Very nearly a year ago today, we posted a blog announcing a brand new deal we had just signed with Hal Leonard, the largest publisher of sheet music in the world (Read the original blog here).  This was a very exciting moment for us, as Hal Leonard own or manage the rights to the vast majority of the most popular music produced over the last few decades.  The deal meant that many of our arrangers’ favourite songs could now be published on a worldwide basis, something previously denied to us.

Little did we know that the hard work was just beginning!  The deal required full integration with Hal Leonard’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) system in the States and it has taken just under 12 months to get all that developed, tested and signed off.  Now when you purchase a Hal Leonard title from ChoirCommunity, the score is actually being delivered from their systems behind the scenes with all the transactions and associated royalties being processed automatically!

Anyway, that’s enough of the technical stuff.  The important thing is that it is all set up now and we have uploaded our first – and largest batch to date – of new titles and made them available on our website.  The new Hal Leonard page, with all the new titles, as well as those previously owned by Music Sales can be found here.  The full list of the brand new batch of songs is below (many more will be following on over the next few months too):

A Spaceman Came Travelling    Chris De Burgh, arranged by Doug Watts

Agua De Beber  Antonio Carlos Jobim, arranged by Sam Burns

Ain’t No Mountain  Marvin Gaye, arranged by Gitika Partington

Bohemian Rhapsody     Queen, arranged by Craig McLeish

Bring Him Home    Les Miserables, arranged by Doug Watts

Bring Me Sunshine    Morcambe and Wise, arranged by Wendy Sergeant

Chicken On A Raft    Cyril Tawney, arranged by Sam Burns

Don’t Stop Me Now    Queen, arranged by Alison Crutchley

Drive My Car    The Beatles, arranged by Gitika Partington

Ever Fallen In Love    The Buzzcocks, arranged by Alison Crutchley

Fields Of Gold   Sting, arranged by Wendy Sergeant

Fragile   Sting, arranged by Gitika Partington

Hallelujah   Leonard Cohen, arranged by Wendy Sergeant

Hanging On The Telephone  Blondie, arranged by Alison Crutchley

Happy Together   The Turtles, arranged by Craig McLeish

Here Comes The Sun   The Beatles, arranged by Craig McLeish

Kiss From A Rose   Seal, arranged by Wendy Sergeant

Lili Marlene   Marlene Dietrich, arranged by Sam Burns

Make You Feel My Love   Adele, arranged by Craig McLeish

River   Joni Mitchell, arranged by Sam Burns

Royals   Lordes, arranged by Craig McLeish

Signed Sealed Delivered   Stevie Wonder, arranged by Wendy Sergeant

Since You’ve Been Gone   Rainbow, arranged by Alison Crutchley

Teenage Dirtbag  Wheatus, arranged by Alison Crutchley

Teenage Kicks  Undertones, arranged by Alison Crutchley

True Colours   Cyndi Lauper, arranged by Craig McLeish

One important thing which I highlighted in last year’s blog is that as part of the deal, Hal Leonard looked at the pricing of our arrangements and concluded that they couldn’t make any agreement work commercially unless the unit price of each copy was significantly increased. I have to admit, we had pretty much come to this conclusion ourselves as we have had to carry the cost of producing and clearing all the rights-owned songs so far.

As a result, we have contractually agreed to set the minimum price of copyrighted arrangements at £1.50 per copy for sheet music and 60p for associated learning tracks. I’m very aware that this is a steep increase from the current price of 50p and 20p respectively, but it does reflect commercial reality and is still significantly less than you would be able to get these arrangements elsewhere (including Hal Leonard’s own websites).  We will continue to produce more titles based on material in the public domain and these arrangements will remain at the same price (of 50p and 20p respectively), along with all the other fantastic traditional, folk and world music titles we have in our library today.

We put the quality of our music at the very top of our priorities at ChoirCommunity. All our arrangements have been carefully crafted to deliver the best singing experience as well as the best sound and so we believe that our arrangements still represent extremely good value for money.

We hope you enjoy the new titles as much as our choirs did when they sang them!  We’d love to hear what you think, so please feel free to leave any comments below.