On Giving My Music Away for Free…
One of the more difficult conversations I have regularly with other composers is regarding how performers, conductors and promoters access my music – how can an intrepid high-school choir from Iowa or an adventurous choral society from Ipswich get a copy of my latest offering into their delicate and nuanced hands? This is as question as old as time, well not really, but certainly a pertinent question since the advent of music publishing or maybe even a concern of composers from an even earlier epoch as well. I guess it boils down to three key questions: How do choirs find my music? How do they get copies of my music? How does anyone make any money from this venture? I have a view on this (this should not come as a surprise as I’m writing a blog post about it) and often I find my view is at odds with my composer colleagues. Let me explain…
So, I should begin by saying I have no problem with the idea of music publishing – some of my pieces are published by leading publishing houses, but the majority of my work is not. Music publishers do a great job, promote some lovely music and represent some wonderful composers (many of whom are my friends and colleagues). But they can’t publish everything, and nor should they. Most of my music is self-published, which is a very grand way of saying ‘available for free download on my website’ – this is the way I have operated for the last ten or so years, and it has generally worked quite well for me. But I know this isn’t for everyone. Many composers I know also self-publish in a similar fashion, with similar degrees of success and prominence and this is where the friction begins. I choose to have my works available for free – download one copy, download 100 copies of every piece, the choice is yours! I don’t expect to make any money from these downloads, I just hope that someone interested in my work might be able to access the scores easily and decide to perform them, simple as that.
But why shouldn’t I ask for some sort of payment for these works? Why should I not expect some sort of recompense for my hard work and endeavour – should this choir from Iowa want to buy a published piece, they would expect to pay a certain amount for the product – why should I not expect the same? This is a very good question, and this is the one that I face most often from composer colleagues – there are easy mechanisms to install payment options on my website, why not take advantage of them? Well, the answer is twofold: firstly, I’m fairly technophobic and lazy, secondly, that that would remove the ease of access to the music and the openness to performers of all standards and budgets. Some composer colleagues find this the most challenging – ‘demeaning the profession’ said one, ‘devaluing all my hard work’ said another – I sort of agree, but I can assure them that I meant no ill with my decision, it was based purely on my own beliefs and assumptions for self-promotion and access of materials.
I’m lucky that I work in a university, and the salary I get from this employment is overwhelmingly the majority of my income – I have the ‘luxury’ of not needing to make a full living from my composing (and let’s be honest, if I did, I would be writing very different music or working as an investment banker) and any money I do make is in addition to other income. Not everyone is in the same situation, nor wants to be, it is completely understandable that they should want to make money from their labour. But that doesn’t mean I should have to. Though of course, I do like making money from my music…
I guess it is all personal choice – the days of assuming a publisher would sweep in and take my whole catalogue of works, promote them, then acquire future commissions that benefit me and them is over for all but the fortunate few. I would love to be in that situation, if only for the professional prestige and the promotion of my works, but I am not losing sleep waiting for this to happen. The ‘open access’ approach has served me well for a while, I don’t make any money in sales of scores, but I have regular performances from choirs and ensembles who have found the music, downloaded it, and performed it for the price of some paper and ink. And some of those choirs have come back and commissioned new pieces from me, and I have made some money. It is an odd business model, but it is one that has worked for me so far. One of the greatest thrills I find as a composer is that someone, somewhere in the world has performed some of my music and it came from a free download on my website. I know this isn’t perfect, and it isn’t for everyone, but having my music actually performed is why I’m a composer. Why would I want to change that?
PAC