Both rental and purchase have their good points and their bad points: Sale leaves the music in the hands of the performers so that any future performance fees you get will be filtered through a P.R.O. (which will take its fee!) if you are a member, or will be totally nonexistent if you aren't a member and don't know when the future performances might be. But then you aren't left with inventory (which technically is taxable as stock-on-hand) and the expense of keeping it stored and keeping track of it.
Rental guarantees that you get your performance fee each time since you would naturally build that into the rental fee. Of course, if the performing group has an annual license with the P.R.O. you would also get a tiny performance royalty as your royalty payment from the P.R.O. You can control each performance, so that if an obviously inferior group which you don't want embarassing you with a performance wants to rent it, you can conveniently tell them that it is currently rented and is already booked for the next three years, so the earliest they can rent it would be [fill in a date that they probably won't be interested in]. But you then have a lot of bookkeeping to do, you have to contact the renting organization if the music isn't returned on time, you have the added aggravation of having to replace damaged or missing parts and you have stock to maintain (and declare on your taxes). Each has its good points and its bad points. Since you are asking this on the Finale list, it would appear as if you can generate the parts on demand, so maintaining stock may not be an issue. For your specific questions -- YES, you would come up with a boilerplate contract which would have blanks for the name of the piece, the dates the organization would receive the music from you by, and the dates the organization would return the music to you by (stipulate shipping method and stipulate insurance). It would contain the rental fee, (which in my estimation you need to receive BEFORE shipping the music), and specific extra charges ($xxx per week the music is late, $xxx for each part which is returned unusable or lost, $xxx for any extra performances which might be added, $xxx if the music is entirely lost) which might accrue. There would be blanks for a represntative of the organization to sign and date, and the contract would be returned to you WITH A CHECK before the music could be shipped. Yes, the parts will be returned to you, if it is a rental. It is just like renting a rototiller -- you go to a store, pay the money, get the rototiller to use for a specific period of time, you return the rototiller, they don't charge your credit card for the price of the rototiller. Substitute the word Music for Rototiller and you see the concept is the same. You SHOULD, in my opinion, offer for sale as a separate purchase, the score. Checking in the Luck's Music catalog or the Kalmus Catalogue can be pretty revealing about the various pricing schemes you might want to follow. One thing to keep perfectly clear in your mind at all times: Music is ART. Business is BUSINESS. Music Business is BUSINESS which offers ART as its commodity. Music Business is NOT ART which has money attached. Be sure you keep a good business mind working clearly! That is one of the things that most music schools don't teach music students, unfortunately. Eric wrote: > Greetings all, > > I was wondering if anyone could offer any guidance or advice regarding > offering one's music for rental vs. purchase? > > I will soon be premiering a piece that I (optimistically!) expect to > generate some interest for a limited market. I was wondering if I should > offer it for rental rather than purchase? I don't really > understand any of the legal or marketing nuances that may differ between > purchase and rental. Logically, it would seem that for pieces with > limited marketability, rental is the way to go. > > However..., > > -Does one draw up some sort of generic "boilerplate" contract specifying > the number of performances permitted by the rental fee? > > -Does the end user return the set of score and parts to me? If not, how > does it differ from purchase? > > Thank you in advance for any help or guidance you can offer. > > Best wishes, > Eric Richards > ================== > ERIC RICHARDS > Composer - Arranger > Trombone - MIDI > > For information on music for jazz ensemble: > > UNC (University of Northern Colorado) JAZZ PRESS: > http://arts.unco.edu/uncjazz/jazzpress/composerlist.html > > C.L. BARNHOUSE CO. > http://www.clbarnhouse.com > > "It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by > bolts of lightning." > Calvin (the cartoon character, not the Reformed theologian) > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
