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A MESSAGE FROM THE OWNER OF FREE PDF
SHEET MUSIC
I want to thank all of you who have visited Free PDF Sheet
Music over the years and to let you know about the changes that are
happening at Free PDF Sheet Music.
Having been a music teacher
and involved in the music industry at many levels for the last 30 years, it
has always been my ultimate goal to bring you digital sheet music and music
educational resources as inexpensively as possible.
That is why I offer thousands
of public domain files for you at
www.sheetmusicdigital.com,
www.freedigitalsheetmusic.com
and our new site
www.mymusicschool.com which will be
an education resource for teachers, students and all music lovers.
We want to build the largest
public domain resource library for you as we feel if the sheet music is not
under copyright or license restrictions, then you should be able to get
these and all other file types for free. However, offering the files for
free does not generate any revenue and we need to be able to cover the costs
of maintaining a site like this and to be make a profit. (something that has
not happened in the last 5 years)
At the same time, we strongly
respect and abide by the laws of copyright and license agreements. We have
worked hard to establish long-term relationships with the music publishers
like Hal Leonard and we know if a song is copyright protected or under a
license - then everyone should pay.
We often get emails from customers asking why we don't offer these copyright
selections for free. The answer is very simple:
Imagine what would happen if you and I wrote a hit song. We would want to
get paid when someone prints this song as that is how we would earn our
livelihood. If these songs are printed for free, then we are taking away
'copyright' revenues that the artist and publishers would earn - and to us -
that is not fair.
What we do is pay the appropriate license fees and still bring you these
licensed songs as inexpensively as we can. What then happens is the amount
of profit we make per song is very minimal - but all the license fees are
paid and you get a lower price on the purchase.
However,
there is a huge cost in maintaining a site like this. Below are just a
few examples:
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There is large monthly
investment in service costs and bandwidths to offer the thousands of
public sheet music downloads that happen every month. We do not limit
the number of downloads you can make per day as we know you usually need
these sheet music files right away for situations such as teaching your
students, using for a church service or playing at a family or friends
party!
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As mentioned above, by
bringing you the digital sheet music at low prices, we only make a small
amount on each score you purchase from our site as the majority goes
directly back to license and copyright fees. This model will be
successful as long as the number of sales are high.
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Programming is needed on a
daily basis to update and maintain database information and scripting to
make your experience as enjoyable and seamless as possible. We work on
different aspects of the site every day, often based on your feedback
and suggestions.
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We strive to do our best
to give you the best customer service possible, (as many of you already
know) and this requires our full attention. (have a look at just a few
of our unsolicited
testimonials)
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We have
also made large investments in time and money to engrave digital sheet
music so that we can offer it to you in as many different formats as
possible like PDF, Scorch, Midi, Sibelius, Finale and XML. These are
valued resources for teachers, students and musicians and any Platinum
member can get these files for free! This is why we encourage others to
upload
public domain files to help build this library to the biggest it can be.
The bottom line is we have subsidized our sites with our own personal funds
(nearly $400,000 to date) since starting Sheet Music Digital in 2004 and we
have yet to turn a single penny of profit.
I am still very confident that we will reach a point where licensed sales,
membership fees will reach a level where the site can subsist on its own
because so many of you that I have spoken to have told me how much you enjoy
the services and music offered.
Once I have
reached the point where the site can turn a profit on its own, and it will
as the word gets out and more schools, churches, music teachers and music
lovers use our site, then I will remove this support/donation page.
Our first
goal is to raise $30,000 which will be used to pay publishers, server
costs and other operating costs such as moving to newer and faster servers
to make your time finding and downloading music as quick and as easy as
possible!
This $30,000
will be raised through your
donations
or by you purchasing and inexpensive
lifetime Platinum membership.
I wish you
all the best of success in 2010 and I thank you for taking the time to read
this and hope that you are able to help!
Michael
Daly
Owner
Sheet Music Digital
Free PDF Sheet Music
My Music School
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