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4a. What am I paying for?
Posted by: "Dan" flyingfort05@... flyingfort05
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2009 3:51 pm ((PDT))

I'm really confused.

If I go to http://A-cappella.com and place an order for sheet music,
it's $2.75 a copy. If I go to an arranger's site it's usually around
fifty bucks!

This huge difference in price doesn't make sense. What else am I
paying for?


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4b. Re: What am I paying for?
Posted by: "MichaelB" mike@... estanleyault
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:22 pm ((PDT))

I've been there and asked the same question. The answer is most
likely nothing. You are most likely only contributing to the
arranger's bank account. Not that that is a bad thing. Barbershop
arranging is rarely a profitable venture. In fact, vocal arranging
of any style is rarely a profitable venture.

However, somehow it scratches an itch that I share with many others.

Mike Bell
Unprofitable Arranger

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4c. Re: What am I paying for?
Posted by: "willhamblet" willhamblet@... willhamblet
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:35 pm ((PDT))

It's an old economic principle called, "what the market will
bear"... or "if people will pay it, it must be worth it."

Your call.

Will

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4d. Re: What am I paying for?
Posted by: "tpblead" tpbuell@... tpblead
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:11 pm ((PDT))

I would think that it is also a volume concept. At A-capella.com,
they may sell thousands of copies of an arrangement, but an
unaffiliated arranger sells many fewer, so it takes a higher price
per unit to pay for the time and resources invested in creating
the arrangement.

It is the same principle that makes a toilet seat for the space
shuttle cost $600. It is not the cost of the components, but the
cost of the engineering. Go in your bathroom and find out if your
toilet has an airtight, watertight seal and will allow you to flush
in zero-G. When you are making 50 million units, you can spread the
engineering costs out a lot further than if you are making 12 units.

Tim Buell

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4e. Re: What am I paying for?
Posted by: "Joe Johnson" bbshopmusic@... bbshopmusic
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:24 pm ((PDT))

Nobody makes a living at writing barbershop arrangements, not even
the top arrangers. It just isn't that big a business. The arranger's
fee simply helps to make the hobby pay for itself. We don't make
anything on the per copy fees unless we own the copyright on the
arrangement. But most of the songs we arrange are under copyright
by another publisher, so we don't get jack from the sale of copies.

But it's really not about money anyway. Some arrangers charge more,
some charge less, and some don't charge at all. Some of us give
certain arrangements away and charge for others. While we all do
this primarily as a labor of love, some of us need the extra money
and some of us don't. I'm one of those who do.

While there are less expensive ways to get sheet music,
many barbershoppers don't mind paying a modest fee for a good
arranger's skills and talents. Most of my revenue comes from
custom arrangements commissioned by specific quartets and choruses,
and they pay a lot more than the flat fee for a stock arrangement.


JOE JOHNSON

House of Joseph Music
www.bbsmusic.com
House of Joseph Easels
www.houseofjosepheasels.com


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4g. Re: What am I paying for?
Posted by: "Djbqpa@..." Djbqpa@...
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:16 am ((PDT))

In a message dated 10/10/09 8:25:08 PM, bbshopmusic@... writes:
>
> While there are less expensive ways to get sheet music, many
> barbershoppers don't mind paying a modest fee for a good arranger's skills and
talents.
> Most of my revenue comes from custom arrangements commissioned by specific
> quartets and choruses, and they pay a lot more than the flat fee for a
> stock arrangement.
>
- - - - - - - - - -

And, it may be added, much of the 'fee' is consumed by getting the
rights to make a chart - no matter WHO pays for it.

In my NSHO - the rage over the past several years to make individual
Chorus/QuartetCDs, etc., has had an extremely costly impact on our
Society arrangers/composers. There are those of us who can recall
quite modest sums for charting BBShop ARRs. That was when the
ASCAP folks knew we were an amateur organization not involved in
the publishing/recording/marketing business to such a degree as we
are in today's music world.

Actually there has always been individual Quartets (in the earlier
years of our Society) who made records. I can recall some of the
great ones in earlier years - "Flying W Ranch", "Four Chorders",
and, of course, the "Buffalo Bills" - just to name a few.

And, in fact, some of our arrangers and performers are involved
in the recording studio business. They can attest to both the cost
and the profit realized from such ventures.

Anyway, I'm reminded of the similarity of what's going on in the
music business today and the theme of a very familiar movie of a
few years back - "If You Build It, We (ASCAP?) Will Come!"

(8^D)

Dick Johnson
Great Falls, MT