[TPIN] Sheet music service.

[William Graham]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <STEVENLSCHAFFNER at cs.com>
To: <tpin at tpin.okcu.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 6:38 AM
Subject: [TPIN] Sheet music service.


> Hello all.
>
> Just a brief note about sheet music retailers.
>
> Many don't accept returns because they find that after a customer walks 
> out
> of their store with their purchase (or receives it in the mail) it is
> photocopied and then returned. Since sheet music dealers cannot return 
> music to a
> publisher unless it is defective, they take the hit.
>
> Now, obviously ALL brass players don't photocopy and return music, but I 
> have
> been called to sub in brass quintets where MY OWN PUBLICATIONS have been 
> put
> in front of me, and they are PHOTOCOPIES. The morons who do this don't 
> even
> care if I know they are stealing my music.
>
> In fact, I have almost ceased publishing brass music entirely because of
> this. I have found that choral music is a better way to make money for me 
> as a
> publisher, since most choral directors don't have the time or inclination 
> to
> stand in front of a photocopier for an hour in order to save 30 or 40 
> dollars and
> risk a fine.
>
> Perhaps this will change at some point, but publishing and selling serious
> music for brass is a marginal business at best. You can tell by the number 
> of
> retailers disappearing year after year and the consolidations in the 
> publishing
> business. How many times does one see that J. W. Pepper has just bought an
> independent dealer? Well, they are only buying the profitable ones. Look 
> at all
> the stores that close with no replacement.
>
> Steven L. Schaffner

I have never copied music and then tried to return it. No have I copied it 
and then tried to sell the copies to someone else.
    But, after buying it and paying for it, I feel that it is my right to 
copy it and mark it up as the music director wants, for my own purposes. And 
or copy it into my computer and change the key to match the horn(s) that I 
am going to play it on. To make laws preventing this is disingenuous and 
just plain stupid. These are the kinds of laws that are made to be broken, 
and so I do.