Digital sheet music

Digital sheet music, also known as Interactive or Virtual, is the newly developed technology distributing high quality but low cost sheet music, which is often created and arranged according to the users’ preferences (custom sheet music or sheet music by request). Similarly to digital audio music, digital sheet music can be instantly downloaded from the Internet and printed for instant fruition.

Two main categories of digital sheet music are currently available:

#Digital sheet music created from tangible, already printed sheet music acquired by scanner (digital photocopies), which quality is limited by image resolution, and by the quality of the originally scanned document.
#Pure digital sheet music created from scratch on the computer, note by note, by using special notational programs in order to create sheet music in postscript graphic format with infinite resolution (vector graphics) of peerless quality.

Purpose, creation and use
Creating digital sheet music was a revolutionary turn in the music market. Through this system, similarly to the audio music market, millions of users browsing the net are able to find the sheet music they are looking for, simply by typing its title in the browser search bar. Specific websites distributing this kind of sheet music have featured Advanced Search tools that offer the opportunity of browsing and finding sheet music matching a specific title, composer, arranger, instrumentation, difficulty, etc. in order to satisfy the user with custom, well tailored sheet music (sheet music on demand).

Once the user finds the right sheet music, he/she can then download the music and print it. Most showcase digital music websites offer the chance of transposing the piece (or they already have the piece arranged in different keys) in order to fit the user’s musical needs. Most of the times, musicians downloading this sheet music (usually in PDF file format) can also choose to download, free of charge, the MIDI or Mp3 audio file going along with the music. As a result, people downloading digital sheet music benefit of entirely personalised sheet music, according to their musical taste, price preference, transposition requirements, and with audio files aiding their musical performance or study.

Various plug-ins can help to display the digital sheet music files according to their published format. As mentioned above, PDF file format is the most common type, however some websites utilise different plug-ins to allow users to view and play the sheet music before purchase and, furthermore, to transpose it in real-time. An example is the Sibelius Scorch plug-in, as well as the Finale Viewer, and the . Usually free of charge, these programs are very helpful to users and website owners, for the correct management of the digital sheet music archives. In addition, they are user-friendly and speed up sheet music downloads for printing.

History
Digital sheet music, as a media for distribution of sheet music in digital format, started to form with the newly wide-spread use of the Internet, around 1994-1995. Small, often personal websites started creating sheet music in digital format in order to distribute personal compositions or classical music in public domain to their Internet audience. At the beginning of 1998 the first digital sheet music store appeared on the web: SheetMusicDirect.comwas the first site distributing popular sheet music in digital file format, whereas Virtualsheetmusic.com was the first site offering high quality, pure digital classical sheet music together with custom arrangements and transcriptions tailored for any instrument and ensemble by user request. Subsequently, more sites emerged expanding the available digital sheet music repertoire: In 1999 a new wave of digital sheet music commercial sites were introduced such as MusicNotes.com and SheetMusicScore.com along with free and subscription websites such as Sheetmusicarchive.net, Musicaviva.com and many others. 2004 saw the first fully personalised digital sheet music service, rfkharris.com, appear on the internet, where the user could make any bespoke demands of their sheet music.

As of today, many titles of printed sheet music can be found in digital format for instant download on the Internet. Technology is expanding digital sheet music interactivity and enjoyment with the aid of devices such as Sibelius Scorchwhich allows for midi playback, instrument changes and transposition and music tablets introduced by Free Hand Freehandmusic.com which allow musicians to download music and store it into such devices which allow for playing instantly and directly without consuming a single drop of ink. However it should be noted that these tablets are fairly pricey and aimed primarily at the professional musician. Another approach is a software program called MusicReader which runs on ordinary laptops and tablet PCs. Vivaldistudio.com also offers downloadable software for creating and reading interactive digital sheet music suited for the professional musician.

At this time there are many different viewers and formats used by the different companies offering digital sheet music and all require the user to download specific software which depending on the users system can require that the user have some basic knowledge of installation procedures. SheetMusicScore.com is reportedly testing a new beta viewer that will no longer require that the user download and install software as both PC's and Macs will instantly display the sheet music using a viewer based on flash technology. This new system is eagerly anticipated and slated for release sometime in 2008.

Digital printable sheet music has some limitations. It is best when used for fairly short pieces of music; it is less practical when applied to large-scale works, because most domestic printers still print on one side of the paper only, and although two-sided printing is usually possible, it is rarely easy, can be very time consuming, and a large score can have many hundreds of pages. Paper size is also restricting; neither the American letter size page nor the European A4 format is ideal for printed music, which really needs a slightly larger and wider page format. However, for some smaller specialist sheet music publishers, downloadable digital sheet music is an excellent vehicle: for example Scotchsnap which publishes Scottish fiddle and folk music, or Schubertline which offers classical songs and operatic arias. Both of these offer scores averaging only 4 or 6 pages. Using Sibelius Scorch, such websites offer printed scores which can be listened to at any tempo and in any key, and because the pieces are usually quite short, there is a particularly good match between the music and the resource. But although many small publishers like Scotchsnap and Schubertline set professional standards of editing and presentation, the easy availability of this type of resource to self-publishers and amateur composers means that a lot of digital music available on the web is of limited musical value and often badly presented. The largest website offering self-publishing is Sibelius Music, which offers a very large catalog of music of variable quality.

Copyright
Like any other digital media (images, audio and video files), digital sheet music faces the issue of copyright management. Digital sheet music can implement a strong copyright management; digital files can be easily encrypted and protected for distribution, as it is already common practice with .wma (audio) and .wmv (video) files, by using the technology known as DRM (digital rights management). Custom file formats displayed with special software can allow the user to print just one copy of music, or allow printing just a definite number of copies.

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