Musicnotes.com Offers Sheet Music Downloads for Summer's Biggest Movies: Hairspray, Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Pirates of the Caribbean & High School Musical 2

New Musicnotes Press Release:

MADISON, WI – July 27, 2007 – Movie fans looking to learn to play and sing music from this summer’s most popular movies need look no further than their nearest computer, a visit to Musicnotes.com, and a printer full of paper.

Over the past month, Musicnotes.com has added downloadable sheet music for several of the summer’s hottest films including Hairspray, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Simpsons Movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and Spider-Man 3 to its online sheet music catalog of over 60,000 titles.

Sheet music for the single “What Time Is It” (from the upcoming Disney Channel movie High School Musical 2) is also available. Additional sheet music from High School Musical 2 will be available for download on August 17, 2007, in conjunction with the movie’s Disney Channel debut.

As part of this current push for movie sheet music, Musicnotes recently worked in conjunction with Alfred Publishing and New Line Records to incorporate a link to the Musicnotes web site in the recent Hairspray CD soundtrack release. Owners of the CD gain access to a web site link whereby they can receive a discount on selected sheet music titles from the film.

“The immediacy of the Internet has allowed us to offer movie fans the ability to learn movie themes while the film is still in the theater,” said Bill Aicher, Musicnotes Director of Marketing. “These songs strike chords with people when they see the movie. To be able to go home from the cinema and re-live those experiences by playing the songs can be extremely gratifying.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of over 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Disney Music Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Twentieth Century Fox Music Publishing, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

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

Plain White T's: "Hey There Delilah"

Sheet music for one of the most-requested songs of recent time is now available for download at our main site in three different flavors: Guitar Tab, Guitar Guru, and Piano/Vocal/Guitar sheet music.

Click here to browse all three versions of "Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's.

Musicnotes.com Passes $5 Million in Royalties Paid; Continues Drive for New Revenue Stream with Advertising Supported MXTabs.net Guitar Tab Initiative

Our latest news...

MADISON, WI – July 12, 2007 – Musicnotes announced today royalty payments to music publishers and the songwriters they represent recently passed the $5 million mark.  In 2007 alone, royalty payments on Musicnotes’ digital sheet music downloads should exceed $2 million. 

Musicnotes, the world wide leader in sales of downloadable sheet music, sold its first digital download in late 1999 and will sell its three-millionth download sometime this fall.

During the first half of 2007 downloads at Musicnotes.com increased 40% over the previous year.  Musicnotes has sold almost 600,000 sheet music and guitar tablature downloads year-to-date at an average price of $4.75 per download.

“At a time when the music industry is struggling to find new revenue streams our pay-for-content digital delivery model is coming into its own,” stated Musicnotes CEO Kathleen Marsh.   “Musicnotes continues to focus on adding content and enhancements to our award-winning website. We believe the digital market is still in its infancy as far as sales potential.”

In addition to the musicnotes.com pay-for-content site, Musicnotes hopes to re-launch a totally separate advertising-based guitar, bass and drum tab site, MXTabs.net.  Unauthorized guitar tab sites continue to operate and attract significant consumer traffic, generating meaningful advertising revenues that are not shared with publishers and songwriters.

Due to inefficiencies inherent in the traditional print music business, there is no legal alternative for 80% of the songs found on the unauthorized tab sites.  The MXTabs.net site is designed to provide musicians with the music they want in a format they are familiar with, while also providing songwriters and copyright holders with an additional revenue stream for their intellectual property.

“We believe pay-for-content and “free and legal” models can coexist in the music notation market,” said Marsh.  “Publishers and songwriters will maximize their income embracing both approaches.  It is disappointing that certain music industry forces oppose the MXTabs initiative, as we believe this is exactly the type of venture the industry needs to generate new revenue in an online world.  Although this opposition has slowed our progress, we intend to push forward.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of over 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Disney Music Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

On the web:
http://www.musicnotes.com
http://www.mxtabs.net

Hairspray Sheet Music + Enhanced CD Bonus

Over the past few weeks Musicnotes has been hard at work with Alfred Publishing and New Line Cinema getting together digital sheet music for songs from the upcoming (and sure to be blockbuster) film, Hairspray.  We've put together a special Hairspray sheet music page featuring all of the currently available songs - and many more songs are to come.

Also, if you happen to pick up a copy of the official Hairspray soundtrack CD, be sure to put the CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive to visit the special enhanced content website. You'll find a link there to a special promotion for soundtrack owners to receive a discount (courtesy of New Line Cinema) on Musicnotes digital sheet music for two of the new songs written specifically for the movie.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Sheet Music

Attention all Harry Potter fans - sheet music for themes from the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix are now available for download.  Seven new themes are available from the film - joining the dozens of other sheet music downloads we have available from the previous Harry Potter films.

You can find them all at our Harry Potter sheet music store.

Holly Brook: "What I Wouldn't Give"

We've received a lot of requests, both through our main site and through the blog, for us to add digital sheet music for the song "What I Wouldn't Give" by Holly Brook.

So... we've gone ahead and arranged sheet music for it - and you can buy and download it here.

Holly Brook: "What I Wouldn't Give"

Enjoy!

Executive Q&A - Walter Burt: Hitting right notes of online sheet music

The other day Musicnotes' own Head of Technology, Walter Burt, was the subject of a Q&A article in Madison's (our home town) newspaper The Wisconsin State Journal.

If you'd like to learn a bit of what happens in our technology department straight from the horse's mouth, be sure to check out the article at the link below:

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/index.php?ntid=199611&ntpid=2