Klarinet Archive - Posting 000278.txt from 2009/02

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Fair Use
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:49:43 -0500

A third option, it seems to me, would be to make their profit in the
professional market from fees for performing and mechanical rights. Those
fees are, I think (I'm not involved in the business end of any professional
group) based on the performances' projected income (ticket price and number
of tickets at full capacity). I know from my own experience producing school
shows that the performance rights fee (above the basic rental fee) for
Broadway shows is scaled in this way.

Of course, I suppose the fear could be that an orchestra or theater, if they
could buy the materials outright, would simply not report performances and
defeat the purpose of the performance rights fees. I'm not sure that's
different from using Xeroxes in the first place, probably with a similar
chance of catching unauthorized use of the material - perhaps the chance of
catching violations would be increased since public performances must be
publicly advertized.

One of the more trivial outcomes of the rental system is the inability of
interested players to get parts on their own for practice and advance
preparation. As a personal example, I'm playing a performance of the
Dumbarton Oaks Concerto in March and would like to have been able to get a
part sooner than the rental material will be available through the
orchestra. I *was* able to buy a study score, but it isn't as easy to
practice the parts from that as it would have been from a full size part.

Karl

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Nichols [mailto:mrn.clarinet@-----.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 10:15 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Fair Use
>
> On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 7:35 AM, David Blumberg <blummy@-----.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Then there's the rental issue. Why rentals even exist boggles me.
>
> It probably has something to do with there being a limited market for
> the sheet music. If a work is going to be performed pretty much
> exclusively by professional-level ensembles (a lot of rental pieces
> are like this), that seriously limits the market for purchased sheet
> music to that work, because once one of these orchestras (let's say)
> purchases one of these works, they put it in their library and never
> have to buy it again. ...
>
> Now there are two ways of dealing with this. You can jack the price
> up, so you don't have to sell as many copies....
>
> The other option is rental. You can potentially charge a little less
> per rental than you would for purchase, but, in exchange, you get
> repeat customers, because they have to pay every time they perform the
> piece.

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