Can I sell sheet music of a composition I do not own?

[dialer]

Until now I've only been selling stuff that I authored entirely. Recently I did an orchestral arrangement of an old Game Boy game (because I'm a fanatic) and had it performed by a local orchestra. I'm pretty sure that performance wasn't actually legal but it was awesome nonetheless.

Is it at all possible to sell printed sheet music of composotions you do not own and are not affiliated with (not talking about performance rights)? I don't want to make great profit with it, but now I already have quite a bunch of carefully created score & parts. If that is possible, do I contact the company, or the composer? Or should I just screw it.

[pkm]

Originally Posted by dialer

Until now I've only been selling stuff that I authored entirely. Recently I did an orchestral arrangement of an old Game Boy game (because I'm a fanatic) and had it performed by a local orchestra. I'm pretty sure that performance wasn't actually legal but it was awesome nonetheless.

Is it at all possible to sell printed sheet music of composotions you do not own and are not affiliated with (not talking about performance rights)? I don't want to make great profit with it, but now I already have quite a bunch of carefully created score & parts. If that is possible, do I contact the company, or the composer? Or should I just screw it.

You can perform any song as long as its been released already. The venue is responsible for paying a license to the performing rights organizations. Your performance was perfectly legal (on your end at least)

As for sheet music, there are royalties that need to be paid to the copyright owner and composer, but I admittedly don't know the process with that. (ie whether you need approval or if there is a statutory rate like with recordings of cover songs)