Prices of Music Monographs as Reflected in Notes, 2015–2021

Prices of Music Monographs as Reflected in Notes, 2015–2021 Elizabeth Berndt Much has changed since last year’s column. Libraries reopened for the 2021–22 school year with staff required to be in-person or on hybrid work schedules. The pandemic has changed how patrons use libraries, including the need for more digital holdings. In turn, many books are left out of this analysis due to the difficulties of obtaining consistent pricing and purchasing options across institutions for electronic books. This column has traditionally been for printed publications and will remain so for this issue. This does mean, however, that we are left with a skewed perspective on the past year’s publication trends. Scores are not included in the column this year. During the pandemic fewer scores were received resulting in a shift in direction for the Music Received column. Perhaps it is time to explore how to make the Prices of Music Monographs column more effective and complementary to our collecting strategies, which I will explore in the year ahead. In terms of monographs, as reflected here, the average price declined slightly in 2020 from $81.71 to $81.46. The number of books included rose for the first time in three years to 446 books. Prices were available for all 446 books, so all of them were included in the calculations. A small number of non-English-language books are included. Those numbers can be seen in the Monographs by Language chart. Given the low number of items in these languages, drawing conclusions from the data might be ill-advised. The books included in the Books Recently Published column, which serves as the source for this index, is compiled quarterly from a variety of sources, including publisher and vendor websites and announcements. The data includes both hardback and paperback editions, but no distinction between them is made in the charts. Nor do the charts distinguish between volumes issued with accompanying materials (CDs, CDROMs, etc.) and those without. If prices are available for both paperback and hardback editions, the price of the hardback edition has been used. Electronic texts are not included. Book counts are based on the number of titles rather than the number of volumes. Although every effort was made to collect and report data accurately, errors and inconsistencies may exist; please use the data with this in mind. This column is intended [End Page 203] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 204] to show general trends in pricing of music materials and should be used only as a guide to collection development planning. All prices are reported in US dollars and reflect retail prices; they do not reflect discounts or special sale pricing. Prices were obtained from a number of online sources including, but not limited to: Amazon.com and its various international sites (www.amazon.com); Theodore Front Musical Literature (https://www.tfront.com/); and individual publishers’ sites. Currency conversions for the small number of books not priced in US dollars were done on 14 June 2022, using https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/. Charts for each category include the following data: the number of items in the category (Items); the total price of the items (Total); and the arithmetic mean (or average) of the total (Mean). Each table is accompanied by a line or bar graph that plots trends in the mean price over the years 2015 through 2021. Note again that the year denotes when the item appeared in Notes, not necessarily the year of publication. The Y-axis (vertical axis) of each graph is scaled in US dollars and the relevant years are represented on the X-axis (horizontal axis). [End Page 205] Copyright © 2022 Music Library Association, Inc