publishing

Here's my question... and I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this or not, but I can't find it anywhere else. I'm interested in the possibility of either trying to find a publisher to publish some of my sheet music, or some way to record a professional cd, and I was wondering if anyone out there had experience with getting a professional product out on the market, and if there was any advice about how to go about this?

Thanks!

In order to get published by someone else, you probably should get a professional recording, and then distribute that recording to publishers. There are many recording studios around, just check which one is suitable for your type of music. They are expensive though. I am sure you know that I also offer a service to record midi, in case your interested. But I am not writing this as an advertisement, only as help. Big publishers are located in NYC, Nashville, and I think LA. Obviously, you need to find a publisher in your genre. If you compose classical music, you don't want to send your cd to a publisher who is looking for pop music.

There is a book called "Song Writer's Market". You can get this book online, or a bookstore. Make sure you get the latest edition, 2005. This book will contain hundreds of publishers with all different kinds of genres. What you need to do is send a recording to the address provided in those books, and wait patiently. They may call you in 3 or 4 months, or never. Make sure you send to alot of different publishers, not just one or 2. That is my suggestion to you. Better yet, why don't you find email addresses of publishing companies and send your link to your mp3 through an email? This is much faster, and you can send out 100 or 200 emails. It wouldn't be spamming, since you are not selling a product. Make sure you send the emails one by one, so there is a less chance of being filtered in junk mail.

Also, what type of music do you compose? In my case, my ultimate goal would be to hire a pianist to play in a place like Carnegie Hall. If I pay money to the pianist, and if performance slots are available, I will get a chance to let people hear my music, rather than to rely on luck, which I won't do since it wastes time. You can do the same thing to speed up luck, depending on how much money you have, and what type of music you write. If its an orchestra, that may be a bit tough though. Keep in mind, NEVER pay a publisher money. I am talking about paying a performer, which is MUCH different. This payment for performance pretty much guarantees you a time slot, if it is offered. Note, that this is just a chance to gain recognition. For example, this idea can be a complete expense. It is a gamble, and sort of like advertising. Instead of paying for commercial space, you pay for a performance slot. Make sure you know your audience, that is very important when choosing a performance area.

I know you probably heard this before, but you do have the ability to publish your own music. If you use Finale or Sibelius, you can take your scores and make a professional looking book yourself. It will cost some money, but not much to make your own book, and you get to keep the rights to your music. Then you can use the internet to promote your music. There is something called "google adwords" and you can target visitors that way. You can set up a store to sell your sheet music this way, with of course, free demos of what your music sounds like to encourage a purchase.

If you don't do this yourself, your agent, if he takes you on, will most likely do the things I mentioned. He may not have any luck. If he does have luck, he takes a percentage of your deserved earnings. So I would do this either by yourself, or find some type of online website that will promote your music, such as sibeliusmusic dot com, or others. You can sell sheet music through that site.

To be honest, its tough getting recognized through a publisher. You have to be beautiful and have a great body in this day and age, or have a type of "look" that is in the best interest of your agent, which is completely not what you are looking for. If your music is good, and you feel it deserves to be published, do it yourself, get it out online, use Young Composers, perhaps go to music colleges and distribute your CD's, and surround yourself by musicians. Young Composers is 100% musicians which is a good start. Try colleges as your next step, if you are that serious.

Publishing is bad. It's essentially a way for people to take half your profits and do no work. Do your own publishing. Get a recording done, and then distribute it in the form of a library CD or as MP3's on a website.

Edit: Which is essentially what he said, so I'mma shut up now... :P