but what does this actually mean?
Well, what sets us apart is the depth of knowledge we have gained from many years working in music publishing. This means that musicians come to us for completely neutral advice on many, many different questions, from budgeting and programming to practical performance issues. What we are going to focus on in today’s blog post is the information gap from websites.
Websites and online stores can be great for having a browse, but what do you do if they offer incomplete information on a product? For example, one common question we get for choral scores is, does this score contain a keyboard underlay for rehearsal purposes. Now that’s definitely something you want to know before you go ahead and place an order for 150 copies. Or what about strings numbers in orchestral sets, how do you know if you will need to order extra string parts or not? Or a very frequent one for us, “There are three editions of this work, what are the differences?”
The trouble with many of these websites is that not only will they not give you this information, but there is no person you can contact to find it out. If you’re very lucky there may be an email address, but getting a speedy reply is unlikely. Without this, the only way to find answers to your questions is to order the music and see for yourself!
Or is it the only way?
At Clear Music, because we are working direct with the publisher, this means that we can often get in touch with the editors of the editions and get very detailed replies to questions. We get all sorts of questions about published editions all the time, and we do our best to get as detailed an answer as possible so that all our clients are confident that the editions they order suit their needs. This can save many, many hours of frustrating searching and stabbing in the dark.
So next time you have a question about a published edition, why not send us an email and we will do our best to find the answers for you.