At 9:32 AM +0100 1/13/07, dc wrote:
Andrew Stiller écrit:
Big mistake. People don't value what they can
get for free. Even a nominal fee would generate
a much stronger response.
I'm sure any business school would say the same,
but in some cases they would be wrong. The cases
I'm thinking of is when what you do to pay the
bills is one thing, and what you do for the
enjoyment of it is another. A hobby, in other
words. And yes, there are people for whom
editing, arranging, or even composing music is a
hobby, they don't need to live off it, and they
may indeed offer it for free. And for many of us
music can be a profession, a business, and a
hobby all at once. I earned my living performing
for about 20 years, now earn it teaching what I
learned over that time, and am very active in
volunteer community music as a hobby.
Agreed. And people are sometimes right. When you
have a close look at music that you can get for
free, a lot of it is crap: very bad editions,
poorly engraved, often lifted off someone else's
work without even a mention, with very numerous
mistakes added (I'm talking about public domain
music).
The implication here is that "proper" published
music is all beautiful, all expertly edited and
all exquisitely engraved. ("Lifted off someone
else's work" and "public domain" are mutually
exclusive, in any case.)
There is generally no "quality control"
whatsoever such as one could hope to find with a
traditional publisher.
Tell that to the good folks on the OrchestraList
who have to deal with "quality control" that
involves innumerable errors, lists of
corrections, and just as wide a variety of
engraving practices. Especially French editions,
it seems. And the flip side of such quality
control is Permanently Out Of Print! That's a
business decision, too.
This also contributes to the devaluation of any
good work one could do for free.
Oh? I believe I can still do good work even if
there are others who don't. Why should I think
otherwise?
And then, there is another drawback: that means
no publisher in his right mind will ever bring
out this music on paper, so it will never make
it into libraries, etc. And, if the edition
turns out to be unsatisfactory, for whatever
reason, there probably will never be a good one
to replace it.
Well, if the free stuff is as bad as you say, the
people who want better will be willing to pay for
it. You can't have it both ways!
The "market" is just too small for "minor" composers.
The market is too small for classical music in
general, or hasn't anyone noticed?! Although
Kalmus and Luck's aren't going broke, and Dover
seems to be doing well. He wasn't even talking
about classical music, of course, but wasn't it
Sol Hurok who said, "If the music business was a
business it couldn't stay in business!"? But we
keep plugging along.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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