[May 19- 4:04 p.m.]
Local to develop Christian sheet music website

Email | Print By Alexei Smirnov

05-19-2004 4:07 PM — Milwaukee-based Hal Leonard Corp., one of the world’s largest print music publishers, has tapped its Nashville representative to develop a new Christian sheet music Web site.

Mark Cabaniss, who joined Hal Leonard from Brentwood Music in 1995 as editorial and product development executive, told NashvillePost.com the publishing company is looking to spin off a dedicated Christian sheet music operation from its existing Web outlet, Sheetmusicdirect.com.

While the name of the new site has not yet been unveiled, Cabaniss said it is slated for launch later this year. Sheetmusicdirect.com, which charges $3.95 for an average piece of sheet music, will have 18,000 songs online byyearend. The Christian subsidiary will start out with roughly 2,500 songs, licensed by Cabaniss from such groups as EMI Christian Music publishing, Integrity Music and Spring Hill Music and including such acts as Steven Curtis Chapman and DC Talk. The site will be hosted on Hal Leonard's Milwaukee servers.

Recent research pointed out that Christian music sales have been hit especially hard by illegal downloading, but sheet music sales have been on the upswing, Cabaniss said, citing data from the Barna Institute, a well-known Christian sector researcher.