FAQ'S
Publisher vs Agent. What is the role of the Hal Leonard Australia?
Many of you may be familiar and have dealt with Boosey & Hawkes Australia prior to its closure in 2004. Boosey & Hawkes Australia was the Australian office of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers in the UK.
Since the closure, Hal Leonard Australia now acts the hire agent for over 30 different music publishers from Europe, America and Asia. Unlike Boosey & Hawkes Australia, we are not the actual publisher or owner of the classical catalogues that we represent.
Our role as agent is similar to the relationship between a landlord and his agent. When a landlord owns a property he places the property in the hands of a real-estate agent to handle to leasing of the property. The landlord determines the rent charged and the terms that will govern the property. It is the agent's responsibility to represent the requirements given by the landlord and to administer these requirements to the best of their ability. This includes renting out the property, collection of fees, carrying out maintenance and periodic inspections.
Hal Leonard Australia acts on the publisher’s behalf in licensing and providing hire materials owned by the publisher. We deal with groups ranging from community orchestras or choirs through to professional opera and ballet companies in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
By keeping this library in Australia, Hal Leonard Australia has been able to avoid the need for local orchestras, choirs and ensembles to source these works from overseas, which would involve a great deal of time and expense.
This greatly assists both small and large orchestras in keeping their costs down by:
a) having a local agent with local stock for hire
b) negotiate a local hire tariff that is both in line with international pricing rates while still having local interest at heart and
c) co-ordinating the local production of some Australian works to avoid international freight charges for Australian works and
d) negotiating with international publishers to keep sets of materials in the country rather than returning them to their original library after each performance. This dramatically reduces the costs for local orchestras.
How do I source classical music?
There are several things you will need to know about the work you are looking for in order to help you find it:
• Is it in copyright?
- If the composer (or writer of any text in a piece of music) is alive, all of their works are in copyright.
- For composers who have died, copyright lasts for a period of 70 years after the year of their death. The copyright period in Australia was extended from 50 to 70 years at the end of 2005. This now means that Australia is consistent with the 70 year copyright period for both Europe and the USA.
- Composers who died between 1936 and 1955 who were already out of copyright before this extension, will stay out of copyright in Australia. Composers who died in 1956 or later will stay in copyright until the 70 year period has passed.
For example, both Rachmaninoff and Prokofieff died between 1936 and 1955, so they remain out of copyright in Australia. However, they are both still in copyright in Europe and the US.
* Don’t forget that if the work is IN copyright, you will also be required to have a license to perform it. See the ‘permission to perform’ section for more information.
• Who publishes this work?
- It is very useful to find out whether a work is in or out of copyright. Copyright works are usually only available from the one publisher. Out of copyright or Public Domain works may be available from more than one publisher as there is no longer an owner of the work as such.
- Our classical library consists predominantly of copyright music. The only non-copyright music we have available will be those that are produced by publishers we represent. Therefore, it is very important to know what edition of a non-copyright work you would like as this will help determine where to find the music.
If you have established that what you are after is published and on hire only, the next step is to establish who to get it from. Many music publishers have agents in Australia, and these should be listed on the publisher’s website. If no agent for this part of the world is listed, you should contact the publisher and they will either direct your enquiry to their local agent or hire the work to you directly.
Hal Leonard Australia is hire agent for numerous major overseas publishers including Boosey & Hawkes, Schott Music International, Faber Music and Oxford University Press, just to name a few. Visit the ‘Catalogues’ page in the Classical section of this site for a complete list of the companies we represent, plus links to their websites.
If you have established that the work you wish to perform is available on hire and in the catalogue of a publisher represented by Hal Leonard Australia, the next step is to fill in an Application for Hire Form or an Application for Grand Rights Form both available from this link. If you are experiencing difficulty establishing either the publisher or agent for the work you are after, please contact us either by phone or email and we will be happy to assist you in your search.
Always allow as much time as you can between applying for a work and the date you require the music as we can always reserve the music ahead of time. It is not unusual for some of our clients to order 12 months in advance! As we hire to all of Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and sometimes beyond we cannot always guarantee a work will be available at short notice.
When I place a hire application, what type of information do I need to provide?
There are several very important details that we need to know about your performance before we can proceed with your order. To save valuable time, which can sometimes be limited when planning a performance, please ensure that ALL these details are on your form before you send it to us. Applications forms can be found via this link.
When should I submit an order for an upcoming performance?
As early as possible before you require delivery of the material! We handle hire orders from all around Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region, so our materials are quite limited.
It's really important to get your orders in early:
• If less notice is given we cannot guarantee the availability of materials for your performance.
• If we do not have enough materials for your performance, this will often mean that we need to order materials from overseas publishers on your behalf. This can take a minimum of 3 weeks to arrive and international freight costs are at the hirer's expense.
• If orders are received at the last minute, materials may not be delivered to you by the date you have nominated to receive them. A priority fee of A$40 will also apply for last minute orders that need to processed immediately.
• Time must be allowed for the necessary paperwork to be sent to you and for you organise payment and return paperwork to our office. (Signed paperwork and payment must be received before materials can be delivered to you)
Materials can only be reserved once an application form has been received from you. If you are intending to hire a work months or even a year in advance, it's a good idea to submit an order for it early. Payment will not be required immediately for early bookings, but it means that we can hold the materials for you.
All orders are processed within a 5 day period if possible. If your order needs to be processed ASAP, a priority fee will apply.
What does hiring music cost?
The costs involved in hiring music will generally consist of a hire fee, a booking and handling fee and a fee for freight. Grand Right works also involve a fee for royalties.
The hire fee is based on the publisher’s stated duration of the work being performed, the number of performances and the type of group performing. The base hire fee is for a period of two months from the date the materials are required to the first performance date. A longer hire period is available for an additional fee.
If you would like to know the cost of hiring a particular work before placing an order, please contact us by phone, email or fax and we will happily provide you with a detailed quote to help you budget for your upcoming concerts.
If you are only performing an excerpt or movement from a larger work, be sure to specify this on your hire application form. This will ensure that you are not charged hire fees for the entire work!
Our schedule of fees for both Small and Grand Rights is set out on our rate cards which are available on request via this link. These outline the rates for hire, standard discounts available as well as our schedule of related fees, such as booking and handling. There are different rate cards for amateur and educational groups, semi-professionals (“pro-am”) and professionals. So that there is no doubt, we define amateur as completely voluntary groups where no player is paid and where there is no professional management.
In 2006 we changed the way large orchestral works are charged to our educational and amateur clients. We are aware that many of the major works on our catalogues are out of the financial reach of many of these clients, so in order to make these works more affordable, the hire fee for Small Right orchestral works is now calculated to a maximum duration of 40 minutes. This will mean a massive saving for major orchestral works, for example the hire rate for many Shostakovich and Mahler Symphonies will be more than halved!
We hope that with this reference tool, our clients will be able to accurately budget for future performances and to plan their hire music needs. We aim to offer the best service we can to all of our clients while representing the publisher’s interests in this territory. Hiring music can be a complicated business but we believe that armed with a little knowledge and a bit of homework, most librarians will find that music hire is really quite straightforward!
How do I send hire materials back to Hal Leonard?
As our hire materials are very valuable, they should always be returned by any traceable means eg: a traceable and reputable courier, or in person.
Does the hire fee paid also mean that we are given permission to perform?
No. Payment of a hire fee does not grant permission to perform copyright music. A licence to perform MUST be sought from APRA. For information please visit:
http://www.apra.com.au/music-users/events/other_licences.asp
However, performance licenses for Grand Right works are handled Hal Leonard Australia.
What is a Grand Right work?
You may come across the term Grand Right when applying for various works, especially if you are from a choir. Copyright choral works with a duration of 20 minutes or more are termed as Grand Right works.
Grand Right works also include any copyright work performed with any dramatic elements such as dance, dialogue or staging of any kind (other than standard concert presentation).
When planning a performance of a Grand Right work, it is essential to have a performance licence in place with the publisher’s appointed agent. A royalty fee will be payable for Grand Right performances which will be determined by the publisher’s agent.
Royalty fees are calculated on a percentage of the box office receipts pro rata. That is, if the Grand Right work on the programme is 40% of the total music being performed and the royalty fee is 10% gross box office pro rata, the royalty fee would be calculated thus
Total Box Office takings (excluding GST) x 40% (portion of programme) x 10% = Royalty Fee
It is important to note that a work need not be a ‘hire only’ work to be termed Grand Right. For example, an Arvo Pärt unaccompanied choral work of over 20 minutes duration is a Grand Right work even though the music is available on sale. In this case, the choir must have a licence to perform in place with the publisher’s agent prior to the performance and a royalty fee would be applicable.
Why do we have to pay freight?
Hal Leonard Australia represents classical publishers from all over the world that include, France, Germany, Finland, Japan and the United States. While Hal Leonard Australia houses many of the popular titles from the publishers we represent, it would be impossible and impractical to keep every work that a publisher controls. In many cases there are only a few sets of a particular work available in the world and subsequently sets have to be housed in a central location- usually the publisher’s home base.
As the agent for the publishers we only keep as small percentage of the hire fee we collect. This is only right and proper, as the objective must be to return the maximum possible to the composer. From this commission, we must cover all our administration expenses.
When new sets are required for a premiere of a work or when materials are not available for your performance, Hal Leonard Australia imports materials for your performance. As we only take a small commission on the hire, it is not possible for us to cover the international freight charges as the freight costs incurred would be considerably greater than the commission we make. This would result in a considerable loss and in turn would make our business unviable. In order to keep our classical hire department as a viable business and to avoid our local performing companies having to deal directly with overseas publishers, the overseas freight fee is charged to the hirer.
(Please read the section Publisher vs Agent. What is the role of the Hal Leonard Australia? )