Re: Do we need Publishers?

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

-- Budowitz Home Page: http://www.merlinms.dircon.co.uk/budowitz/

Amen. Josh


> At 09:35 AM 6/7/00 -0400, you wrote:
>>In this day and age, with computers, kinkos, cd burners. Do we really need to
>>waste time with rejections and publishers? If Josh puts his music on Finale,
>>Copied and bound it nice, sold it on his web site. He'd get to keep most of
>>the $20-30 he could sell it for. instead of $.50-1.00 he will get if a
>>publisher puts it out. We get new and different music, the author gets
>>compensated. We all would benefit.
>
> Well, there are lots of reasons why publishers could be a preferred route.
> One is the possibility of reasonable production, with the money fronted by
> the publisher, and hopefully done to professional standards. As Josh's
> recent cD experience highlights, going through a known publisher isn't a
> =guarantee= of professionalism, though.
>
> There is also the question of distribution. Those of us who know Josh, and
> those of us who are savvy enough to ask the right question of the right
> search engine might find his material on the web, but most people would
> find it better were it already on the shelf at the local music store.
>
> Publishers also add credibility. Getting music published through a known
> publisher is a good way to ensure that many (most? all?) libraries with
> music collections will acquire copies, where the music can be seen by
> students and researchers.
>
> There is also a presumption of 'yikhes'. Scholarly material published
> through a scholarly publisher is presumed vetted and legitimate and
> professionally transcribed. No one would attach similar credibility to
> scholarly material published independently in all but the most unusual of
> circumstances.
>
> Finally, publishers handle distribution and publicity (not always well, but
> that's another question). Assuming reasonable success, spending more time
> than one wants, but not enough time to hire someone competent, at filling
> packages, adding appropriate postage, and so on is another series of
headaches.
>
> None of these are necessarily critical. If you look at the "vendors" page
> on the KlezmerShack, you'll find a host of people who have published good
> klezmer books. But that still doesn't make it the useful solution for
> everyone or for all material.
>
> And it still doesn't change the bitter humor of this particularly stupid
> publisher, who will some day rank with the person at Decca (?) who thanked
> the Beatles but couldn't see how or where they were going to be a significant
band.
>
> ari
>
> Ari Davidow
> ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
> list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/
>
>
> 

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