Web Sheet Music Company Targets Printed Scores

"We want to devalue and crush the traditional sheet music industry as fast as possible," said Brent Mills, vice president of technology, for Sunhawk Corp. The young company’s World Wide Web site allows Internet users to download sheet music for an average 50 percent less than the cost of standard printed sheet music.

Sunhawk’s site (http://www.sunhawk.com) currently has sheet music for more than 3,000 public domain songs. "Most of our songs are available for about $0.99 to $2.99," added Mills. "A copy of the Irish song, Danny Boy, will cost about $5 if you buy it as standard sheet music. Next week, we will offer it for $1.99."

A Windows 95, NT, or Pentium-based technology called Solero, is the brains behind Sunhawk’s Web site. A free Solero viewer allows Internet users to print and play engraving-quality scores. "Our electronic system is a lot more than just selecting a title and printing the music," continued Mills. "You can listen to the song as notes appear on your screen. You change note colors, page layouts, and tempo. Users can even choose the instrument used to play the song."

He continued, "We are selling sheet music, but we are also providing a multimedia environment for consumers to see and hear what they are buying. For example, one of our features allows music students to turn off a part of a song so they can play or sing along."

When a consumer downloads a song, the first page and software features are available. The rest of the music is encrypted and must be opened by an electronic key obtained through a credit card purchase.

According to Sunhawk, retail sheet music accumulates about $400 million in annual revenues. "It is our goal to slice into this market and then become the number one means of obtaining sheet music for teachers, musicians, composers, and music lovers in general," added Mills. "We have already seen people come to our site and download "scores," people who have never bought sheet music. Solero technology is creating an entirely new method of delivering sheet music and already reaching a wider audience."

The company is also investigating the digital rights to current hit songs which traditionally have proprietary print rights pre-established through recording industry contracts. Mills said the company will add new scores every week.

(Contact: Judy McOstrich, Sunhawk Corp., 206-528-0876)