The answer to your first question is no. Once you legitimately own a copy of something, you can loan it, rent it, or resell it without further compensation to the author.

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#109

Peggy:  First question:  No, there is no legal issue in lending or borrowing music that has been legally purchased and not photcopied.

 

Second and third questions:  The policy is entirely up to you, unless your Department or your University has a preemptive policy.  But if the requests have become burdensome, perhaps a nice letter explaining the situation would be best all around.

 

All the best,

John

Hi Peggy,

 

I read your post earlier in the day and have been thinking about it ever since.  Since both Allen and John have told you you can do what you wish with the actual music, the problem is really how can you loan your music, keep track of it and get it back without too much hassle. You're a good person who wants to keep your grads happy and encouage good  music choices but you don't need the grief.  I hear you.

 

When I was an undergrad, I became essentially an assistant to the director of choral activities.  What I really did was organize the choral library, collate and arrange chairs for rehearsals and music stands and other busy work.  I learned a lot from the  "scut work" and while a few classmates looked down their noses at me, I saw how things came together. Sooooooo, get your own assistant or two (and I wasn't paid)and put them in charge of the music borrowing. Make up your own form and, of course, you would approve--or not--who borrows what when and for how long.  Your students would put the packages together to send and would keep track of what was over due.  They would also inventory the returned music.  You can be the "bad guy" who would send the bill but they would do the busy work for you.

 

I did the same thing in grad school as a grad assistant but  was paid for that. And copying and collating and taking attendance, etc. etc. etc.  And.....I learned a lot. It was really a win-win situation---I learned the "glamorous" aspects of being a choral director and my boss got stuff done she didn't want to deal with.

 

So, delagate.

 

Marie

Not at all in the same position as most of you who replied, but I have to say, Marie Amenta's comment is right on.  One of the aspects of this I have to applaud is the idea that undergrad and grad assistants need to learn about the "scut work," as she so tellingly puts it, of being a director (no matter the musical group).  This is an aspect of making music that gets lost in the translation but that any church or academic or community music director has to wrestle with.  My only contributionis to offer that Marie's comment is a creative solution to a real problem.

 

Ron Duquette

Catholic Music Director

Ft. Belvoir, VA

Unfortunately, my recent understanding of this is that it is not lawful to loan music, period.  It's hard to believe, but the definition of copyright gives the author/composer of a work the exclusive right to "distribute copies of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, OR LENDING.  I would be thrilled to find out I have misinterpreted this.

I would concur with John Howell's statement.  Our university has frequently loaned out music from its choral library.  However, I instituted a form that directors had to sign and commit to returning the music by a prescribed date in the same condition it went out (or replace the worn copies).  Still, we often had to remind directors to return the music.  We did find it a useful way to retain ties with our alums and other colleagues.

  However, if it becomes too burdensome, a letter to potential users (or abusers) expressing your concerns would probably be the best route to go, and if that doesn't work, discontinue loaning out the music. 

I think it is important to keep in mind that every time we borrow or lend we avoid purchasing the copies. In other words, we avoid supporting the industry that makes the music available to us. And, similar to making photocopies, when we borrow instead of buy, it causes a rise in the price of printed music, causes music to go out of print and publishers to go out of business, etc....

If you have the time to continue doing this, ask for a refundable deposit (get a credit card no) which is equivalent to the amount it would cost you to re-purchase the music new, and at a minimum, ask them to cover shipping costs.  Regarding the labor involved, the suggestion about getting an intern sounds great to me!

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I would like to through a bit of common sense into this mix of suggestions concerning "borrowing" or loaning choral music.

A scenario: You have just composed a choral selection, put in hundreds of hour developing the theme, the melodic ideas and then the arrangement of these ideas into an SATB octavo. You taught yourself Sibelius, a frustrating process for sure, and entered the music following all of the formatting instructions from the publisher. The music is of great meaning to you. It is sort of a part of your soul.

You submit the music to a publisher, wanting to share this music with others, wanting to hear other choirs perform it, too.

The publisher, who goes through hundreds of submissions a year, decides your composition/arrangement is worthy of publications. He contracts with you to publish your music. This usually means you, as the composer/arranger, are going to get about 10% of the retail price of the music. That means every time your music is sold for $1.75 per copy, you will receive about 17 cents. Every time a choir purchases your music and they buy 30 copies you will about $5.25.

$5.25 every time a choir performs you music. Well, you don't compose to make a living, obviously. But, at least there is some reward for your efforts.

Now, you find that the folks who are buying your music are under the impression that they can sell, loan or give it to someone else. To the composer/arranger this is very disheartening.

What will be your thoughts about the publishing business? What are your thoughts about your fellow choral directors?

In fact, what are the performance rights when you do purchase music? We all know you are to purchase recording rights. What about performance rights?

I believe a little common sense could go a long ways here. I would much rather we used common sense than have to always go to what is lawfully right. In complete respect to the composer, 100% sensitivity to his or her dedication and efforts to produce a product that makes us happy, helps us with our work as conductors, wouldn't you think twice about giving, loaning or selling the music to another choir. Isn't it clear that when you purchase the music, you have the right to perform it but you do not have the right to give, loan or sell it to someone else? Don't we want to encourage our writers?

My suggestion - JUST DON'T DO IT!

Frank DeMiero

Philip:

You  are so very right on many accounts but you should not jump to conclusions on others. All of the facts I shared with folks related to the normal publishing process not the Sound Music Publication program.

Do you know what the Sound Music Publications percentages are for our writers? Do you the way we work with and respect our writers?

I suggest you find out before jumping to conclusions.

When purchasing music from Sound Music Publications, you have a couple of choices, we can mail a hard copy to you or we can send you a PDF file and you can make the copies you need... and there is more you need to know.

Sound Music Publicatons is a company run and operated by composers and arrangers. We are very concerned for our writers and we treat them with great respect.

If you are interested in knowing more about us, how we honor our writers, and the way we support them, please give me a call and I would be glad to share our process. 425-771-0824

The industry depends on our integrity, honesty and willingness to do what is simple common sense.

 

Cheers,

Frank

Ciao
 

I'll avoid the whole publisher isse and get back to Peggy's question (hey, I've heard of Mansfield!).  I frequently lend/rent music, but I've pretty much limited this to major works.   The bookkeeping/music-keeping aspects can become enormous, and I don't really want to do it so someone doesn't have to purchase 30 copies of Sing Me to Heaven.  But 100 copies of Verdi Requiem is a whole other thing, and I'm happy to rent them cheaply, support my ridiculously small budget, and have everyone save money on the large major works.  This, in my skewed view, allows people to spend their budgets on smaller and often newer works by living composers, though of course I have no way of knowing that. It's more likely somone can afford the octavos they need than the major works.

 

This is a completely personal point of view, but it works for me.  And I could never really trust my students to take care of inventory, even though that's in their job description.

I'll briefly chime in on the logistics quesion, and then briefly on the ethics.

 

 

Now, is it legal to lend/borrow? Absolutely.

 

Should you be guilted into not lending or borrowing? Frank's arguments can apply to anything in the world. The fact that you borrow your neighbor's chainsaw obviously means you didn't buy one yourself at Home Depot. And by sharing a meal at a restaurant between two people, that means you're depriving the restaurant of your money for a second meal, which means you deprived the farmers, which means... It is a faulty argument, and one that suggests that some are entitled to the money of others. I strongly believe that the money I earn is mine. If I choose to save it by borrowing something, it is not for a publisher/composer to say that I owe them if I am operating within the law. Should this practice drive the change of legislation, or change of publishing practices--then that is a good thing, because it means the system is operating correctly. A free market economy allows supply and demand to drive production and purchasing, rather than market-interference that drives up prices or impedes quality merchandise.

Wow.  I bet Peggy never dreamed her simple question--and it is simple--would turn into this.  Hot weather cranky, I guess.  Here are a few thoughts. 

 

I can see Frank's point--I do live in the Land-of-the-Labor Union after all--but think he is not thinking about Peggy's true problem. She has a vast choral library that cannot possible be used completely at all times--her choirs cannot be singing "Messiah", Mozart's "Requiem", Verdi, etc. etc. etc. all at the same time and it is a little bit selfish to keep all the good stuff for herself----soooooooo does she lend out music to people who know what she has and foster good feelings for her program? Or does she say, sorry, folks, the library is now off limits--gotta think of the composers, dead though they may be?

 

If we truly want to think of the composers, David's policy to only lend major works is a good one.  I would add, to chime in with John H., that pieces POP should be included in the policy.

 

Despite all the over mentioned reasons for not lending music, I would hazard a guess that composers want their works to be performed.  If the only way, in certain instances, for the works to be performed is to have someone who OWNS the music legally and ethically to lend it to someone who wants to perform it, is that not okay? And if it isn't, why?  Perhaps that performance, with lent music, will cause another conductor to hear it, like it, and buy it---so what's the prob?

 

Here's my  two cents--I occassioanly write program notes  and give pre-concert lectures for a few professional performing groups in my area.  A few years ago, I was writing notes for "Carmina Burana" and, even though I had sung it before, didn't have my own score and wanted to have an actual score in addition to my resource materials.  I just about fell off my chair when I saw how much ONE SINGLE VOCAL SCORE cost---my kids would say I'm cheap but I think this was beyond that. If a choral organization wanted to perform this, the total cost would be out of this world and the only way for some to do it would be to borrow.  After my deadline and before the performance, I was speaking to a girlfriend who was preparing one of the combined choirs for this performance.  She told me her group would have lent me one of their borrowed copies because it IS outragous and I wasn't being cheap.  I did buy the vocal socre BTW.

 

And a final, last--I promise-- thought.  I am planning to do a concert of Swingle Singers--plus other things--next spring.  I am gathering music, some of which I have owned forever.  I have ten copies, each, of three orginal Ward Swingle octavos, published by Belwin-Mills (I think).  I have 9 singers, plus myself, plus my accompanist--so I am one copy short right now.  I am still auditioning folks for the fall so it is possible I will be even shorter and I would like to have 5-8 more copies. I will certainly post on ChoralNet or see what folks around here can do for me.........but it seems they are POP and, if I want to do them, I will have to copy or something.....Frank would have me not borrow or copy so---what would he have me do? NOT do them? Is that what Ward would want?

 

Peggy, you do what you need to do for your program.  Lend or not.....but make that decision based on what you believe and what you can do, not because of anything else.

 

Marie

 

Thank you to those who responded to my questions about loaning music.  

I certainly didn't expect such a lively discussion, but found it enlightening and thought provoking.   

 

I was happy to learn, at least, that I wasn't breaking the law in renting music!  

It was also clear that many others have struggled with the dilemma of choral library loans.

 

I plan to take your ideas and formulate a more stringent policy, which considers

renting major works and out-of-print octavos as the highest priority.

 

All good wishes,

Peggy Dettwiler

Mansfield University

pdettwil(a)mansfield.edu