MOTUnation.com

I've been away from Motunation for a while, but I recently found an AMAZING resource that other Motunationers should be aware of. It is a site called "Scribd". This is a subscription site, much like "Spotify" or "Netflix", but it pertains to books. You pay a monthly fee and you can read tons of books. Where it comes in handy for composers is that they have musical SCORES available.

I always like to have "reference" scores, like "Rite of Spring", or "Don Juan" nearby when I orchestrate. I can see them in "Scribd". I imagine the whole publishing world is in the midst of a major shift in how it makes money - and I can't figure out how this works with legal issues, but it sure is a neat resource for a musician! I can type in pretty much any of the standard scores I am interested in, in the "search" box, and they appear. Then I can study these scores to my hearts content.

Thanks! I'll have to check it out now

Illegal. A LOT of copyrighted materials.

bdr wrote:Illegal. A LOT of copyrighted materials.

Are you sure? If this is unauthorized sharing of printed materials, I need to delete this topic!

bdr wrote:Illegal. A LOT of copyrighted materials.

It's a paid service. $48 annually for most. You pay extra to read the latest releases on a per volume basis per their agreements with the publishers. So, of course there are copyrighted materials. Why would you pay to read only PD materials freely available on GoogleBooks, ChoralWiki and other sites? If you want scores in the PD, there are many sources.

Are you claiming that there are also pirated materials on the site? If so, please explain how you know this?

Thanks for clarification, Mike. It seems they're legit.

There are many, many scanned PDFs of sheet music on that site...my high school students brought it to my attention. Sorry!

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-t ... ntent.html

bdr wrote:There are many, many scanned PDFs of sheet music on that site...my high school students brought it to my attention. Sorry!

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-t ... ntent.html

Interesting... I'm slammed with stuff so I don't even have time to read what's at your link. I hope they are policing their own site as they should.

James Steele wrote:

bdr wrote:Illegal. A LOT of copyrighted materials.

Are you sure? If this is unauthorized sharing of printed materials, I need to delete this topic!

Scribd has been around a long time and is an ebook service like Amazon or iBooks if you are into that sort of thing. They even have an iPad app in Apple's App Store.

They have an entire section of their FAQ about the DMCA:

http://support.scribd.com/forums/33563- ... t-and-DMCA

They even provide a DMCA form for people to use and submit:

http://support.scribd.com/entries/22980 ... l-template

bdr wrote:There are many, many scanned PDFs of sheet music on that site...my high school students brought it to my attention. Sorry!

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-t ... nd-e-books. /article/60589-scribd-responds-to-writer-beware-on-pirated-content.html

Interesting article. On one hand, a spokesman from the site explains how they are trying to address copyright issues. These will occur with any site that allows end users to upload.

To counter that is someone with no oar in the water complaining that they aren't doing it fast enough and keeps raising "concerns". A job is always easier for the person who doesn't have to do it.

I don't understand the need to allow users to upload content on a site like this but it's not my business model. It is a way to grow a site rapidly--I'll give it that.