A tru artizt with a publisher deal has little to say about how his works should be distributed. Publishers usually get exclusive rights, not even the composer himself is allowed to give away score to his friends. Then there’s the PRS, due to the contract with them, I’m technically not even allowed to put my own recordings of my own music on the net…
If you’re music is not being stolen, it’s a bad sign; it means only libraries and dry academics are buying your scores for archival purposes or for light perusal.
If your music is being stolen, it’s a good sign; it means young musicians with little disposable income are excited with the music and want to spread it.
So imo composers these days ought to be more concerned with making art and enriching society than becoming rich (though some measure of fame and fortune is generally a natural by-product of the former).
Kapustin – a great modern composer – is likely not rich at all. But it’s not clear to me that he wants to be rich, or even famous. He’s singularly focused on creating art.
A lot of composers do this, problem is you never hear about most of them. Without a publisher actively promoting, it’s not easy to get your music heard. Publishers might do a good job marketing, but they also put restrictions on how sheets can be distributed. When bashing composers, you’re barking up the wrong tree. All composers I know who have publishing contracts would be happy to put their scores online for free, but it’s not their choice anymore (and all of them happily give paper copies or send pdfs to musicians asking for them, even though this is against their conract). Most bigtime composers have had publisher deals long before the www even existed and have never had the opportunity to share their scores for free. I think it’s the publishers who should put on some fine suits then gather in a meeting room, have some coffe and really think about the opportunities of the internet and how it should be used to promote music. The classical music scene is a bit zlow, but I think we’ll see a change in the next decades when the next generation of composers grow up.
Kapustin’s been unusual in the sense that he doesn’t really aggressively push his own rights and he is generally more interested in keeping out of the limelight… decent guy, according to Hamelin, and very much interested only the music and that it gets played.