Directors and music teachers are always coming up with new and creative ways to keep their programs engaging. Sometimes, writing a song or fun arrangement does the job. Writing to round out instrumentation gaps in your ensembles or for the varying performance abilities of the players will ensure you have the perfect piece of music for your next concert.
Whether you’re writing the world’s next musical masterpiece, a delicate instrumental solo, or classroom resources for your students, your music deserves to be performed! But without insight into the music industry, you’re likely to face real challenges in making sales and finding opportunities to help shoppers discover your music.
If you’re composing and thinking about selling your music, J.W. Pepper’s My Score service offers its members the means of promoting their work within one of the world’s largest sheet music networks, jwpepper.com, for a onetime fee of $99.00. Plus, the platform offers both digital and hard copy options for scores and parts.
My Score includes a unique Print on Demand service, since the vast majority of Pepper’s sales are through print. The service allows you to sell your music without having to print and store large quantities of stock. Your sheet music is printed on high-quality digital printers in our Atlanta warehouse. Orchestra composer Thomas Quigley says these kinds of benefits have opened many new doors for him.
“Having My Score as a vehicle for my music gives me great motivation. To write music – knowing that it is being performed globally by means of J.W. Pepper – is very rewarding,” Quigley said.
What’s My Score?
For decades, customers have been relying on J.W. Pepper as their go-to resource for sheet music. Over the years, writers of all styles of music have reached out to us asking Pepper to sell their music. My Score was created as a simple and cost-effective solution for composers to sell sheet music online while maintaining their copyrights.
Since 2012, My Score has grown to become the nation’s leading self-publishing platform for sheet music. The program makes it easy to sell sheet music – our team has the expertise of Pepper’s long history as the leading sheet music retailer, and we’re dedicated to helping music writers self-publish successfully.
Since the platform’s debut, thousands have had their works sold on Pepper’s website – from first-time songwriters to professional composers, and from music teachers to performing artists. Choral composer Carol Wiggins says My Score has made a huge difference in her career.
“When I accidentally ran across the My Score program while looking for a song on the J.W. Pepper website, I couldn’t wait to give it a try,” Wiggins said. “This program has been a life-changer for me and my music career. My music sales have soared in the USA and internationally, which I never dreamed was possible.”
What does the service have to offer?
Membership includes an intuitive user dashboard for adding new compositions, checking sales data, and managing your catalog. Once your new product is online, your music instantly becomes searchable on jwpepper.com.
There is no limit to how many products you can offer; go ahead and list your entire music catalog. You’ll find promoting your music is easy, and you can point customers to your personalized landing page where all of your music will live online. If you don’t have your own personal web presence, customizable page URLs will make it convenient for shoppers to find your music by your name or branding.
“It is a truly wonderful program for small publishers like myself who have a very limited marketing budget. It is no overstatement to say that the My Score program is the cornerstone of my business.”
-Composer and Arranger Benjamin Ayotte
How does it work?
A wide variety of unique and creative compositions are added to My Score daily, ranging from full band and orchestra sets to choral octavos of any voicing. We accept original compositions, arrangements of works in the public domain, and teaching resources.
Simply upload fully engraved PDFs of your sheet music from your preferred notation software. Add media like MP3s, videos, music previews, and cover artwork to make your music more appealing to customers. Set the price and submit your piece. Your new product will be online and print-ready within 1–2 business days! Once your new composition is online, share product links to all of your social handles to promote your product.
Check out newly added products on the My Score department page for inspiration or pick up a new piece for your next concert.
Distribute:
Customers can choose to purchase ePrint copies that provide instant digital delivery to their device, or they can get professionally printed hard copies of your music prepared through Print on Demand.
Print on Demand gives you complete control over how your music will look using our interactive upload tool; you can set your print preferences for each piece, customizing binding type, pagination, and page size. Your printed sheet music is always protected by the Pepper Guarantee.
Maintain Control and Earn Money:
Choral composer Jill Gallina says she first learned about My Score when she wanted to self-publish a piece she’d written for the Indiana Music Educators Association conference. She called the finding “fortuitous” since the platform gave her control over the publishing process, which had financial advantages.
“My Score offers composers a very fair royalty which serves as an incentive to explore a wide range of musical themes and unique compositional elements. The fact that My Score provides access to daily sales reports is a wonderful tool to help assess what is selling and where to direct your future writing efforts,” Gallina said. “The fact that J.W. Pepper, the major marketer of choral music in the world, is the parent company of My Score provides the best exposure possible for your music and opens up a myriad of opportunities.”
Non-exclusivity also allows composers to distribute their works through their personal websites and other self-publishing platforms to maximize their ability to earn. Here is how the payouts work:
- 50% royalties on ePrint digital downloads and 25% royalties for print-on-demand hard copies
- Royalty earnings paid quarterly – link your PayPal account to get paid faster!
- Make money while retaining all the copyrights to your music
“I have been selling music through J.W. Pepper’s My Score program since November of 2012 hoping to leverage Pepper’s name recognition and market share to help my fledgling publishing company to grow,” composer and arranger Benjamin Ayotte said. “I added new music to my catalog regularly and was amazed, frankly, that customers all over the world were finding and buying my pieces.”
Ayotte also says the new technology and features added to the platform over the years have really benefited him.
“It is a truly wonderful program for small publishers like myself who have a very limited marketing budget,” Ayotte said. “It is no overstatement to say that the My Score program is the cornerstone of my business.”
For more information about My Score and self-publishing your sheet music, visit www.jwpepper.com/myscore.
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