Buying from Canasg

We sell through the world-wide web. We supply music in the form of PDF files, from which you can print paper copies.

You pay via PayPal, which lets you use your debit or credit card. You don't have to have a Paypal account. No information about your card reaches Canasg. Our web site does not provide any other means of payment.

There are no delivery charges or other supplements on the price in our catalogue.

Our prices are in UK pounds. If you're not in the UK, your credit/debit card will handle the currency conversion.

We can accept orders by e-mail if that suits you better than our on-line procedure. For example, we can e-mail an invoice before you pay, or we can price your order in $US or Euros.

We usually send the files as attachments to e-mail, within twenty-four hours of your order. PDF files are prepared individually, so please don't expect instant delivery. Other on-line delivery routes are possible, but we do not deliver printed copies on paper.

To buy through our web site, click the “buy” link for the piece you want, and you'll find a very simple form to complete. It asks for the name of the group that will use the music, and also for the size of the group (small groups pay less). Once that's done, click “Add to Cart”. Then you can order another piece, or you can use the “View cart or go to checkout” link. That will take you to PayPal's website where you actually pay (credit cards are accepted even if you don't have a PayPal account). PayPal asks for some of your details, but it reveals only your address to us.

The deal

We offer a different deal from “printed-paper publishers”. The main feature is that copying is allowed. Please read this, so that you know what you'll be getting for your money.

When you buy music from us, you get a PDF file, and you get a licence to print as many copies as you need, provided that all the copies you make are for the exclusive use of one choir or group of singers. You can also reprint whenever you please, so that you can replace copies that get lost or worn out. There's nothing more to pay after your original purchase, no matter how many copies you print.

You can't edit the PDF file that we send, but you can choose which pages to print (e.g., to save paper by leaving out the title page) and what format to print in (e.g., scaled up to make it easier to read with poor eyesight).

The licence does not allow you (or anybody else) to give, lend, hire or sell copies to any other person or group, in any printed or digital format.

Our prices depend on the number of singers in your group.

If you compare our prices with other publishers, they may look high at first glance - £6 (about $7) for one or two sheets of music, for instance. Remember that your money gets you copies for the whole of your group, and then more copies if you need them (and single perusal copies are free).

For composers

If you're interested in having your music published by Canasg, we'd like you to be aware of how we sell music. The deal is a bit different from how other publishers operate.

We charge comparatively little for the music we sell, so you cannot expect to make a lot of money. On the other hand, we do pay out a much larger proportion than normal of our turnover to composers. After we have deducted PayPal's fee from a sale, we give 30% to the composer (or share the 30% between the composer and other rights holders such as the lyricist).

We don't take over your copyright to your music. We simply ask that you grant us enough rights to do our business, and that you allow purchasers all the usual rights to perform and record; and that you don't offer the same music to other publishers while it's in our catalogue.

In particular, we don't insist on having recording rights. If you want to retain and manage those rights for yourself, then you can.

Because we don't sell music on paper, we never run out of stock. You won't get into that frustrating situation where a customer wants to buy your piece that has gone out of print, and the publisher doesn't want to do another print run.

On the other hand, if you get frustrated because a piece isn't selling through our catalogue, we will let you withdraw it and offer it to another publisher.