This is an idea which is far from my possibilities to implement, but I'd like to spread out as far as possible among musicians.
- Composers and arrangers always face big difficulties to find an editor, print their music, distribute it and collect their royalties. Photocopies are the most common way of circulation of music of every kind.
- These days it is fairly easy to include digital data in a music CD. That data may consist in an Adobe Acrobat format, or general MIDI format, or both formats, for the sheet music included in the sound CD.
- Why not raising the price of the CD a little, and include the full score ? I bet that many people will appreciate it, for many reasons: to follow the music, to learn the song, and possibly play and sing the songs in private or public places (of course, public performance involves other royalties which would remain as they are)
Thus, composers and arrangers would see their music easily spread out to the world, independently from music stores (who can´t claim any rights on this), from Internet access, and from the ominous photocopy. Myself (and the people I talked to) would be more than motivated to buy those CDs, and pay 1 or 2 dollars more, if we can add those songs to our repertoire in an absolutely legal and easy transaction. I bet that extra dollar would be MUCH more significant than the money they could make by editing and distributing the music sheets.
If you like the idea, please contact your CD editors.
You owe my one pint of Guinnes. Or two.
Un abrazo - Andrés