RE: Do we need Publishers?

[Jewish Music Institute <jewishmusic...>]

The Jewish Music Institute is considering opening a 'Publishing Arm'.  The 
purpose would
be to establish a prestigious 'stable', associated with London University and 
through
working with Judy Pinnolis associated with Brandeis University, for significant 
Jewish
music publications, be they monographs, books, music or whatever.  We already 
have a
Record Label and our next imminent CD issue is Majer Bogdanski's 'Yideshe 
Lider'. We can
consider both printed and electronic publishing.  We already have Jewish Music
Distribution, which distributes CDs and Jewish Music Books, widely to both 
retail
customers, niche marketing to Jewish museums and shops as well as to major 
retailers. If
we have other materials, JMD can be expanded to cope. Now that we are marketing 
our
Keynote, JMI cataloguing system, we are developing powerful internet marketing 
tools.

I wonder whether any list members would be interested in offering items for 
publication,
sitting on our editorial board or offering any advice, either online or 
off-line.
Best wishes

Geraldine
Geraldine Auerbach
Jewish Music Institute
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
c/o P O Box 232, Harrow, HA1 2NN
Tel 020 8909 2445   Fax 020 8909 1030
E-mail jewishmusic (at) jmi(dot)org(dot)uk
Website www.jmi.org.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org [mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) 
shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of
Ari Davidow
Sent: 07 June 2000 13:00
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: Do we need Publishers?

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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