If the client purchases the music because they want us to perform a certain piece, they own the music, not us.  I would never expect to be allowed to keep the music.  If we wish to keep it, we pay for it.

 

David

Hi, Simon.

 

I have to ask why you believed what you did, yet did not include the cost of the music in your contract.  Now that the agreement has been accepted, it's too late to make ex post facto changes.

 

But I would have to ask, how do you usually handle music purchases?  Our Master Chorale here usually has individual choir members purchase their own copies, which then, of course, belong to the individual choristers.  If you have an educational choir, the more normal practice would be for the school or music department to budget for music purchase and then keep the copies for future use.  But since you mention your "Committee," I assume that this is not an educational choir.

 

I've been involved in only one similar situation, which may or may not suggest something to you.  For 10 years my university show ensemble produced a Christmas program (and yes, here in the Bible Belt we could call it a Christmas program!) as a fundraiser for our local Christmas Store.  Production expenses came off the top, and then we split the remainder 50-50 with the Christmas Store.  Over 10 years we contributed about $25,000 to them.

 

But in that situation, we several times had The Singing Children of Blacksburg as our guest performers, a children's choir made up of kids from 6 area churches who got together for a Festival with a guest conductor in the Spring.  And in this case I considered the purchase of music for those choirs to be a production expense.  We paid it and the choir directors were specifically told that they could keep the music for their own choirs' use.  (Since my late wife was one of the directors, this policy almost went without saying!)

 

The bottom line, I guess, is that assumptions don't mean much unless they are spelled out in an agreement that is understood, IN ADVANCE, by all parties.  And in your particular case, I have to agree with David that whoever paid for the music, owns the music.  In the future you may want to negotiate in advance, and you might or might not get what you feel your choir is entitled to.  But that's for the future.

 

John

 

 

Simon

 

It's obviously too late for this occasion, but in my view, if the purchase of sheet music is a significant cost involved in providing the service, it would be appropriate to factor it into the fee.  If you want the music to belong to become part of the choir's library, the cost falls to the choir.  (Perhaps you can recoup some of the outlay through the choirmusichire system.)

 

Regards

 

Helen Duggan

 

 

John Howell covered it very well.  I had one question:  Does the client-in-question actually want the music?  What would they do with it?  If they want it and paid for it then they shoud get to keep it. Perhaps they would not have any use for the music.

Just talk to the client; it is his money, but he may not mind you keeping the music...

Thank you everyone for your replies. The feedback here and from others in the last 24 hours has changed my mind about the ethics of my original position.

 

 

 When the Bach Choir had a brief time of singing for weddings, our contract included the costs for any music acquired at the direction of the wedding party.  Since the client has paid for it, they are entitled to the return of the music, but when asked, the music is of no particular value to the wedding party, aside from perhaps keeping one copy for a scrapbook, and the music isn't taken by them.

 

In my own wedding policies, I have the same policy when I am asked to play a particular piece for a wedding.  People generally leave the music with me, when I ask if they would like a return.  In one case, when the piece that was needed had to come from a book that had many pieces I thought I would use, I offered the party the choice of paying for the entire book, and keeping it after the wedding (they do have musicians in the family) or paying half the cost of the book and permitting me to keep the book. They chose the latter, and that seemed to be a good situation for all parties at that time.

 

Nan Beth Walton

Speaking as a business owner who often charges "fee plus costs," and also as a librarian, and also as a choral singer:

 

1 - Always negotiate and agree on all costs and conditions before you finalize any agreement. No one likes surprises.

 

2 - Your client is paying you for a service,  -- a performance -- not for a stack of music. Consider the purchase as part of your overhead expenses.  Do not waste your time, and your client's, on discussions about the purchase and dispostion of supplies, which is really what the music is in this situation. (Not to  mention copyright issues, if they do apply - I don't know.)

 

3 - If the client asks for music not in your repertoire, and if you agree to provide the service of singing that new music, it's up to you to price that service appropriately; then the client can decide whether or not to hire you on those terms. In other words, charge for the service, and include your costs in your fee. If your fee is, say, $500, and you know you will need to spend $50 on music, tell your client that you can do the job for $550. You buy the music, and it becomes part of your library. No need to discuss these incidental costs with the client. And consider that once you open discussion on the cost of music or any other supplies or expenses, you are inviting quibbiling over costs. Not worth it.

Does your dentist tell you how much your amalgam materials cost? No - you just pay the single fee for the service of having your tooth filled. (sorry, that was the first metaphor that sprang to mind!) Only in rare cases, I think, will a client want an itemized report of expenses.

  

Hope this helps. It works for me in my self-owned-and-operated service businesses (one is research consuting, the other is a program annotation service).

Sarah

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