web site. The first orders have
already started to flow in.
It is probably easier to play with the system than to explain it in detail. If you want to see the system in action
you should go to:
http://scores.rholland.biz
It should all be self-explanatory. Just follow all the links. Click on the HCL logo to return to HOME.
(Note: We have used various clever bits of web technology to allow customers to listen to and view material
examples before they buy. Be warned they all work perfectly under WINDOWS IE7. They have been tested in
FIREFOX and CHROME and there may be the odd glitch. We recommend at this stage of site development, you
use the IE add-ons for these other browsers.)
In addition to Frank’s works there is some test data that again is obvious.
If you want to see a CUSTOMER DOWNLOAD AREA in action you will need a CUSTOMER PASSCODE. We have
set up a ‘dummy’ customer with the following PASSCODE for you to use:
HOGGA1002
This system will not do any promotion or marketing for you!! You will need to do that through your own
channels and web sites. However, once someone wants to purchase your material you need to direct them
automatically to HCL for the rest of the process.
We will provide you with a ‘coded’ link for your web site. On clicking it the customer will be directed to HCL
and the site will open on a page tailored to your work alone.
To see this in action go to Frank’s web site and click on the HCL logo at:
http://frankgriffith.co.uk/SCORES_List.aspx
Again, it should all be very obvious!
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PROVIDING MATERIAL/SCORES
Our system is based on SEBELIUS software. The author will need to provide any material in SEBELIUS format;
we will tidy it up for publication (i.e. layout not musical!) and mount it free of charge.
However, not all your material may be in SEBELIUS and you will need to consider how to get it there. We can
offer assistance in this as we are technically competent with the SEBELIUS but it is time consuming and we
would need to charge in some way … we need to discuss.
COMMERCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
We have not decided on a model yet that will provide a decent income for both musicians and publishers. Our
initial thinking is that we will take 100% the sales income from the first ‘X’ sales, 50% from the next ‘Y’ and
then a steady 10-20% from thereon. However, we are open to suggestions and it will depend on how
successful the system is in generating business. Let’s cross that bridge when we reach it.
HCL have invested at our own risk for about 6-9 months in developing the system and software and have
reached to point where we want to trial it. So at this stage, we are really looking for partners with material
who would like to join in. We would suggest a 50:50 split on income for the moment.
TARGET MARKETS
The system we have designed can handle 1,000’s of scores and 10,000+ customers. (…. aren’t computers
wonderful!). However, any start up business must focus very carefully on particular customer groups.
We don’t want to start with huge orchestral scores on the one hand or low value 1/2 page items on the other.
We want to avoid professional classical musicians who already have sources and will demand complex material
to a scrupulously high standard.
We should also try and reach new audiences who have a need but don’t currently think about buying ….
We believe that there thousands of amateur and semi-professional Big Bands, Ensembles and Groups playing
Jazz around the world who would fit this model and would use the service. Some basic groups are:
BIG BANDS Who regularly use scores and arrangements and are always
seeking new material.
JAZZ ENSEMBLES Smaller semi-professional groups who are looking to
expand their repertoire beyond Real Books!
JAZZ EDUCATORS Who want to provide their students with material? (Get
the student to buy and download recommended works.)
We also believe that there is a significant untapped market in the USA where use of such material in amateur
bands such as those above is much more prevalent. The internet and electronic downloads of course means
selling to the USA is no problem! Thoughts on this subject welcome.
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WHAT NEXT?
If you have material in Sebelius, believe you are relevant to our target markets and want to trial the system,
simply get in touch with me at:
scores@rholland.biz
If you have ideas about how the system could be developed or markets we haven’t considered … do the same
thing.
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