February 2001 Publishing, Promotion and Profitability by Graham Hayter     Computer technology has given composers access to high quality music notation and simplified the process of producing scores and parts, and made it cheaper too. So does a composer need a publisher? Ideally, yes, because the status afforded to a composer through association with a well-known publishing house still carries considerable weight with the musical establishment, and a publisher can provide promotion and publicity on a scale way beyond the resources of even the most energetic self-promoting individual. When a music publishing company offers to publish a composer’s works, whether they are critically acclaimed or virtually unknown, it believes (or more modestly hopes) that its ‘artistic’ evaluation of the music will be accepted by future generations and that this will in turn lead to financial rewards for the company. Music publishers are commercial organisations and as such must be geared to profitability, and yet one of their most high profile activities, the publishing of new music, does not lie comfortably with the limiting objectivity of spreadsheets and business plans. Can one even measure the value of a musical work in terms of bums on seats, the length of the applause, what the critics say, or whether some influential arts directors approve? No, the fact that more and more individuals and organisations appear to fall in line with a publisher’s artistic judgement is no proof of a prophecy fulfilled. Only time can tell. Choosing to publish a composer is a high-risk enterprise. With the introduction of copyright legislation at the beginning of the last century publishers acquired the right to receive income from performances and recordings. The financial rewards were much greater than had previously been generated by sales of sheet music, and hence the industry came to believe that the copyright income it received from successful works should be re-invested in publishing new music. But over the last twenty years it has proved difficult for publishers to sustain their role as ‘patrons’ of contemporary music and most of them now adopt a more strictly commercial attitude to all new publishing ventures. The main reason for this has been the loss of confidence in the new concert music of the last five decades which, it must be admitted, has not provided income for publishers on anything like the scale generated by early twentieth-century works. And publishers have not been helped by the gradual weakening of copyright protection caused by the multiplicity of new media for music’s dissemination (control and legislation are always several steps behind the technological innovations); or by the Performing Right Society’s move towards logging only selected venues and sampling, and the abolition of the Classical Music Subsidy; or by the conservatism of the recording industry and the appalling state of funding for new music performance in Britain; or by the fashionable ‘art for all’, anti-elitist mentality reinforced by successive governments’ populist agendas for the arts and music education. So, as publishers look to music that offers a more immediate financial return (music for film, television and the stage generally known as ‘media music’), what will happen to the sort of music that takes time to gain favour, music that initially only plays to small audiences, music that it exists outside the mainstream, receives scant media attention and is therefore non commercial? The BMIC’s initiative, New Voices, designed to provide practical assistance and greater visibility for 25 young unpublished composers, is one inspired example of a response to the current situation. Also, it seems likely that many of the tasks traditionally associated with music publishers’ promotion departments, such as the negotiation of commissions and the introduction of new works to performers and concert promoters will in future be handled by independent agencies working directly for composers. Certainly if the publishers limit further their interaction with such a vibrant, diverse and relevant sector of our musical culture, new and imaginative ways of ensuring that the creativity of today’s composers is nurtured and recognised are bound to come into their own. Graham Hayter Graham Hayter was Head of Promotion at Peters Edition from 1979 to 1999. He is currently working independently on behalf of composers Brian Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds, Richard Barrett, Rebecca Saunders and Sam Hayden.   What do you think? We would welcome any responses to the articles featured in new notes. Click here to read what other people have thought about recent cover articles. The monthly listings magazine new notes is essential reading for composers, performers, and everyone interested in what's new in new music. In its printed version new notes reaches over 5,000 contemporary music enthusiasts in the UK and around the world. 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Event listings for this month   Previous articles: January 2001 From the World to the Warehouse December 2000 What price new music? November 2000 Composing for dance from start to finish October 2000 John Lambert remembered July 2000 Joanna MacGregor June 2000 Announcing the shortlist May 2000 Word of mouse April 2000 Child's Play March 2000 tables turned February 2000 the ENO Studio January 2000 a challenge from Michael Oliva December 1999 into the next century... November 1999 Joanna MacGregor writes October 1999 obsessed with consuming? September 1999 spnm welcomes Joanna MacGregor. July/August 1999 Spectrum 2 - miniatures for piano. June 1999 Hoxton Hall New Music Days. May 1999 Bath International Music Festival is 50. April 1999 Who is Georges Aperghis? March 1999 On frost, birth and death February 1999 Keeping busy... January 1999 Now that's what I call contemporary! December 1998 Forty years of madness? November 1998 To plug in or not to plug in? October 1998 No, honestly it is a cello September 1998 Composing for film July/August 1998 New music on old instruments June 1998 Blue sheep of record companies May 1998 spnm looks to the future April 1998 New Music 98 in Manchester