IMSLP Forums

I was just wondering if you have to be a professional or semi-professional composer in order to upload your own works to IMSLP, or if it's available for anyone who wants to share their work? Thanks.

Go ahead and upload your own! Read the first paragraph on the main page .

I've got a question related to this.

Would there be a way to make a composer's birthday on his/her IMSLP page show without being electronically harvestable? I ask, because there may be some (living) people who are thinking about putting up some of their compositions, but wouldn't want to put their complete birthdates (month and day) on the composer page.

As it is right now, if it were me, I'd input only year of birth.

Lyle: I just created a composer page and used only years for the dates, as I could not find specific dates for the composer's birth and death, and there was no problem creating the page. If that helps.

A lot of professional composers are too arrogant, over-defensive, and (ignorantly) money hungry to put their works up online with a CC license. Go ahead and upload.

That^^^ is a generalisation, but it's what I've found from experience.

Yagan Kiely: I'm just not always confident in the quality of my work, ha. But since I'm not trying to sell them or anything, it's nice to have a space to share them with others.

Yagan:

A lot of professional composers are too arrogant, over-defensive, and (ignorantly) money hungry to put their works up online with a CC license.

I really can't understand such an attitude. When I worked for the performance department of a US publisher with a substantial contemporary catalog, the vast majority of revenue (75% or more) was generated from performance and broadcast income, which was collected and distributed by ASCAP and BMI (and - very rarely - SESAC). Rental fees from larger works (orchestra and wind ensemble) was a distant second, and income form the sale of printed scores was absurdly low. Music for ensembles that were really too small to pay a reasonable rental fee (less than 7-8 players) was regarded as a 'necessary evil'. Making it available for sale was a ridiculously expensive proposition. (Printing 1000 copies - the usual minimum quantity for a sheet-fed printer - would get you a 200-year supply, which meant print-runs were limited to 100-200 copies at most.) Such works were added to the catalog mainly to mollify the composer and (hopefully) enable some performing, broadcast, and recording income.

Perhaps some of the reticence is due to the fact that the CC licenses appear to allow unrestricted performances (whether live or broadcast) and recording. That's the reason Feldmahler created the performance-restricted license available at IMSLP. Besides, there is nothing preventing a composer from posting the full score of an orchestral work here and leaving an e-mail or website link for people to obtain the performance material.

It's just what I have seen in Australia. I say ignorantly money hungry, because they think having it free online is detrimental to them; I say arrogant because those who do know the basics (of CC) and still don't register it as CC, are trying to claim their pieces are above that. My personal stance is that there is no reason for any work of art to not have a CC licence. If a work is designed purely for it's artistic value, it should not be restricted.

My opinion, and I'm not saying all composers are like that, just a fair amount that I have seen in Australia.

nice quote

Not just a big American car, Craig. You need to think more like a bankster - go for the Hummer, man!