Is there a Subscription On Line Sheet Music Service ?

[10Fingers]

I played piano when I was a kid for a few years. I didn't like it because they wouldn't teach me what I wanted to learn so I gave it up. A few years later (still many years ago) I took up guitar.

Now I'm looking to start playing piano/keys again. I have the equipment but since I really haven't been playing keys except for messing with "Let It Be" a bit my ears aren't trained enough on the piano to pick out those parts within a song with other instruments.

I realize that most of what I'd want to play is going to be copy written so I'm not looking for a free site but an affordable sheet music site with accurate transcriptions and an annual fee.

I see many sites that I've checked have a per/song fee. I really don't want to pay $4-$6 / song so I'm hoping there's one or more that offer annual subscriptions with unlimited downloads for a set fee.

Thank you

 

[happyrat1]

I've never heard of such a thing. How do you expect the artists to get paid? Do you think Imagine Dragons would be happy collecting the same royalties as Bud Melnik and the Meltones if the numbers on the downloads was nowhere near equal?

Do you expect iTunes to give you unlimited downloads of every artist of your choosing for one low low monthly price?

That's simply not the way the industry works.

Gary

 

[10Fingers]

First, one can purchase a book with 10+ tunes for $16-$20 from a music store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc. and the Artists still gets paid and so does everyone down the line. Books cost a LOT more to publish than a download does. Ten tunes at $6./tune is $60, a LOT more than paying $16 for the book. So if a publisher can sell a book for $1.60 - $2.00/ song in print form WHY can't a download service do the same? It seems to me that in either scenario the artist and publisher would get the same $ while the download service rakes in the dough and takes advantage of the fact that someone wants it now. BTW there are download services with an annual subscription but from what I've seen they are most for Classical Music. CD's cost about the same as the music book. iTunes sells individual songs for $.99- $1.99 so why can't sheet music download services do the same as iTunes does?

 

[happyrat1]

I'm not going to get into an argument over the relative values of intellectual property.

The only way an all you can eat model works is if they sell you a bucketfull of crap along with one or two gems, like cable TV.

There's a reason why HBO charges a huge premium over regular cable prices.

Gary

 

[10Fingers]

I agree with you on the all you can eat theory which probably only works on songs that are in the public domain.

On single song sheet music I find it odd that it should be $4-$6 if iTunes sells the music download for $1.99.

Perhaps my response wasn't clear. Sorry.

 

[happyrat1]

Apology accepted.

As for why the sheet sells for 3 to 5 times the price of the actual song download, consider economies of scale.

For a recorded performance an artist receives somewhere between a nickel and ten cents per tune. The only way the artist can see any real money from that is by selling 1 million copies or more.

For a transcription, yet another artist has to sit down, transcribe the sheet and not only split the royalties with the composer but also due to the fact that while maybe a million people will enjoy and buy the recording, only one in a thousand will have both the musical talent to read sheet and enjoy the song enough to actually shell out money for the transcription.

Believe me, the poor guy who transcribed Sting's "Walking on the Moon" for Mel Bay or whatever publishing house, is nowhere near enjoying the opulent luxury which Sting's royalties have earned and continue to earn for him.

If you live on the typical starving artist's budget however, there are some free or unlicensed transcriptions floating around the net to be had for the price of a Google search.

Likewise there are usually video performances by amateurs on Youtube floating around which will give you a pretty good idea of the chord progressions and the key signatures so you could always hack out a tune by eye and by ear from watching one of these.

While I'm inclined to agree that the general pricing structure imposed by the DMCA and RIAA are somewhat unfair, particularly on the treatment of material older than five decades old these days, ranting and raving about it accomplishes nothing except to raise our bile and our blood pressure.

This is the point at which most people either swallow the bitter pill and go on paying the price to support their millionaire idols, or else go rogue, say "screw it" and go over to the dark side of the force.

The ultimate choice is yours

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

BTW

Case in point about the DMCA thingie.

The Song Happy Birthday To You, which USED to be in the public domain is now once again subject to royalty payments, and every single time those notes are sung, played or hummed on broadcast television they cost the networks several thousand dollars a pop.

Conan O'Brien even has a semi regular skit on his show about it called something like "Name That Tune That Sort Of Sounds Like A Popular Song But Is Actually A Royalty Free Version Composed By Our Own Band."

Gary

 

[Becky]

Hello @10Fingers and welcome to the forum!

I see what you're thinking re subscription music - did you have in mind something like Netflix or Spotify? I suppose the difference is that with those type of services you are streaming the films/music, you never actually download something to keep, which as happyrat1 rightly points out would not be fair to the owners of the copyright. It would be interesting to see if this could be done with sheet music in the future - eg using an iPad or similar, where you pay a monthly subscription to view sheet music, but can only view it on screen. It could end up being quite popular!

 

[CowboyNQ]

$4 will get you a cup of coffee.* Is that really a budget buster? And you get a lovely piece of sheet music you can keep forever.

Even I'm happy to pay that, and us Aussies are infamous for stealing everything they can on line. Must be because we're a nation of convicts. Most of our ancestors were sent here for stealing loaves of bread...but I digress.

Alternatively, if you want to learn a song on piano for free there's always YouTube. You name it, someone will be on there showing you how to play it.

*Additional health benefit of cutting down on caffeine intake is free of charge

 

[happyrat1]

$4 For a cup of coffee?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

What the hell? Are the beans grown in the toejam of Venezeulan Virgins?

I pay $1.50 for a small dark roast double double at Tim Horton's and I STILL feel like I'm getting ripped off

For $4 I can get a lovely capuccino at the corner bakery along with a bit of crunchy sweet stuff to nosh on.

Is the Aussie dollar really that worthless now or has Starbucks taken over the coffee biz in Melbourne?

Gary

 

[10Fingers]

I don't drink coffee. In fact I've never drank a cup. Tried in when I was a kid, didn't like it, and never drank it again.
BTW since we've deviated just a bit and Happyrat1 mentioned cable TV I wonder if most know that only 50% of the US population watches sports on TV but 40% of your cable bill pays for sports.

OK so back to the original question…..but modified. I'm not looking for free, never was, because I know someone, mostly the artist, needs to be paid so what's the most reasonable/ sheet music download service ?

 

[happyrat1]

There simply won't be that much variation in price between sheet music websites for individual songs simply because the publisher sets a price based on how popular the song happens to be and pretty much everyone sells for list.

If you're looking for bargains then your best bet is Amazon and look for collections by individual artists and groups marked down by their resellers.

Otherwise all the individual music websites pretty much price their stuff the same.

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

BTW, a simple Google search on "discount sheet music" comes up with all the major players in the first dozen hits or so.

https://www.google.ca/search?num=10...sedr...0...1.1.64.hp..1.20.3501.0.qzyGoFCd6H8

Musicnotes.com offers a 10% discount for a year on all their products if you pay them $7.99 up front.

https://www.musicnotes.com/digitalclub/

Otherwise, like I said earlier, in a nickel and dime business, nobody is getting rich selling sheet music at a buck a page.

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

$4 For a cup of coffee?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

What the hell? Are the beans grown in the toejam of Venezeulan Virgins?

As I write, the AUD is trading at about USD0.80. But regardless of that, welcome to Australia - we antipodeans pay way too much for everything that is imported. Don't get me started on software! Now you know why we steal everything. As far as Starbucks goes, would you believe their Aussie business model completely collapsed. They went from having coffee shops on every street corner to pretty much zero these days. Never liked their coffee much anyway.

I suspect you know chaps that my point wasn't really about the relative prices of coffee/whether you drink it or not/exchange rates/free trade agreements/Australian history, it was more "$4 is not a lot of money to pay for a piece of sheet music". Of course we could debate that point too, but for those of us who are lucky enough to live in Canada/USA/Australia/Other first world countries, you'd have a hard time convincing me that I'm wrong.

OK so back to the original question…..but modified. I'm not looking for free, never was, because I know someone, mostly the artist, needs to be paid so what's the most reasonable/ sheet music download service ?

I use Musicnotes, but there's plenty of other ones out there.