1. Scores of Scores :
What’s going on with the growing number of scores on YouTube
I was surprised to find out at my MLA chapter meeting last October that, after mentioning this upcoming presentation, many of our colleagues were not aware of the existence of scores on YouTube. So, for those of you among them, I am delighted to be able to fill you in on this recent phenomenon and valuable resource. Recently, between , there has been a surge of videos uploaded to YouTube in which the video portion is the score and the audio is, of course, the accompanying music. The time periods span the gamut from the Baroque all the way to Contemporary music. The legality of these videos is complicated since copyright can be involved, and usually is. Permissions would be required from the composer, publisher, performers and/or the record label. These types of videos are usually associated with a specific channel that specializes in score videos and has a somewhat substantial selection, but they are also spattered around by other users who only have a few along with their other videos. Today I will focus on the former and on those that put out score videos of contemporary music. Most of these channels ignore copyright completely, but some, as we’ll see have gone to great lengths to make this a legal resource for contemporary music.
MLA annual meeting, Orlando, Florida
February 24, 2017
Matt Ertz, University of Louisville

2. Scores of Scores Background 17’’
This is an example of a more complicated score video in which the uploader gives us a copy of the manuscript and a modern engraving below. It also uses the scrolling feature which is not commonly found in most score videos.

3. Scores of Scores Background Began to appear around 2009
Many score channels decimated by copyright infringement
Primarily Classical and Romantic music
Public domain scores - Recordings under copyright
Rights holders allow with ad revenue
Contemporary music scores began to appear around 2011
Many prolific channels terminated
Michael Nelson
John11inch
p0lyph0nyXX
Maybe as early as 2007, hard to determine
Most at this time were Classical/romantic
Content decimated; YouTube’s Content ID
Content ID detects copyrighted songs and performances, notifies copyright holder, gives them the option to take down or monetize.

4. Types of Channels : Baroque/Classical/Romantic
Scores of Scores
Types of Channels : Baroque/Classical/Romantic
Gerubach – joined in 2008 – 165 videos - average views: about 25K
ClassicalScores – joined in 2009 – 23 videos - average views: about 958K
SheetMusicVideo – joined in 2011 – 58 videos - average views: about 1K
Musicnetmaterials – joined in 2012 – 3,390 videos – average views: about 2K
Bartje Bartmans – joined 2014 – 551 videos – average views: about 1K
The Great Repertoire – joined in 2012 – 453 videos – average views: about 15K
Score’sAnimation – joined in 2014 – 554 videos – average views: about 500
Ashish Xiangyi Kumar – joined in 2007 – 163 videos – average views: about 20K
Gerubach:
Some of the finest score videos, but some real bad ones as well
ClassicalScores:
one channel whose content was decimated
Musicnetmaterials – makes their videos into analyses; in Spanish
Great Repertoire: uses their own homemade editions and performances of classical music
Ashish: Excellent description detailing the form with timings and historical background – example next slide

5. Types of Channels : Baroque/Classical/Romantic
Scores of Scores
Types of Channels : Baroque/Classical/Romantic
Screen shot of Ashish’s description to a Beethoven sonata

6. Types of Channels : Baroque/Classical/Romantic
Scores of Scores
Types of Channels : Baroque/Classical/Romantic
Screen shot of musicnetmaterials analysis video.

7. Types of Channels : Early 20th Century
Scores of Scores
Types of Channels : Early 20th Century
Thomas Ligre – joined in 2010 – 132 videos - average views: about 30K
Sihyeon Choe – joined in 2012 – 183 videos - average views: about 5K
olla-vogala – joined in 2015 – 459 videos - average views: about 12K
George N. Gianopoulos – joined in 2007 – 585 videos – average views: about 2K
thenameisgsarci – joined 2011 – 402 videos – average views: about 10K
Thin ice
Thomas Ligre: Ives, Bartok, Berg, Ligeti
Olla: specializes in eastern european music
George: prolific, Ginestera, Revueltas, Jolivet, and lots of contemporary

8. Types of Channels : Contemporary
Scores of Scores
Types of Channels : Contemporary
Belanna – joined in 2012? – 782 videos - average views: about 2K*
Belanna111
Belanna999
Belanna000
Richard Markus – joined in 2015 – 51 videos – re-uploader
Mexican Scores – joined in 2015 – 25 videos - average views: about 300
incipitsify – joined in 2012 – 365 videos – average views: about 2K
Score Follower – joined 2013 – 99 videos – average views: about 2K
Mediated Scores – joined 2015 – 8 videos – average views: about 700
Belanna: not all scores – savvy –
Mexican scores: Might be Legal – probably has composers permission – maybe not the performers because of note in description.
Incipitsify: quickly became the leader in contemporary music scores. They focused on scores that were out of the spotlight or off the beaten path, like lesser known composers, composers they knew personally or some Schonberg and Webern and for a while this practice kept them off the copyright radar.
Last three are the channels we will focus on for the remainder of the presentation

9. Scores of Scores Score Follower Begun in 2013
Asked to take over incipitsify
Became and organization (Score Follower)
Legal
Staff
501(c)3 non-profit status (2015)
Begun in 2013 by composer Dan Tramte. Inspired by the year-old incipitsify.
After a year+ of activity, he was asked by the creator of incipitsify to take over the channel
Brought on help to manage content for both channels
Decided to become and organization and to do things aboveboard (legal); recruited a team (or staff) to handle various aspects of this legal resource, now known as Score Follower.
First order of business was to become a 501(c)3 non-profit organization primarily to facilitate grant writing and relationships with composers and companies, which they did in 2015.
- They are dedicated to the dissemination of new music & score study for educational purposes and general consumption.
Their goal is to provide access to a type of experience (viewing a score while listening to the recording) only otherwise available to (students/faculty who happen to be affiliated with a university that has a large catalogue of new music scores).
Take care of the tedious process of contacting composers, obtaining the media, and turning pages at the right time.
extending the interest of new music on a global scale.
Inspiring a generation

10. Scores of Scores Score Follower

11. Scores of Scores Score Follower - 2016
101 new videos by 63 composers (≈500 total)
Follow My Score Commissioning Project
Indiegogo
Screened by an internationally renowned panel and ensemble (Dal niente)
Likes campaign
Costa Rican composer Julio Zúñiga (b.1987)
3 Featured composers
Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (Sikorski)
Panayiotis Kokoras (self-published)
Beat Furrer (Bärenreiter)
1 new channel (Mediated Scores)
Continue to establish new relationships with composers and publishers

12. Score Follower - Analytics
Scores of Scores
Score Follower - Analytics
1.8 million Views ; 4.6 million minutes
Primarily viewed males (86%) ages (69%)
Views primarily from US, Germany, UK, Italy, Japan and France
Views on YouTube page & mobile apps (94%) – Embedded videos (6%)
10,000+ subscribers
Videos in playlists: ≈15,250
Shares: 7,700

13. Scores of Scores Score Follower - Staff Maintain a staff of 14 people
4 Directors
Video production
Curation
Communications
Web design
Grants
Non-profit
Musician Rep.
Social networking
5 Staff video production
Mediated Scores
Imaginary Concert Series
2 Musicologists
Research
Interviews
Legal

14. Score Follower - Process
Scores of Scores
Score Follower - Process
Software: Photoshop, FinalCut, Adobe Premiere
Discover new music and composers (Most time-consuming)
Extract PDF scores into individual PDFs (≈3 min.)
Convert to PNG (automated)
Cropping (≈15 min.)
Import media to video editing software (≈10 min.)
Line up images with corresponding audio (≈30 min.-1 hr.)
Upload to YouTube and backup in Dropbox (≈20 min.)
Composer review
Social networks
- Total time video production (≈2 hr.)
- Depends on length, difficulty, formatting issues

15. Score Follower - Relationships
Scores of Scores
Score Follower - Relationships
Composers
Record Labels/Ensembles
Chaya Czernowin
Jason Eckardt
Moritz Eggert
Kairos
Publishers
Dal Niente
Contemporary Music Community
Sikorski
Bärenreiter
Rai Trade
Academic
Carl Fischer
Non-academic
Schott
Young composers
Self-published
Rite of passage
I never would have…
Big into developing relationships
Will only help them in the future
“Almost zero” composers not interested.
Young and established both love
List of pubs
Some pubs say no despite their client’s enthusiasm, probably have their own plans

16. Score Follower - Future
Scores of Scores
Score Follower - Future
Follow My Score 2017
Featured composers
Blog
Index
“Building a community of musicians”
Promotion/Curation
Expand the diversity of content
Older music
“Mainstream” contemporary
Subscription to exclusive content????
Mobile app

17. Scores of Scores Final Thoughts Free and legal resource
Could this change the way new music is disseminated?
Could this be a way to keep contemporary music in “print” longer?
Could this change the way contemporary music is perceived?
How can we help?
Unprecedented
First of all, for us librarians, This is a free and 100% legal resource, much like IMSLP. It can be used to discover new composers and repertoire and if you are the type that provides links to external sites on your webpage, this certainly could without fear of legal repercussions or link rot.
Lastly, much of what Score Follower is doing is Unprecedented – this is a new way to experience music. This is also changing the way people discover new music. Never has a youtube channel commissioned a piece of music – never has a piece of western art music see its first public light of day as a youtube score and never has something like this had the potential to directly influence a whole generation of composers and performers as well as those to come. This is certainly a resource to keep a close eye on.

18. Scores of Scores References
Eggert, Moritz. “An Intervew with Dan Tramte : Creator of Score Follower Channel on YouTube.” Bad Blog of Musick : das bedeutendste Blog zur zeitgenossischen Musikkultur, July 1, Accessed January 24, 2017,
Lewanski, Michael. “Why Cat Videos Are Awesome: New Music, Score Follower, and YouTube.” Ensemble Dal Niente, September 10, Accessed January 24, 2017,
Rutherford-Johnson, Tim. “Interview with Score Follower’s Dan Tramte.” Score Follower, [2015]. Accessed January 25, 2017,
----. “Technology: Making New Music Visible.” The Amati Magazine, November 9, Accessed February 1, 2017,
Score Follower. “Follow My Score! 2016 Commissioning Project.” Indiegogo, [2016]. Accessed January 23, 2017,