Musicnotes adds a guitar player

Lynn Welch  —  4/05/2007 9:14 am

Musicnotes Inc. plans to re-establish a guitar tab sharing Web site this summer, introducing what it believes is the first place guitar players can legally share tablature online.

The Madison online sheet music seller bought MXTabs.net last year for an undisclosed sum shortly after it was voluntarily shut down by its creator, Jeremy Ferwerda.

Since then, Musicnotes has been hammering out details that would enable the site to operate again without violating copyright law.

Musicnotes calls the project "ground breaking."

"As far as a legal site, this will be the first," said Musicnotes Chairman Tim Reiland. "It's no YouTube, but this site generates a lot of traffic from people that want to post content and share guitar tabs."

Ferwerda was not available to comment. Reiland said he will remain as a consultant with the site. He also operates Sputnikmusic.com, a community-driven site featuring CD reviews.

MXTabs.net will run as an advertising-driven business, sharing revenue with publishers who agree to allow free use of content. The Harry Fox Agency Inc. will be Musicnotes' first partner in the venture, offering commission-free access to content from the 31,000 music publishers it represents.

Participating publishers will receive a percentage of advertising revenue generated through views or downloads of song tabs on the MXTabs site, according to the agency.

"Musicnotes proves the viability of a copyright-friendly, ad-supported guitar tab Web site," stated Gary Churgin, Harry Fox Agency president and CEO.

Harry Fox expanded its licensing and royalty distribution capabilities to support this kind of service, Churgin said. He added that it will continue to adapt to new licensing opportunities and models like this to extend service to its publishers.

Reiland said Musicnotes, which sells sheet music online at Musicnotes.com, will run the site separately. The company has several people working part-time on repopulating the site, and making sure it's all legitimate.

"We're bootstrapping it," Reiland said. "We'll devote certain resources to it, but before we throw a lot of money at it we need to make sure it generates some ad revenues. That remains to be proven."

Ferwerda, of Ithaca, N.Y., launched MXTabs.net in 1999 to post free tabs for those learning to play drums. The site added guitar and bass tablature, posted by users, as it became more popular.

Tablature is musical notation telling players where to place their fingers on a particular instrument. It is used primarily for fretted stringed instruments.

Last year, the U.S. Music Publishers' Association started to campaign against sites offering such free music tabs online.

Many, like MXTabs, voluntarily shut down. But others remain.

Musicnotes believes it can take advantage of its relationships with big music publishers to make its model work and generate additional revenue for itself and music publishers.

"Our experience as the world's leading digital sheet music company has placed us in a unique position to deliver this guitar tablature to millions of interested consumers," said Kathleen Marsh, Musicnotes CEO.

Lynn Welch  —  4/05/2007 9:14 am