Sales Statement 2011 (Part 2)

As I mentioned in Part 1, my foreign sales make up just a tiny percentage of my annual total. But it's still interesting to see what sells. Here are my top five foreign sales of scores with parts in 2011:

1. Sneaking Suspicion
2. Gargoyles & Star of Valor (tie)
3. Quicksilver
4. Avatar, Gauntlet, Hot Potato, Porcupine Pantomime (all tied)
5. Lemon Twist and Storm Trail (tie)

The new ones are popular and some of the old favorites made the list, but a lot of these entries are surprises. Sneaking Suspicion seems to be a breakaway hit overseas.

Alfred Publishing also sells scores alone, without the parts. You'd need extra scores to give the judges at contests, so the best-sellers on this list are the ones that are popular at contest season:

1. Gautlet
2. Gargoyles
3. Avatar
4. Las Mariposas Exoticas
5. Crusader

No surprises here. Except maybe for Mariposas - I suppose that explains its resurgence in the score-and-parts list.

Again, if you bought anything of mine in the past year, thanks very much!

Royalty Statement 2010 - Part 2

In my last post, I mentioned that most of my music sales come from within the US, but a small portion comes from other countries.  I can't be sure which other countries, but this blog has received hits from Canada, Sweden, Slovenia, Argentina, China, and Spain, just to name a few. I've also found my music for sale on German and Japanese online music stores, so that may also give some indication. 

As I understand it, many other countries don't have the same model of music education that is common here in the US and most ensemble playing is done in private after-school groups, so there's far less demand for string orchestra sheet music.

Anyway, here are my top foreign sellers for the past year:

1. Agincourt
2. Gargoyles
3. Gauntlet & Porcupine Pantomime (tie) 
5. Hot Potato

Interesting results!  It seems that my most popular pieces abroad are very close to my most popular pieces in the US.  Porcupine Pantomime and Hot Potato are relatively new, which may account for their higher sales. 

Something else to keep in mind: several pieces on the royalty statement are listed multiple times, because they're sold at different rates in different countries with different currencies and exchange rates.  There are four different listings for foreign sales of Gauntlet because it was sold at four different prices around the world.

There's no record of foreign sales of scores only or parts only, which leads me to believe that either those options aren't available in foreign markets or there's no demand for extra scores and parts.

Royalty Statement 2009 (Part 2)

The listings for foreign sales are shrouded in mystery. Though I've heard of a few performances in Austrailia, have found an online German sheet music vendor that sells my music, and got word of a performance in Canada, I'm not exactly sure who it is outside the U.S. that's buying my music. I would hope that it would sell in Japan, home of the Suzuki Method, and in Europe. From what I understand, other countries don't have school music programs analagous to ours and wouldn't need school-level string orchestra music. Here are my top-selling sets of scores and parts in foreign markets:

1. Agincourt & Mambo Incognito (tie)
3. Hot Potato
4. Gargoyles
5. Violet's Tango

As you can see, there's a marked difference from the top five sellers in the U.S. I should note, though, that foreign sales make up a tiny fraction of a percentage of my total sales. Also, the printout that I received shows that several of these pieces sold at different rates - probably in euros, Canadian and Austrialian dollars, and yen.

Last year I got a sheet showing sales of digital downloads from alfred-music.com. This year, there's no record of sales of MP3 files - maybe bacuase they're so few that it will be rolled into next year's statement.

Finally, I did get a notice about liscensing. When orchestras record their concerts, they're supposed to get permission from the publisher and pay a small licensing fee. A few honest souls actually did that this year and I thank them. Liscensing also includes a few listings from "Make Music," a program where directors can access notes from the composer with tips on how to rehearse and perform their music more effectively. I wrote a few of these two years ago and think that I might want to do some more in the future.