Money and Music

I am torn about music and money. As the child of a professional musician, I appreciate the value of performing musicians getting paid for the work that they do. I expect to get paid for the work I do as a performing musician, and I certainly appreciate getting paid for teaching, which is sometimes harder work than performing. I appreciate commissions, of course, and I appreciate getting ASCAP awards, but I have a problem with the whole value versus cost element of the music business and the way it relates to me as a composer. There is, honestly, no better "payment" for me than hearing a good performance of a piece I have written. Money is just money. Music is different. The times, they are a-changing.

I appreciate publishers taking care of the physical aspects of printing music like using good paper, professional cover design, good ink, and proper mailing materials. I certainly appreciate the business aspects like copyright filing, record keeping, taxes, and the occasional possibility of publicity, but there is something inside me that likes the idea of music being available for free for anyone who wants to play it, skipping the business and tax aspects altogether.

For a while, at least, I will be offering my newly-written music to anyone who wants to play it. There is no difference in quality between the music that I have chosen to have published and the music that I choose to offer for free download. You are certainly welcome to go to my American Music Center page to see the PDF files I have available for download. I'll be putting more on in the near future. I'll also put links to them on my Thematic Catalog.