A major reason for this is the fact that the printed sheet music remains a largely antiquated business, whereby major print publishers (the companies who actually print the books) have formed strong alliances with the music publishers and administrators. In an effort to keep their traditional printed business going strong, exclusive deals are contracted with copyright holders thereby leaving Musicnotes without rights to sell these songs.

Musicnotes does not control the publishing rights for the music it sells, and does not seek out exclusive contracts with music publishers. We believe in an open market for the sale of digital sheet music. We also believe product should be broadly available and consumers should have multiple purchasing choices.

Musicnotes’ main function is that of a sheet music reseller, much like how iTunes and Rhapsody are audio music resellers. Our counterpart in the physical market is your local sheet music store, much like how iTunes and Rhapsody’s counterpart is the local record shop. The difference between digital sheet music (or digital audio music) is largely the format in which it is delivered. For Musicnotes digital sheet music, we send you a file and let you print the music instantly, rather mail you a hardgood product.

The inability to offer digital sheet music from two major (and several other smaller, yet highly important) music publishers’ catalogs is not only detrimental to Musicnotes as an entity, but to you, our customer.

Trust us, we’re doing everything in our power to offer our customers the most complete catalog of digital sheet music, including all the most popular songs of yesterday and today. Have you ever tried purchasing any of the songs below in digital format at Musicnotes.com? The reason we can’t offer them to you is simply because we don’t have permission from the copyright holders.

“Piano Man” – by Billy Joel
“Imagine” – by John Lennon
“Enter Sandman” – by Metallica
“You Don’t Know My Name” – by Alicia Keys
“Drops of Jupiter” – by Train
“Come Sail Away” – by Styx
“All I Ask of You” – from The Phantom of the Opera
“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” – from The Lion King
and many more...

As you may have noticed, some of these titles are available for purchase on the Musicnotes web site, but they may not be available for sale in digital form to your country. This is because different music publishers control music in different parts of the world. Our contract with Warner Bros. Music Publishing, for example, allows us access to the majority of the EMI catalog – but only in certain areas outside of the U.S. This is why if you want to purchase “Piano Man” from Billy Joel, but you live in New York City, you’ll have to buy the book.