Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Attention Composers! HolyMeasures.com Interviewed

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In an earlier post, I described the new website HolyMeasures.com for music ministry composers.  It is a site where we can upload our sheet music that can be viewed and shared with other churches around the world.  For us composers, it is a free process.  For those downloading, a token fee is charged, and part of it is passed on to us.

After viewing the site and uploading a song, I still had some questions about the site and the team behind it.  Recently I had a chance to interview the founders of the site, Matt Wessel and Bryan Paull. 


Interview
MusicMinistryTips: There are other sites where one can upload music, but what makes HolyMeasures.com unique?
HolyMeasures.com: There are several features about Holy Measures that, although not independently unique, when combined truly make our site a new, fresh offering for composers. There is no registration fee for composers to begin sharing their music with Holy Measures. Rather, there's a revenue sharing model that only comes into play when a song is sold. So composers can upload as many songs as they like with absolutely no financial risk to them. We accept all songs submitted to us, provided that they fit our mission (religious, spiritual music), that they abide by copyright laws and that they are in at least lead sheet form (they have to have that melody line to go with the chords). Our technology allows composers to upload simple PDFs
(meaning they can use any notating program they want) that are displayed dynamically on our song preview pages - with no software downloads required to view the sheet music. It's a dream come true for composers who want to create an online marketplace for their music.

Holy Measures is also unique in that we accept music from all faith backgrounds, giving visitors to the site a more robust collection of music to search through. Of course, visitors can search for songs of a particular faith if they wish. And the best part of all? Music purchased on Holy Measures is instantly delivered to an individual's account page and can be printed from the comfort of home. We also allow composers to sell MP3s for any of the sheet music they upload, which is another benefit to both the buyer and the seller. When you combine all of this, you end up with a truly unique model that aims to bring to light thousands of never-before heard pieces of worship music.


MMT: For me, HolyMeasures.com seems to be the perfect solution for part-time composers with one-church wonder songs, or songs that are well loved at one church.  HolyMeasures.com helps broaden the horizon for those songs and their composers.  Does this seem to reflect your composer population?

HM: Our composer population is very diverse - in age, gender, faith, style, experience, etc. It's a wonderful thing. Many of our composers have been writing for years, but have either never been published or never before thought about sharing their music outside of their local worship community. We do have several pieces that have been beta-tested by composers in their communities and our site aims to bring these local favorites to a national audience. When possible, we encourage our composers to use the "Song Description" field on their pages to explain why they wrote the song and whether or not it has found favor somewhere. It's neat to hear the stories behind different pieces.


MMT: To the best of your knowledge, tell us about the kind of people that search the site and download music.  Help us part-time composers understand who they are.  Are they music ministers as I would imagine?  What are the things they are looking for?  How have they rated your service so far?

HM: We are too new of a site (barely six months old) to have a true sense of who is coming to our site with the intention of making a purchase. From what we can tell, many are worship leaders and music directors looking for new pieces of music for their communities. Some have heard of a specific composer directly and come to Holy Measures to search for that person's music. Some have needed a specific song for a specific season or event and have used our site to find new songs to consider. We also have composers who come to the site with the intention to sell their songs, but who also end up buying music that they find while at Holy Measures.

But ultimately, when talking about who we're marketing the site to, the answer is worship leaders and music directors - individuals who use religious music on a weekly basis who might be interested in seeing an entirely new collection of songs.

As for what they're looking for, we can't stress this enough: they want to see lyrics and they want to hear audio. Seeing the piece of music is important, but because we're dealing with unpublished, never-before-heard pieces, it's important that composers take the time to upload their lyrics and any audio they may have of the song. The more they can give a visitor, the better the chances of them making a sale. Even at a bargain price of $5 per song, no one wants to purchase a piece of music if they're not convinced they like it or that they'd be able to use it.

MMT: Tell us about the moment that inspired you to create HolyMeasures.com?

HM: I was driving on the highway. It was during a week when I was re-tooling my personal website so that I could sell sheet music and I was finding the process of displaying a PDF on my site to be very difficult. I'm not sure where I was headed, but I remember driving down the highway and the thought just popping into my head - "Someone should create a site where people like me can upload their liturgical pieces and sell them to the world." After thinking about it some more, I decided it was something I wanted to pursue. I brought the idea to my friend Bryan's attention and shortly thereafter we started mapping out a site that was to become Holy Measures.


MMT: Give us a view from behind the scenes.  What are your priorities now?  What is next?  Let us know of any plans you have for the site...or another site?

HM: We continue to work on various features to improve the Holy Measures experience for both composers and site visitors - a combination of things we have had planned from day one and things that individuals have suggested to us. We love receiving feedback about the site and suggestions on how to improve it. One thing we're currently working on is a resource page for composers - a page that answers various questions and offers tips and suggestions on scoring music, creating PDFs, creating audio, marketing songs, etc. But the main functions of the site are live and our number one priority now is promoting the site to an external audience. We want to focus our time and energy on making people aware of Holy Measures and the great new music that's available in our library.


MMT: What has been the reaction to the site so far?
HM: Incredibly positive, from both composers and visitors. Composers are very appreciative to have a new home for their compositions and an opportunity to bring their talents to a wider worshiping community. Many of our users were simply posting PDFs on their personal pages in the hopes someone would find it, download it and use it. Now they're able to put their music on a site that reaches a much wider audience, while at the same time offering visitors to their personal site a more professional way to purchase their music. We've also received many e-mails from musicians who comment on the site's purpose, the site's design and the site's offerings. They seem to enjoy the opportunity to browse new music and tell us they look forward to using the site.


MMT: What would you suggest to a music director or potential buyer visiting your site for the first time?  
HM: Take some time to look around. We have over 1,100 songs from over 100 composers. The songs are all over the place in terms of style and complexity. The best way to find that gem of a song you're looking for is to take some time to browse the catalog and listen to the audio previews. It's a pretty rewarding feeling to hear a song and say, "That's it!" and know you've found something special that your worshiping community will love.


MMT: Give us a feeling for how many songs have been downloaded to date, and a current downloads per month estimate.
HM: It is difficult to answer since we are so new.  We anticipate adding a "download counter" to the site in the near future so that people can see the results for themselves.


MMT: OK, here is the tricky question that several people have asked me.  How are copyrights handled with HolyMeasures.com?  Does HolyMeasures.com file a copyright for the individual composer, or is the composer required to sign a document outlining their rights and share of any possible income?
HM: Composers who share their songs on Holy Measures retain full copyrights to their music. They can remove their music at anytime and are free to sell their songs elsewhere at the same time they sell their music on Holy Measures. Holy Measures simply provides a service to composers - by which they can upload and sell their sheet music in a digital, convenient format, to a wider audience. But we leave the rights to the song 100% in the hands of the composer. We do offer copy licenses to buyers that plan to make photo copies of their music, or to those who wish to re-print the music in a worship aid or program (this is very similar to the service that CCLI offers).


Related Posts:
Attention Composers!  Review of HolyMeasures.com

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