Some data points
Dec. 30th, 2005 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dianec42This is a follow-up to my complaints about the lack of good sheet music in the world, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dglenn's questions/musings about buying things digitally.
* I am apparently willing to pay as much as $5 a song for decent versions of things I really want. (I am also apparently willing to pay $3.95 for a crappy rendition of a song for which there are no good renditions anywhere on the planet. However, this is a single data point, and may fall into the category of "Fool me once, shame on you".)
* I am still going to go to An Actual Music Store to get at least one of the books I need, because although SOME of the songs are available individually, some of them are not, including one that I really really want.
* I continue to grumble about the ready availability of guitar tab over anything with a bass part, but that's hardly confined to the online world. (And in this case, it's not even going to be my problem, so I'm buying the guitar tab anyway. (-:)
* All of the digital music sites I've found so far give a free preview of the first page of a song before you buy it. This is essential. I would not buy from a site that did not offer this.
* There is one aspect of printing my own music that I really appreciate, and that is the ability to bung the pages straight back into the copier to make my one allowed fair-use backup copy. (Dude. You've seen my desk, right? I could lose a 500-page songbook here. A 6-page song has no chance and WILL get lost at some point.)
* I absolutely LOVE the fact that the price I see is the price I pay. None of this California sales tax plus shipping and handling nonsense that makes my book purchases cost one-third as much again.
* The instant gratification factor is also very nice.
* I think I like being able to buy just one song at a time, instead of being saddled with a whole book of 90% stuff I don't want. (And then feeling guilty about breaking the book's back, and/or photocopying the damn song anyway just so I don't have to tote 20 pounds of books around everywhere.)
* I would probably still be willing to pay extra ($1 to $2 per copy) for things like one-page cheat sheets if they were accurate and well laid out. But I'm awfully fussy about the cheat-sheet thing, so I probably wouldn't find anything I liked even if anyone offered the service.
All in all, I think I like this Internet thing and will continue to use it.
dglenn's questions/musings about buying things digitally.* I am apparently willing to pay as much as $5 a song for decent versions of things I really want. (I am also apparently willing to pay $3.95 for a crappy rendition of a song for which there are no good renditions anywhere on the planet. However, this is a single data point, and may fall into the category of "Fool me once, shame on you".)
* I am still going to go to An Actual Music Store to get at least one of the books I need, because although SOME of the songs are available individually, some of them are not, including one that I really really want.
* I continue to grumble about the ready availability of guitar tab over anything with a bass part, but that's hardly confined to the online world. (And in this case, it's not even going to be my problem, so I'm buying the guitar tab anyway. (-:)
* All of the digital music sites I've found so far give a free preview of the first page of a song before you buy it. This is essential. I would not buy from a site that did not offer this.
* There is one aspect of printing my own music that I really appreciate, and that is the ability to bung the pages straight back into the copier to make my one allowed fair-use backup copy. (Dude. You've seen my desk, right? I could lose a 500-page songbook here. A 6-page song has no chance and WILL get lost at some point.)
* I absolutely LOVE the fact that the price I see is the price I pay. None of this California sales tax plus shipping and handling nonsense that makes my book purchases cost one-third as much again.
* The instant gratification factor is also very nice.
* I think I like being able to buy just one song at a time, instead of being saddled with a whole book of 90% stuff I don't want. (And then feeling guilty about breaking the book's back, and/or photocopying the damn song anyway just so I don't have to tote 20 pounds of books around everywhere.)
* I would probably still be willing to pay extra ($1 to $2 per copy) for things like one-page cheat sheets if they were accurate and well laid out. But I'm awfully fussy about the cheat-sheet thing, so I probably wouldn't find anything I liked even if anyone offered the service.
All in all, I think I like this Internet thing and will continue to use it.
