the extra costs were for the rental, which is an entirely separate line item for publishers from licenses. Think about it this way: the parts for a Beethoven Symphony were, in many cases, engraved in the 19th century, and the costs for the engraving, printing, binding, marking, erasing, etc. have now been paid for many times. Even with relatively cheap Soviet-era copying and printing, the Shostakovich may have only recently begun to pay for itself, a new work by a composer with an uncertain performance history ahead of it begins its publication career as sheet music well in the minus. Most new orchestral works get only a single performance and thus will never recoup their material preparation costs. Even today, with computer engraving, there has been some savings on note entry, but editing and layout remain labor intensive and labor is even more expensive. (I run a _very_ small publishing operation; I just got a set of parts back from a major radio orchestra and had to spend about 20 hours erasing, repairing, and replacing damaged parts (yes, the contract said the parts had to be returned in good condition, but who is the stronger party here?); for the rental fee I got, I estimate that my time is worth about three dollars an hour.)

Of course the cost of sheet music, either purchased or rented, is sometimes a deterrent to performances; when all else is equal, people prefer to pay less rather than more. But if more musicians and organizers understood these costs, perhaps there would be less reservation about paying them.

Of course a composer should be able to, at the very lease, recoup the costs of a composition; certainly I believe they should be able to make money too. It has just seemed to me that, at times, the significant fees one must pay to play newer music serve as a deterrent, and as such, orchestras (especially low-budget ones) opt to perform out-of-copyright music instead.

This makes me think of orchestral rental fees as well. Sure, if you’re charging for tickets, you should have to pay a rental fee, but what about community or university orchestras? I remember as an undergrad we frequently opted to perform older works simply because we couldn’t afford the exorbitant licensing fees charged for, say, Shostakovich.

The podcast license is funny. You have to do talk-over moderation (play the music in the background while talking for the intro and outro)
You are also not allowed to play more than 50% of the pieces.
Episode cannot be longer than 30 minutes and, most importantly, epidsodes cannot be about a specific artists and should not contain the title of the work nor the composers name in the episode’s title.
etc.
https://lizenzshop.gema.de/lipo/produkte/podcast/index.hsp

Also please remember that I was talking about work-specific licenses for streaming and downloads, which to my knowledge do not exist, but would be extremely important for artists in the classical music sector.

Thanks again for your comments! Looking forward to discuss this further!

Thanks for your comment!