Fw: Lilypond store?

[Stewart Holmes]

My intention is to offer downloads of PDF files. My plan was to source from
public domain sources, such as archives of old sheet music, and indeed parts
of Mutopia which are under certain licence.

I'm not sure I understand why I would want to sell printed music - surely,
here, I would not be able to compete with publishers selling similar
material. In selling downloadable PDF files, you are removing this 
overhead,
allowing you to reduce prices, and be competitive with other places selling
sheet music. Also, I don't really have the time to print out & post much
sheet music, and would not be able to offer the print quality of a
publisher. Unless... are there online services that can print & deliver
music?

Lulu.com looks interesting - it would eliminate the need for 
hosting/setting
up an online store... but whether the disadvantage of being on a site with 
a
large amount of other work is big enough, I'm not sure.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, Chris.

> > I initially read this thread as a proposal for offering printed versions 
> > of scores for sale. However, on a re-read, I understand that you're 
> > proposing to offer downloads of PDF files instead.
> >
> > The attraction of Mutopia for me was the creation of an "open source" 
> > archive of sheet music, that people can download for free, print out, 
> > photocopy, and distribute. Rather like Project Gutenberg, but for music.
> >
> > If you want to create a rival archive offering pieces for download at a 
> > price, then you are of course free to go ahead. Speaking from the point 
> > of view of someone who's looked after Mutopia for the last seven years, I 
> > think cleaning up Mutopia pieces and organising them for printing would 
> > be a very time consuming task. Entering new pieces is of course even more 
> > time consuming.
> >
> > From a legal point of view, you will have to be careful what pieces from 
> > Mutopia you use. Many are licensed under a CreativeCommons Attribution or 
> > Attribution-ShareAlike license. Neither restricts you from selling works 
> > based on the Mutopia version, but the latter insists that you release 
> > your versions under an identical license (a bit like the GPL).
> >
> > My positive suggestion would be to create a new website offering high 
> > quality *printed* LilyPond-engraved music for sale based on Mutopia 
> > contributions, still licensed under "open source" licenses. We did some 
> > experiments with lulu.com a while ago, and the results were very 
> > promising, so that's one possibility. If we work with you on this, and 
> > improvements are fed back to Mutopia, then we'd be happy to have links 
> > from the relevant Mutopia music pages to your store (ie. "buy a printed 
> > copy of this music"). Of course, you can pick music from Mutopia which is 
> > already reasonably high quality and likely to be popular. If you're 
> > interested, please let me know.
> >
> > I would personally be very disappointed if someone were to "fork" 
> > Mutopia.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > --
> >
> > Chris Sawer - address@hidden - Mutopia team leader
> > Free sheet music for all at:  http://www.MutopiaProject.org/