We were overwhelmed with your comments and reviewed hundreds of song suggestions and entries. Many of the songs you requested were already on our site in digital sheet music or guitar tab format. Be sure to check our original post Love Irish Music? Suggest a Long Lost Song To Win a $25 Gift Certificate! to see if your song was already part of our extensive Irish sheet music catalog on our site.

The first announcement we would like to make, is that we were able to fulfill several requests for one of your favorite artists from the Emerald Isle. After following up on your suggestions, we were reminded that Celtic Woman released a brand new album in January called “Songs from the Heart.” We are pleased to announce that we arranged all of the songs from this new collection, which included four songs that you had requested including: My Lagan Love, Nil Se’n La, The Lost Rose Fantasia and The Coast of Galicia. In honor of these requests, we’re offering you a chance to save money when you download sheet music from Celtic Woman’s new album “Songs from the Heart.”

From now through midnight on St. Patrick’s Day, enjoy an automatic 15% off all Celtic Woman sheet music.

We hope you enjoy the new arrangements of all twelve songs from “Songs from the Heart,” including the four that you had recommended to us.

In addition to our new selection of Celtic Woman sheet music, we are also arranging three songs that will be available to download on our site by St. Patrick’s Day. The songs are Farewell to Erin (Farewell to Ireland), Planxty Burke and In the Gloaming.

For those lucky seven winners that are expecting gift certificates to Musicnotes.com, we will be emailing those to you no later than Monday, March 15th.

Thanks again for entering this contest and we hope you had a lot of fun! Be sure to stay tuned as we look ahead to new contest ideas and updated rules.

My name is Catherine and I am delighted to start 2010 by joining the Musicnotes.com team as their UK/European blogger!  I come to the site with a background in writing and a huge passion for music of all genres and from all eras.

What I love most about Musicnotes.com is the sense of community.  As one of my American colleagues said “Everything [at Musicnotes.com] …  is done with the customer in mind first”.  I’d like to build on this foundation and help extend this community to the UK and beyond into Europe.  In order to do this I’ll need your help, so, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions please feel free to get in touch!

The whole ethos of Musicnotes.com is that the site is shaped by you, the customer. We want to hear your ideas and ensure this blog is full of material that is relevant to your musical world. We are working hard to bring you top-quality content that you will love to sing and play so if you feel there are any areas we aren’t covering please let us know!

Over the course of the next few months we will be letting you know about all our exciting new sheet music releases, special offers and competitions, as well as keeping you up-to-date with all the latest Musicnotes.com news and any other topics that spark our interest!

We will also be embracing other social networking forums in order to let you have the most current news from Musicnotes.com as quickly as possible.  Keep your eyes peeled for the links to follow…

Be sure to stay tuned!

Catherine

In 2009, you fell in love with the music from several movies and television shows. From awards ceremonies like the Oscars to the highly-anticipated films WATCHMEN and NEW MOON, television and movie sheet music news was a hot topic. So hot, that one of our most popular Songwriter Spotlight posts, was an interview with Carter Burwell.

Here are a few of the posts related to music on television shows and movies that you loved to read:

• WATCHMEN Movie Sheet Music for the Soundtrack
• Sheet Music from PLAYHOUSE DISNEY
• Down to Earth from WALL-E
• HARRY POTTER sheet music
• GLEE Sheet Music
• DISNEY Sheet Music for your Favorite Animated Movies
• BENJAMIN BUTTON Sheet Music
• sheet music from BUFFY the VAMPIRE SLAYER episode “Once More With Feeling”
• NEW MOON sheet music

2009 was also a big year for fans of video game sheet music, because we added a lot of songs that you had requested to our repertoire. Songs featured on GUITAR HERO and ROCK BAND continue to be a big hit with many of you, and we’ve heard from some of you that you’ve picked up a guitar for the first time. Of course, the big video game news this year were songs featured on BEATLES: ROCK BAND. We also added BLUE DRAGON sheet music, too!

Many of you have a renewed interest in playing your instruments or singing because of YouTube! American Idol, X-Factor and other talent shows. Susan Boyle was a pretty big phenomenon, as was Tunecore artist Gavin Mikhail. This year also had its share of bad news as well, for both guitar legend Les Paul and the king of pop, Michael Jackson, had passed away. To honor their memory, many of you expressed a renewed interest in songs that they had performed.

For those of you who love Broadway shows and musicals, this was an exciting year for you! We celebrated the 70th anniversary of THE WIZARD OF OZ, had an interview with Georgia Stitt, offered sheet music for LEGALLY BLONDE: the MUSICAL, and talked about 2009 Movie Musicals. Not included in that list is sheet music from SHREK: the MUSICAL, which debuted late this year.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look back into music trends from 2009, and wish that you enjoy your New Year’s celebrations. Ring in the New Year with music!

The site, which recently sold its six millionth download, is approaching 200,000 paid downloads per month and is receiving 120,000 visitors to the site daily.  A meaningful percentage of this growth in sales and traffic is due to Musicnotes’ international business, which now accounts for more than 20% of sales and is growing at a faster rate than overall business.

As a result of the continually growing sales, Musicnotes is also approaching $15 million in total royalties paid to its publishing partners since 2000, with almost $4 million alone expected to be paid in 2009.

Musicnotes attributes its growth to a continued focus on improving the customer experience as well as its continually expanding catalogue of downloadable sheet music, including songs from several significant content deals signed in 2009.

“What we find most interesting is that we are seeing this level of growth without any new “hit” songs,” said Bill Aicher, Musicnotes Web and Marketing Director. “Less than 4% of our sales are coming from our top ten downloads.  This growth is really coming from across the entire spectrum of our catalog.”

According to the most recent data from research firm, Hitwise, Musicnotes.com continues to lead the digital sheet music retail market with a market share of over 80%.

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an online catalog of 100,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Faber Music Ltd, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Disney Music Publishing, Cherry Lane Music Company, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and many others. Musicnotes is included in Internet Retailer Magazine’s list of the Top 500 Online Retailers and was recently selected by Internet Retailer as a “Hot 100″ site for 2009.

On Friday, October 23, 2009, the second annual Women Rock for the Cure will take place at several music and restaurant venues throughout Madison. Musicnotes is a proud sponsor of this event and will also be offering a night of musical entertainment called the Musicnotes Hootenanny at the Hemingway Lounge in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. For $3, music lovers will hear performances by Blue Beyond, Juice Jenkins, The Mudangels, Meaghan Owens and Tom Nauman.

$1.00 from each admission to the Musicnotes Hootenanny will be donated to the Madison Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Seventy-five percent of the funds raised will support breast health and breast cancer programs in Madison and Dane County.

Please visit http://www.womenrockmadison.com for more information about this venue and other events taking place for Women Rock for the Cure. To attend the Musicnotes Hootenanny, visit the Hemingway Lounge located at 2960 Cahill Main, Fitchburg, Wisconsin from 8-12 p.m. on Friday, October 23rd.

About Musicnotes Musicnotes, Inc. offers an online catalog of 100,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Faber Music Ltd, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Disney Music Publishing, Cherry Lane Music Publishing, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and many others. Musicnotes is included in Internet Retailer Magazine’s list of the Top 500 Online Retailers and was recently selected by Internet Retailer as a “Hot 100″ site for 2009.

On the Web: http://www.musicnotes.com

About the Madison Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure The Madison Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure—along with those who generously support us with their talent, time and resources—is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in our community. We join more than 100,000 breast cancer survivors and activists around the globe as part of the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting breast cancer. Through events like the Komen Madison Race for the Cure, we have invested over $1.8 million in local breast health and breast cancer awareness projects in Madison and Dane County. Up to 75 percent of net proceeds generated by the Komen Madison Affiliate stay in Dane County while the remaining income goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Award and Research Grant Programs supporting research, awards and educational and scientific programs around the world.

Join us by calling (608) 836-1083 or visiting us online at http://www.komenmadison.org

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure, We have invested nearly $1 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.

For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit http://www.komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN.

To celebrate this release, Musicnotes.com is giving away $10,000 in Guitar Guru Sessions starting Thursday, September 3rd 2009 at 3:00 p.m. CDT.

Guitar Guru provides an enhanced interface to help guitarists and bass guitarists learn to play their favorite songs through downloadable Guitar Guru Sessions. Currently, the ever-growing catalog features over 1,500 songs including artists such as Metallica, Jason Mraz, Green Day, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Ozzy Osbourne and more!

Some of the new features in Guitar Guru 3 include:

• Better, More Contemporary Look and Feel. New user interface includes a scalable fretboard and enhanced music notation.
• Tempo Change with Correct Pitch. Musicians can slow down or speed up audio playback while maintaining the correct pitch..
• Precision Audio-Syncing. The queue position of CDs and audio files, including MP3s, can now be matched to the Session to within 1/10 of a second. (PC only)

The $10,000 in Guitar Guru Sessions will be given out to the first 1,000 customers in $10 increments.

For more details on how you can be a part of this Guitar Guru Give-a-way, visit www.musicnotes.com/guitarguru at 3:00 p.m. CDT on Thursday, September 3rd.

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an online catalog of almost 100,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Faber Music Ltd, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Disney Music Publishing, Cherry Lane Music Company, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and many others. Musicnotes is included in Internet Retailer Magazine’s list of the Top 500 Online Retailers and was recently selected by Internet Retailer as a “Hot 100″ site for 2009.

In 2008, Musicnotes.com purchased and re-launched MXTabs.net, turning it into the web’s first “free and legal” guitar, bass and drums tab community.

On the Web: http://www.musicnotes.com and http://www.mxtabs.net.

Now through midnight on September 2, 2009, visitors to Musicnotes.com can download a free, interactive Guitar Lesson (including matching guitar tab that’s worth $7.95) for “Over the Rainbow.” This particular arrangement was arranged by Grammy award-winning artist Aaron Stang, from Alfred Music Publishing to match the performance recorded by Les Paul and Chet Atkins and featured on the album, ‘Masters of the Guitar – Together.’

“Les Paul closed every show at the legendary jazz club Iridium in New York City with an instrumental version of this song,” said Tim Reiland, Chairman of Musicnotes.com. “This song has a very emotional meaning for musicians everywhere.”

In lieu of payment, Musicnotes and Alfred Music Publishing encourage users who choose to download the song to send donations to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 W. 30th St., Seventh Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001.

The free download is available online at http://www.musicnotes.com/free (now through midnight, September 2, 2009). Be sure to watch a video of Les Paul playing Over the Rainbow on YouTube!.

Under this newly minted agreement, Musicnotes.com will sell downloadable digital sheet music and guitar tab created by the print division of Cherry Lane Music. This includes songs from songwriters and artists such as: The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Sara Bareilles, Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson, The White Stripes, Metallica, John Mayer, David Cook (American Idol winner), Leslie Bricusse (“Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical”), Jason Howland (“Little Women – The Musical”) and John Denver.

Songs from the Cherry Lane print catalog will also be available to learn through Guitar Guru, Musicnotes’ popular guitar teaching software.

“Musicnotes is a leader and an innovator in sheet music delivery,” said John Stix, Senior Vice President of Rights Acquisition and head of the Cherry Lane print division. “Cherry Lane is excited to join forces with them and looks forward to exploring how our companies can work together to reach music makers everywhere.”

“The Cherry Lane print catalog represents some of the greatest music ever written. It contains both classics from the past and the most popular hits of the present and Musicnotes is honored to be their digital distributor,” said Kathleen Marsh, CEO of Musicnotes.com. “We look forward to a partnership that will blend Cherry Lane’s publishing expertise with our leadership in digital distribution to bring their songs to our ever-growing worldwide customer base.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an online catalog of 100,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Faber Music Ltd, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Disney Music Publishing, Cherry Lane Music Publishing, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and many others. Musicnotes is included in Internet Retailer Magazine’s list of the Top 500 Online Retailers and was recently selected by Internet Retailer as a “Hot 100″ site for 2009.

About Cherry Lane Music Company: Milton Okun founded Cherry Lane with a few copyrights and the desire to attain success by applying the values of integrity and reliability to creating musical product. We have achieved quality in our printed music through a steadfast commitment to providing the finest arrangements, engravings, design, paper stock and printing. Our reputation for the precision of our guitar tablature books is an indication to that commitment, as is the playability of all of our transcriptions and arrangements. The print company is known for its wide assortment of folios and sheet music for a diverse group of artists from Barbra Streisand, Keith Urban and the White Stripes to the Dave Matthews Band, Metallica and Jack Johnson.
On the web: Cherrylaneprint.com

# # #

You may recall a while back we told you that Musicnotes and Tunecore Team Up To Offer Artist Sheet Music. We just added sheet music for A Drop In The Ocean by Ron Pope today. Ron is a popular artist that many of you have requested. Watch for more sheet music from Ron and other TuneCore artists including Gavin Mikhail and William Fitzsimmons.

Also on the new song requests front, you may remember we did an interview with Kevin Kern. Kevin had asked you to recommend which songs to put up from his new selection of sheet music. We’re proud to announce we have just added three new songs: Remembering the Light, Keepers of the Flame and Sweet Dreams, Helena.

Here is a list of some other artists we’ve added sheet music or new arrangements for:

• Demi Lovato – Here We Go Again

• Wilco with Feist – You and I
• Regina Spektor – Folding Chair We’ll have the rest of Regina’s songs from her new album Far on the site soon.
• Jason Aldean – Big Green Tractor also as a guitar tab for Big Green Tractor, too. Guitar Guru Session coming soon.
• Elvis Costello – Added three, new songs. Sulphur to Sugarcane, My Mood Swings and Poor Fractured Atlas.

Thank you to everyone who requested songs from Musicnotes.com. If you’re interested, feel free to ask us to add sheet music for your favorite song or artist. Even though we can’t honor every request, we do read through and try to add as many of your requests as we can.

Happy practicing!

Here are quite a few, new songs that you have requested.

• Fly With Me sheet music by the Jonas Brothers.
• Lovegame sheet music by Lady Gaga. COMING SOON!
• The Calculation sheet music by Regina Spektor.
• In the Hands of God sheet music by the Newsboys.
• Gone Too Soon sheet music by Usher.
• PYT sheet music by Michael Jackson.
• The Climb guitar tab by Miley Cyrus. *Guitar Guru Session is coming soon.
• Forgiven and Loved sheet music by Jimmy Needham.

If you are looking for a particular song title and would like to request sheet music from Musicnotes.com, please feel free to use our song suggestion tool to make your requests. Unfortunately, we can’t fulfill every song request you ask for (there’s only so many of us here…) but we make every effort to do so.

Thanks again and enjoy your new songs!