I am a man of many parts, with many faces and many hats, but I am one thing above all: A composer! I write and arrange music! Most days I can be found at the computer, driving my favourite notation program or at the piano; writing tunes, checking harmonies or fine tuning voicings. It is what I was born to do. It is the career I chose for myself at the age of 13 and Damn! I do a lot of it!

As a composer, I am registered with a copyright collection society, (which is APRA/AMCOS), and my IPI, (Interested Party Information), is 00526620172. My works are also registered and each have their own ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code). When you use my work at some point these numbers will be used to assign my legitimate royalties to me.

I've been in the composing game for more than 50 years and although I could read music from the age of 10 I didn't write much of my stuff down in proper notation until 1998. Then the flood gates opened and I've been filling staves with notation ever since!

Once you are comfortable with writing notation you can start to do multi-instrument arrangements and, provided that you are working with your own material, it is at that point that you can start to call yourself a composer.

Once you become a composer you can take yourself out of the picture as the essential performer and this allows you to step back and see the entire project as a whole. You can then take a balanced approach to ensemble choice, soloist choice, key, and orchestration.

It takes a long time to develop the many skills and musical sensitivities required to get everything working at its best before you can hope to produce masterpieces to compete with the best. However, it is not only time that is required, you must also have the innate talent and you must also have the inspiration and perspective and you must also have that rarest of things: The ability to write a great tune...

This is my shop where I sell my copyrighted notation. I want people to play my stuff but I also need to make some money. Everything here is available for download for a fee. I keep my prices modest so that everyone can afford to pay.

I am currently trialing an honesty system where you download the piece you desire and donate the stipulated price. Please have some respect for the struggling composer and pay the small amounts I ask. I live just above the poverty line and the money makes a difference. This is a simple system that is easy for all of us and if people play the game I will keep it this way. I monitor the downloads and if too many people are simply taking my material without paying I will have to move to a different system that will require you to pay before you can download. Please think about this before you decide to abuse the system.

Finally: If you perform my music in public please lodge your set list for each performance with your country's copyright collection society. In Australia this is APRA. This is the only way that the legitimate copyright owners, (including me), can get their rightful performance royalties. In the case of most small gigs, the royalties will be paid out of the fund that is collected from the venue operators each year. It's easy to set up a set list and every time you use it you simply click on that set and add the date and venue. They do the rest.

If you record my music and release it to the public via a streaming service like Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube Music, make sure that you specify me, (and any listed collaborators), as the copyright owner(s). Often you will be asked for the ISWC, (International Standard Musical Work Code), which is a unique number that is assigned to each work by copyright owner's copyright collection society. I will include the proper ISWC on the download page for each of my works. This will allow the recording industry system to pay me the correct mechanical royalties each time they are streamed.

Ordinary YouTube is a crazy outlaw beast, that essentially thumbs it's nose at international copyright law, doing whatever the LARGE private collection organisations ask and ignoring the rights of all the small players, (like me). The LARGE private collection organisations are allowed to scan all uploads, looking for copyright content which YouTube will then assign, whether it is fair or not, (YES, you get a chance to dispute). If you are a small fish you have NO WAY to get your legitimate copyright royalties as the YouTube system doesn't allow you to detect breaches and doesn't allow you to nominate the copyright owner of your covers, even if you want to. The big fish get ALL the food and the small fry get NOTHING! The matter of YouTube and copyright is a serious business that requires proper oversight from the Supreme Court of the USA, however, since the USA is all about the big fish don't expect a change any time soon...


Warren Mars: August 2024