Why my film and pop arrangements are sold by other publishers

People sometimes ask why my arrangement of a film theme or a pop song is not in my own shop, when I wrote it. The short answer is copyright. The longer answer is worth knowing if you buy music for a band, because it affects what you can play and copy.

Who owns a song

A song, a film theme or a show tune belongs to the people who wrote it, and usually to a music publisher who looks after it for them. In the UK that copyright lasts for the writer's lifetime and for 70 years after their death. While it lasts, nobody can publish the music in any form, an arrangement included, without permission.

So an arrangement of a recent song for wind band needs a licence from whoever owns the song, and the writers are paid a share of every copy sold.

How the licence works for an arranger like me

Asking for a licence for every song, one at a time, would be slow and costly for one arranger. Hal Leonard, one of the largest music publishers in the world, runs a scheme called ArrangeMe. Arrangers send in their arrangements, the licence is arranged for the songs that can be licensed, and the music is sold through Hal Leonard's shops, including Sheet Music Direct, and through Sheet Music Plus. The writers get their share, the arranger gets theirs, and you get a legal copy.

That is where nearly 300 of my arrangements are: mostly for full orchestra, many of them film and TV themes, with brass, woodwind and string groups too. The links are on my other publishers page.

What that means for you

• Buy from the shop that holds the licence. A copy passed on from another band, or a home-made arrangement of a copyright song, is not covered.
• Download, print, play. Those shops sell digital sheet music. You pay, download the PDF and print the score and the parts.
• Read what you may print. Each publisher says how many copies a purchase covers. If your band needs more, buy more.

What stays in my own shop

My own compositions belong to me, so I can sell them directly. Those are the pieces in the shop here: printed sets, posted to you anywhere in the world.

If you cannot find a particular piece of mine, ask me and I will tell you where it is sold.