Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Hal Leonard CD Scam

Just thought I would share.
Bought a CD rom of some pop songs by the Hal Leonard company today.
What I thought I was buying was a series of 75 pdf style files I could run off my laptop and/or send to a flatscreen for easier viewing and portability.
What I discovered once I'd opened the box and read theinstructions:
1) There is software on the disc that you need to install. Therefore it won't run on IPad or similar devices.
2) There are no actual files, only a set of clickable links that send you to their file servers.
That means you can't really use the disc off line. Sorry I'm not setting up LAN and an extra computer just for this.
3) You must register before you can print any of the sheets. Even then you must again be on the internet and it will only let you print exactly 1 copy. After that you need to pay them again!

30 bucks for this? I could have bought a 200-song book for the same price. And I still have to pay for the paper and ink for hard copies. What a ripoff!

Scam might be a little harsh, it's also libel if not true. Seems you didn't fully research the product. Did it state otherwise? Can you return it?

Yup! #[2] would have been my Number One (and only) choice. Go to the music store. Look at the books. Pick the one you like. Pay your thirty bucks. Everybody's happy!

Caveat emptor. This is one reason I prefer to buy at music stores, where I can put my eyes and hands on the product before making a buying decision.

On the other hand, a year or two back I sent a note to Hal Leonard, asking if there might be some way to get a copy of the currently out-of-print piano score of The Carousel Waltz (the curtain-opener--- in orchestral score--- for the Broadway show, Carousel). Someone uploaded a version of it here, and I wanted to try it over for myself.

While they did not answer my note, I noticed recently that it is now available on their website, via the sheet music DL program you mentioned. No doubt, installing their proprietary software to print a single copy is a nuisance... but I daresay they have their reasons.

I wonder if you let them know your feelings about this? Or just fired off a note to a public forum. And what was their response, if any? They are not, after all, in business to displease their customers.

If you thought it was a disc of PDF files, which you would have had to print out anyway, your complaint about having to print them is a little hard to follow.

If the requirements weren't clear, complain to the seller and return it. A quick search online showed me one online store where the requirements looked perfectly clear and one (Sheet Music Plus) where they weren't.

Having said that, I don't think I would ever have assumed that a CD of sheet music would just be PDF files.

Using Scorch (which is what they do) has some advantages but I'm not there on the e-music ... give me a book I can write in any day!

Most print drivers now can give you the option of printing to PDF instead of hard copy.
My HP inkjet printer has a scanner. If you take the printed page and scan it, you can then put it on any device you own. Just don't put it on a file share site that is not only poor judgement, its also illegal.

Print to file can be blocked by PDF when/if created by Adobe. I don't know if that is the case here.

But, as you say a workaround could be to print the PDF once as allowed by the software, then scan it back in to your PC as a PDF from which you can create a Word Document so that it is not an 'image' copy and then create a 'text PDF'. Hope this makes sense. Just goes to show that the object of doing what HAL are doing can be defeated. This applies to any copyrighted document, possibly as long as it's for personal use done under fair use or copyleft principles. IANAL, don't bother with a riposte unless you are.

Sorry to hear of your experience. I only want to buy the printed music books but often you are stuck buying a cd which dubbles the price.

Now that I've had 24 hours to reflect and calm down I will tone down my ripoff remarks to mere diappointment.

To answer a few questions above, I clearly asked the clerk in the store if these files could be transferred to a tablet via PC, and if the files were pdf style.
The clerk said yes in both cases.In fact the answer is no in both cases, which you don't discover until the package is opened and software installed.
I am not so hung up on the fact you need internet access to print the sheets. Obviously you need a printer setup anyway so no problem.
My issue in that regard is that only one copy is permissable. The software has capabilty to transpose into any key but you still only get 1 "free" copy. Considering I already paid $30 and this fact is not discovered until you open the package and install the software, I would consider this somewhat disappointing.
I was wrong in my initial statement that the songs would not display without an internet connection. They do, but even in full screen mode are too small to read. You really do need to print them for best results.

I will try the print to pdf option. Does this work in Internet Explorer? But that doesn't get around the fact that if I want to print the same song in 3 keys I have to pay again.

Finally I probably won't take the item back because I bought it out of town and the gas would cost more than the credit. Sorry for the negative tone of my original post I just wanted others not to end up with the same situation.

Thanks for suggestions and feedback above. Not the end of the world and I'll chalk it up to bad luck. Cheers.

Am I one of the very few left on the earth who does not want to go through 7 electronic steps in order to read a page or two of music? The world is becoming a lonely place . . .

Schroeder, I think you have a perfectly legitimate reason to return this package for a refund. Salespeople who work in specialty stores are expected to know their products. If they give you an answer about a product they sell, that answer ought to be correct. If they do not know, then the answer needs to be, "I don't know."

I've been following...

If your objective is to display the music on a tablet (iPad) and you are able to "print" to a PDF from the software, you could try emailing the PDF to yourself. Open the email on the iPad and then choose to open the PDF in iBooks. I have a bunch of sheets stored on my iPad done in this manner.

Or, I could be completely misunderstanding...

I agree that you shouldn't be charged more for additional sheets after paying for the program in the first place.

Scorch is pretty standard for music downloads; Sheet Music Plus uses Scorch and I think their prices are pretty fair per piece.

I got a pm from a very nice person at Hal Leonard offering me a credit on newer products.
I can't cut and paste on my tablet but I will share once I go online.
Faith in humanity restored!

If your using windows 7 simply open the file on their website and use windows snip tool to capture and save it.

Then open something like word, insert the captured pic and then convert it to PDF (pretty sure the option to save word docs to PDF was either included in recent word versions, or is a free download)

Actually if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat you can just right-click on an image and convert directly to pdf. I think you need the full version of Adobe though.

"...I got a pm from a very nice person at Hal Leonard offering me a credit on newer products...."

Good for you, Hal Leonard!

And Schroeder, I'm glad it has worked out for you--- at least, better than it seemed at first.

I'm sure it's just a glitch in technology. We're all trying to figure out the new way of delivering products while protecting ourselves from pirates and file sharing. Ipads are a new phenomenon, so I'm sure companies aren't always thinking of making them compatible. Add to that Apple's exclusion of Flash and you get all sorts of issues.

I remember when CDs were new, Sony put some sort of anti-piracy software on their CDs that restricted you from copying files. However, it also made them not play on computers and a few other CD players. Oops. Growing pains. Glad they are trying to make it right.

Am I one of the very few left on the earth who does not want to go through 7 electronic steps in order to read a page or two of music?

Oops, I already asked that question about 37 electronic steps ago:


Somehow, after each post, I keep coming back to that same question . . .