There is also a "print on command" function that some sellers use. It does
not deliver pdfs but gives the buyer the ability to print one copy on his
or her printer. You can see this at places like
http://www.musicnotes.com/
which I have used a few times to get pop songs I needed quickly. It works
quite well. There are usually some free songs at these sites if you want
to try it out.
This is less attractive than are pdfs to the buyer but can still be
obtained nearly instantly. The advantages to the seller are obvious, but I
have no idea how to set something like this up.
The bad part of this is less choice for the buyer. I recently attempted to
buy an orchestration for a church anthem at J W Pepper.com. (I do most of
the arrangements for church myself and email pdfs of parts to a few of the
players ahead of time. I confess that I thought if I downloaded the
orchestration I thought I might email pdfs of a few of the individual parts
to individual players, which is a violation but likely not one to cause a
piracy problem). I paid the same price as I would have for the printed
music (minus shipping), then went to the menu to print. But I didn't print
it - if I had started the print operation it would have automatically
printed multiple copies of each of the 12-page string parts (for string
players I don't have in my church) that it had decided I needed, etc. etc -
I could have blown a good part of my toner cartridge on this piece, just
for the benefit of having it a few days early. I cancelled the on-line
order - if I am paying the same price I will use their ink and paper.
Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist, Louisville Orchestra
Minister of Music, Edwardsville (IN) UMC
Composer, Arranger
VISIT US AT rayhortonmusic.com
On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:48 PM, Ryan <ry.squa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm curious about the price difference also. Granted, the expense of paper
> and ink/toner are not applicable when distributing PDFs, but I would think
> that the real value is the content, not the physical materials.
>
> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Paul Hayden <phayden...@cox.net> wrote:
>
> > Wow -- great replies! Your comments bring up a couple of other issues:
> >
> > 1. I assume that PDFs should be priced lower than paper copies. If
> they're
> > not, I would think there would be a greater incentive to pirate the PDF
> > rather than just buy your own copy. Does 50% lower sound right?
> >
> > 2. Adam Engst (TidBITS founder) was kind enough to offer some advice:
> > don't bother password protecting your PDFs -- they're easily removed.
> Even
> > so, he said that it's probably a good idea to stamp (in Acrobat) the PDF
> > with the price and buyer's name. This is similar to what Christopher
> Smith
> > wrote ("This score and set of parts is for the exclusive use of [the
> > buyer]").
> >
> > Paul Hayden
> >
> >
> > Magnolia Music Press
> > <www.paulhayden.com>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Finale@shsu.edu
> > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
> >
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