Best Music Books - The Indie Bible - Market Your Music to the World

Let’s say you’re a budding music star. Maybe you play the piano. Like most living humans, you probably have internet access of some kind. Sure, it’s great for sending messages to friends, streaming silly videos, and downloading every piece of software under the sun.

But what about getting onto the internet in a better fashion? Doctors use online patient-record systems. Researchers barely step into libraries anymore. Scientists harness the power of cloud computing. So why should you, an excellent pianist, not be given a chance to download the same quality stuff that the rest of them can?

A Smaller Market

Because digital piano music is quite a niche market, and only useful to a small number of people, its representation online has flagged.

It’s out of date. Just as we’re downloading books to our Kindles, why should digital piano music be left behind? Shouldn’t there at least be a dependable voice online for digital sheet music we can rely on?

One Fundamental Problem

If you thought music digital-rights-management was arcane, you should see some of the sites selling piano transcriptions.

Some ask you to have a flawless printer, because you will only have one measley opportunity to get a hard copy of what you’ve bought. If something goes wrong, you’re out of luck.

Other sites offering classical music have hugely altering standards when we look at their files. Sometimes you’ll download a PDF, other times a set of GIFs that don’t print properly, and sometimes you’ll be left with a proprietary DRM that’s generally useless.

Sites With Forums are The Way to Go

The only real way to make sure the piano transcriptions you’re downloading is proper is from the reviews of other musicians. If other budding stars are using the PDFs, and claiming that they are quality, you can buy with confidence.

One of the leading piano transcriptions portals, PianoStreet.com, has also put into place a large set of message boards around its offerings. To tell the truth, the site was born out of a pre-existing forum, called pianoforum.net, so the sale of piano transcriptions was something that they transitioned to, not a straight-up business from the start.

Audio Samples Are Crucial, Too

Why download and pay for sheet music if you can’t hear what they should sound like? Yeah, we admit, your piano teacher may have the chops to play it for you, but if you’re learning alone, you’ll need to find a real recording to hear how it should sound.

A real digital sheet music company should give you loads of mp3 recordings of what they offer, adding a ton of value to the transcribed music in the first place. Companies like PianoStreet.com have hundreds of their most typical easy/intermediate pieces online in mp3 format, the very ones that any fresh musician is dying to learn.

Pay Once, Download Forever

While it’s true that content producers are stalling as much as possible, many acknowledge that the way of the future lies in subscription models, where you will give a fixed rate and get unlimited access.

Companies like PianoStreet.com have adopted this for their business approach, providing monthly memberships that permit the user unlimited access to high-quality sheet music.

The Best Online Source for Sheet Music

So it’s not all terrible. A select few sites, led by PianoStreet.com’s examples, are changing the way digital sheet music will be sold in the future. Ignore the rest and only use the best!

Vanessa
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/a-better-way-to-buy-your-sheet-music-946888.html

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 2:12 pm and is filed under best music books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.