Why Should I Make a Donation To Sheet Music
Digital?
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If you are donating twenty dollars, as an example,
then enter: 20.00
You can enter any dollar amount you desire and
you can make a donation at any time.
All donations are greatly appreciated and needed as explained below!
Having been a music teacher and involved in
the music industry at many levels for the last 30 years, it is
my ultimate goal to bring you digital sheet music and music
educational resources as inexpensively as possible.
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 this for free - when you are an Emerald member.
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:
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!
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.
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.
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)
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 anyone 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 since
starting Sheet Music Digital in 2004. This is because I am still
confident that we will reach a point where licensed sales,
membership fees and advertising revenues will reach a level
where the site can subsist on its own. This is why I am also looking
to bring in a partner that
can bring major financial and marketing assistance to this
project.
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 donation page.
Until then, we ask you to please help support our efforts by making a donation to this
site. It can be $5, $20, $100, $1000 or any amount you choose.
While donations are absolutely optional, we hope that those who
can, will help us continue to bring you more free sheet music
and resources as all donations are truly and sincerely
appreciated.
