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Category Archives: Doing Business
The Composer’s Guide to Doing Business
Yesterday, I launched a new blog series titled The Composer’s Guide to Doing Business at DennisTobenski.com. The new series is aimed at composers looking to become more entrepreneurial, and who want to learn more about the business aspects of the … Continue reading
Posted in Doing Business, Self-publishing
Tagged advice, blogs, business, composer, composer's guide, composers, dignity, distribution, doing business, engraving, fairness, music business, pricing, publishing, retail, rights, sales, scores, self-promotion, self-publishing
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Doing Business: DRM and Piracy
Every couple of months, the topic of Digital Rights Management (DRM) rears its ugly head when I’m talking to a composer or new music enthusiast about the NewMusicShelf. How does NMS ensure the security of the composer’s scores once someone … Continue reading
Posted in Doing Business, DRM, Self-publishing
Tagged advice, business, distribution, doing business, DRM, fairness, income, music business, newmusicshelf, piracy, pricing, publishing, retail, rights, sales
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Doing Business: Virtual Shelf Space
Virtual shelf space is a wonderful thing. In a brick-and-mortar music store, of which there are sadly becoming less and less, shelf space is at a premium – a physical store can only hold so much physical sheet music. Of … Continue reading
Pricing: A Practical Approach
In an effort to make pricing my scores easier and less subjective, I’ve been tinkering with a series of formulas to tell me what I should charge, and I think I’ve come up with some good stuff. However, before I … Continue reading
Posted in Doing Business, Self-publishing
Tagged advice, business, distribution, income, music business, pricing, publishing, retail, sales, scores, self-publishing
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Caveat Compositor redux
My post Caveat Compositor seems to be the most popular post here, so in keeping with the spirit of caveats and keeping an eye on shady practices: I got an email today about the International Music Prize™ for Excellence in … Continue reading
Posted in Caveat Compositor, Doing Business
Tagged beware, caveat compositor, competitions, scams
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You’re Doing it Right
I want to point out a composition competition that’s making a point of being completely above-board. It’s a nice counter-example to the skeevy one I mentioned in my recent post about composition competitions. This is from the ACDA Illinois Choral … Continue reading
Posted in Doing Business
Tagged competition, composition contest, contests, dignity, doing it right, fairness, music business, rights, scores
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Caveat Compositor
It’s one of those times of the year for me: time to check out the various “opportunity listings” with the Professional Organizations I’m a member of, and put together packets for competitions and calls for scores. The thing that consistently … Continue reading
Posted in Doing Business
Tagged application fees, applications, budgeting, business, competition, competitions, composers, contests, contractual obligations, dignity, dishonest practices, entry fees, fairness, fees, fine print, getting screwed, good faith, insult to injury, money, music business, opportunities, opportunity listings, predatory practices, prizes, reciprocity, rights, scams
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We Don’t Need No (Business) Education
So I’ve already written about the problems of pricing and why we should (mostly) stop giving away scores for free, but these two topics are part of a larger issue – the lack of education we receive on the business … Continue reading
Free Kittens Scores
Giving away scores. We’ve all done it. You meet a performer, the two of you talk, and they say that they’d love to see a copy of that piece you wrote for their instrument (because it just happens that you … Continue reading
Pricing: The Goldilocks Zone
When I’ve talked to other composers about self-publishing and selling their own works, one of the most consistent stumbling blocks is the issue of pricing. It can be very difficult to evaluate whether a given price is too high or … Continue reading
Posted in Doing Business, Self-publishing
Tagged advice, affordability, business, competition, fairness, growth, income, music business, overhead, pricing, publishing, sales, scores, self-publishing
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