Sheet Music’s Greatest Hit? : Big Changes in Store as High-Tech Kiosks Rewrite the Standards

Two California companies are betting that computer-driven technology can revolutionize the industry that puts sheet music in the hands of musicians and singers.

For hundreds of years, the sheet-music industry has operated in largely the same fashion: Artists turn their creative efforts over to publishers, who print and distribute music and lyrics for sale to the public. Now, Musicsource in Newport Beach and MusicWriter in Los Gatos are harnessing computer databases, data-compression technology and high-speed printers in a bid to make sheet music instantaneously available to customers through high-tech kiosks in retail stores.

Proponents say that the technology works and is cost-competitive with standard sheet-music distribution channels. But the kiosks are generating controversy in the printed-music industry.

Some printed-music veterans suspect that today’s devices soon will be obsolete as the technology advances. Others fear that the kiosks will force printed-music stores out of business.

Many store owners, however, welcome the new technology.

Having a kiosk is not “a great money-maker . . . and it’s certainly not a replacement for stocking sheet music and (music books),” said Paul Fernandez, president and co-owner of Santa Monica Music Center, who in October spent $16,000 for a MusicWriter kiosk. “But we now sell maybe 60% to 70% of single sheet music through the machine.”

The current generation of kiosks prints only sheet music. The technology isn’t competitive when it comes to publishing music books that contain collections of songs.

That’s an important distinction, for sheet music generated only about 10% of the printed music industry’s $350 million in 1992 revenue.

The vast majority of printed music is in the form of orchestral and band music and music books containing popular songs.

Most music retailers agree that computers will eventually change how the printed-music industry works, and not all of them are happy about what they view as unwelcome competition, especially if the kiosks “end up in places other than music stores,” said Shirley Orlando, owner of Huntington Music in Huntington Beach.

Bob Jones, who owns sheet-music stores in San Juan Capistrano and Torrance, derides the kiosks as science in search of a market.

“It’s some excellent technology,” Jones said. “But the thing (proponents) forgot to look at is whether there’s a true need for it.”

Jones, who sells only printed music, maintains that the existing publishing, distribution and retail system promptly fills consumers’ requests for all but the most obscure titles.

And, while kiosk operators promise that they can make hard-to-find sheet music more readily available, Jones thinks that kiosks instead will maximize profits by selling only the most popular sheet music.

Gail Lew, who owns a music store in Pleasanton, experimented briefly with a MusicWriter kiosk but abandoned it because the initial model didn’t have the songs that most customers wanted. “They had only 1,200 titles, so we were frustrated,” Lew said. “Customers would ask for something, and it wasn’t on the machine.”

The kiosk companies, predictably, argue that the new technology can only be good news for consumers.

“The reality is that, for many years, stores that had the biggest amount of hard-copy inventory . . . controlled the marketplace fairly well,” said Dale Jacobs, chief executive officer of Musicsource in Newport Beach. “If you lived near one, it was wonderful. If not, it was horrible.”

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MusicWriter and Musicsource use different blends of technology. Both use computers to store thousands of musical scores and lyrics and equip their kiosks with high-speed laser printers.

Musicsource, however, uses a proprietary system to transmit data by phone lines to kiosks across the nation. MusicWriter transfers data to high-storage CD ROMs, which are updated regularly and distributed to kiosks.

Neither system generates the colorful artwork that adorns most sheet music--often an important element, especially among young, rock-oriented consumers.

MusicWriter now says it has 3,000 titles in its system, with more being added as copyright agreements are reached.

The company offers an added attraction: Its software allows customers to transpose musical scores automatically to different keys, “which is something people have wanted to do for ages,” said Victor Cardell, head of UCLA’S Archive of Popular American Music. The only alternative is manually transposing musical scores, an expensive and time-consuming process.

MusicWriter, a privately held company, has installed 140 kiosks in music stores in 48 states, said Jon Monday, the company’s president and co-founder. Musicsource has yet to install any kiosks but will soon test its technology in selected music stores, Jacobs said.

Major music-publishing houses remain divided on the role that new technology will play in the music industry.

Warner Bros. Publications Inc. in Seacaucus, N.J., has made an equity investment in MusicWriter and licensed the company to distribute Warner’s music and lyrics. But a competitor, Hal Leonard Music Publishing Corp. in Milwaukee, views computerized sheet music as a potential competitor.

“To share (the market) with other types of delivery potentially could hurt sales of certain (printed) sheets,” said Keith Mardak, Hal Leonard president.

Warner Bros. is nurturing the new technology despite the fact that “we can’t say what the ultimate (use) is going to be,” said Jay Morgenstern, president of Warner Bros.’ printing subsidiary. “Maybe people might want delivery at home on their computer,” he said. “The technology is coming so fast that we can’t assimilate it all.”

Music publishers elsewhere are watching and waiting.

“Truthfully, we’re not sure where it’s going,” said Sandy Feldstein, president of CPP Belwin Inc., a Miami-based publisher that is distributing its songs through both Musicsource and MusicWriter.

“Electronic distribution is going to be a part of the future . . . but how big a part I don’t really know. . . . That’s the $50-million question.”

How about the artists who create the melodies and lyrics?

“As long as the songwriters get what’s due to them it sounds like a good thing,” said Steve Schalchlin, managing director of the National Academy of Songwriters in Hollywood.

“But our fear is in the tabulation. . . . Are they really able to keep accurate records? . . . Will the creators be compensated or will they be ripped off?”

Printed Music Hits Flat Note The printed music industry has been stagnant over the past few years because of the flattening of the pop, choral and school band and orchestra markets.

Sales:

Sheet music represents about 10% of the printed music market. Industry sales in millions of dollars.

‘75: $197.8

‘91: $350.6

Market Division:

Printed music accounted for about 10% of the $3.4-billion musical instrument market in 1991, the latest year for which there are figures.

Pianos, organs, keyboards: 31.7%

Synthesizers, software, accessories: 15.4%

Fretted, stringed instruments: 13.3%

Percussion, miscellaneous instruments: 11.3%

Printed music: 10.4%

P.A. systems, amplifiers: 9.5%

Brass, woodwind instruments: 8.4%

Source: National Music Publishers Assn.