Following extensive consultation, PRS for Music has announced its revised live classical music tariff, effective from 1 September 2023Making Music,...
We know finding affordable sheet music can be difficult so we thought we would take this opportunity to remind your about our Music Exchange and music publishers' discounts
The Music Exchange
The Music Exchange is part of our Music Bank and is a way of members sharing sheet music with each other and reducing the cost of buying and hiring music. It works on a ‘by the members for the members’ basis.
So if, for example, ‘Group A’ has 200 copies of John Rutter’s Gloria that they want to make available to other groups, they can put details on the Music Exchange (publishers, edition number of copies etc.).
Then ‘Group B’ comes along looking for copies of Gloria - they search the Music Bank and see that there are 200 copies available from Group A. Group B can then contact Group A and make arrangements (incidentally there are currently over 550 copies of Gloria listed on the Music Exchange). You can find out more about the Music Exchange in our Resources library.
The legal part
As many of you will be aware, issues around copyright and the use of purchased and hired music can be tricky. The Music Exchange, with the consent of the UK Music Publishers Association, works on the grounds that, and this is the important bit, any sheet music exchanged between groups is done on a lending, rather than hiring, basis. The key point being that it cannot be an income generating exercise for a group. You can charge postage and packaging and a small and reasonable admin fee but nothing more.
Programme Notes
Another feature of the Music Bank is Programme Notes – over 4,000 detailed programme notes are available for free download for use in your concert programmes. As with the Music Exchange the Programme Notes are submitted by members for other members to use.
How you can contribute
Both the Music Exchange and Programme Notes are services that require members to contribute to make them successful. Whilst our current listings are good, we are always looking to expand them. So if you have any sheet music you wish to make available please email musicexchange@makingmusic.org.uk with the details and for Programme Notes please mail to prognotes@makingmusic.org.uk.
Publishers Discounts
As we are discussing sheet music this also seems like a good opportunity to remind you about special member discounts we have negotiated with Oxford University Press, Josef Weinberger and Edition Peters who have a range of offers on hiring various works. You can find full details in our Resources library. Music publisher discounts is an area we would like to expand. If you have any feedback on the discounts currently offered or the sort of discounts you would like to see offered in the future please email us.
