Madison, Wisc. - Musicnotes, a retailer of digital sheet music, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired MXTabs.net, a site that features over 150,000 user-generated guitar, bass and drum tablatures, and has signed ad revenue-sharing agreements with music publishers that will allow the site to come back online.

Launched in 1999, MXTabs.net was one of the many free tablature sites for amateur musicians that went offline after the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) threatened copyright infringement litigation.

Wisconsin-based Musicnotes said it signed an agreement with The Harry Fox Agency -- which represents 31,000 U.S. music publishers -- that gives publishers and songwriters a share of ad revenue from the site, while they retain control over their song catalog.

"HFA has expanded its licensing and royalty distribution capabilities to support this kind of service, and we will continue to adapt to new licensing opportunities and models such as this to provide the most comprehensive service for our publishers," said HFA president and CEO Gary Churgin.

The new version of MXTabs.net is slated to launch this summer.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2ovfws

http://tinyurl.com/2wfgfk (Harry Fox Agency agreement)

http://www.musicnotes.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mxtabs

http://www.mxtabs.net