Re: Community of professional LilyPond engravers?

[Jack Cooper]

Hi Michael, 

I would be interested in joining a discussion related to engraving and (dare I 
say)
publishing with Lilypond, whether the discussion is part of a wiki, part of this
group or part of a splinter group..

I have had a few freelance jobs fall my way and I know of folks who have hired
freelance engravers to create musical output.  The software used for engraving
doesn't seem to be relevant- depending on the use of the music output, either
a pdf or graphic image of the output is the end product.  I did have one project
where the client wanted Finale files of the score along with the pdf output.  I 
am set
up with both Finale and Lilypond as well as translation tools (pdftomusicxml,
dolet for finale) so I am able to transfer output with a little tweaking to 
current
or older finale versions.

I talked to a few engravers and did some research on how engraving projects
are charged.  There are a lot of complicated pricing schemes in place (charge
by the note,  measure, page, instrument, etc.) but in the end it seemed to
make sense to me to estimate how long it would take me to do the job and
charge accordingly.  I quote an hourly rate, but my 'hours' will vary on the
project and budget.  I also take into account that my skills are still 
developing
so it isn't fair to charge for development time, where I am learning some new
trick that will take me less time when I've had more experience.

My main business isn't engraving but actually publishing printed songbooks
and digital sheet music.  As someone else mentioned, pdf output is what
is accepted by most printers, so how you get there is up to you.
In the digital realm, someone mentioned Sibelius as having the only real
solution for online scores (apart from pdfs, where you generally have no
control over who can access, copy and print the files).  I am currently
working with a company called Legato music (formerly MusicRain) that
has developed a technology for publishing online digital interactive sheet
music.  The current customer rep, Peter Maund, used to work for 
Sibelius as the representative/support for Sibelius Scorch.  Legato
uses MusicXML files as input and allows for extensive digital content
management.  I am currently converting some of my Lilypond-generated
songs into MusicXML and am working on integrating Legato sales
into my online ecommerce site.



 
-- 
Jack Cooper, BerLen Music
www.berlenmusic.com
www.jack-cooper.com



----- Original Message ----
> From: Michael J. O'Donnell <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Sent: Thu, February 4, 2010 7:59:51 PM
> Subject: Community of professional LilyPond engravers?
> 
> I am pondering offering engraving services with LilyPond. I wonder if
> there are people ready and willing to share information on the
> possibility to make modest money this way.
> 
> I found one (slightly broken) thread in the archives:
> 
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2007-10/msg00482.html
> 
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2007-11/msg00002.html
> 
> which indicates that several people use LilyPond for professional
> projects, but they seem to be activities within a larger job, rather
> than pay specifically for engraving.
> 
> I found one person offering Finale engraving ranging from 2 cents to 5
> cents per note:
> 
> http://home.earthlink.net/~rscarbro/russell/music_prep.htm
> 
> but I didn't understand precisely what he was charging for. His examples
> looked to me inferior to LilyPond results, but they were in low
> resolution pictures.
> 
> I found a list of people offering mostly Finale engraving from $20 to
> $80 per hour:
> 
> http://www.musicengravers.com/
> 
> I have no idea how much they accomplish in one hour. I like the relative
> objectivity of a charge per note.
> 
> So, if there is enough interest (i.e., at least 2 other people), I
> suggest that we develop a discussion within the LilyPond Wiki:
> 
> http://wiki.lilynet.net/index.php/Main_Page
> 
> If there's enough response, I'll join the Wiki, make sure that this is
> within it's scope, and provide a front page. So far, I have some
> examples to share, and a crude sed script for counting notes.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Mike O'Donnell
> 
> 
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