"Circulation Numbers" of Catholic Hymnals?
  • jesigler
    Posts: 2
    +

    Hi everyone,

    I just joined the forum, though I've been interested in the CMAA's work for quite some time. I'm a doctoral student at Purdue and a faithful Catholic. My research usually focuses on vocations and calling, but I'm undertaking a project on hymnals this semester. Right now, my co-author and I are desperately in need of a list of Catholic hymnals by "circulation", i.e., we need to know how many parishes use each hymnal, so that we can determine which hymnals are most/least used.

    Does anyone know where I can find such a list? We've scoured the web and come up empty.

    Any help would be much appreciated!

    In Him,

    Jenni
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    No such lists exist.
    Someone else came to this forum looking for such information and it was not available then.

    One could be hypothetically created, but it would take hundreds of hours of work.
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    MJM and Jenni (welcome)
    Matthew is correct. But I wonder (and Chuck Gifffen, please chime in as resident math wizard) whether the corporate Profit and Loss statements of all the biggies are publicly accessible. If that's a yes, perhaps gross income per house could be used as a barometer of hymnal market share, and a simple pie chart analysis could be derived.
    Thanked by 3Kathy Cantus67 jesigler
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    I like melo's idea, but I'm afraid the data is not available.

    Publishers that are non-profit corporations might file IRS Form 990 annually, but I think there is an exemption making it optional for religious entities. Going by the data on guidestar.org, OCP has not issued a Form 990 since 2001.

    Any publishers that are owned by privately held corporations (WLP, I presume) would not have to report their income to the public. I don't know of any offhand owned by publicly traded corporations.

    But what if circulation data is available on the missalettes? They might have to file reports with the USPS annually.
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,152
    Other than going to each publisher, explaining what you want and hoping they give it to you, I'm not sure how to go about it.
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  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    Even small publishers won't give out this information - I think the odds of getting such numbers from a big publisher would be impossible.

    The only way to do this would be to get a team of people to call every parish in the country. Hundreds of hours of work, but it is possible.
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    If you want to pursue the route of seeking circulation data on missalettes, check with your university library. They may be able to locate figures in a periodicals directory.

    Note that most of the publishers issue more than one missal periodical, so the same title might be listed under multiple entries: standard vs. large-print editions, English, Spanish, and bilingual editions.

    Also, each missalette subscription usually comes with a liturgy magazine addressed to the pastor and the music director. That periodical might be useful as a means of estimating the number of parishes a publisher reaches.
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    If you wanted to get a 'feel' for the market, you could call say, 100 Catholic organizations and ask them what they use and then project from there, but that would be nothing but a huge guess based on a small amount of data. Other than that, you could set up a simple questionaire webpage and send out emails asking people to give their stats. Perhaps this forum would be a good start. Noel Jones has done this a few times. Don't know what the success was for his market tests, but...
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  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,388
    As far as hardbound hymnals go, anyone receiving royalties – however great or small such are - on hymnal sales will receive royalty statements annually (e.g., GIA) or quarterly (e.g., OCP) that itemize how many copies of the various editions containing their copyrighted music or texts sold during the statement period. For example I know from statements I received from GIA that sales of 191,358 copies of GIA’s Gather Comprehensive II (GC2) hymnal without readings (G-6200H) were reported on the eleven royalty statements (June 2004 through June 2014) since its publication. That edition of GC2 is still in print; in fact, 269 copies were reported as having been sold between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, even though GC2 does not contain the 2010 changes in liturgical texts.

    But knowing how many copies of various hymnals sold over the years and knowing how many of those copies are still used in Catholic churches today are quite different matters.
    Thanked by 3Kathy CHGiffen jesigler
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    Also lots of old hymnals are "handed down" to Missions, Chapels, schools, etc...
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I would love to know the stats myself.
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,465
    I would think that the question would be easy:
    contact the publishers of the say, 6 most used hymnals and ask for numbers.
    Thanked by 2jesigler canadash
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,465
    A guess would be:
    % 60 Missalettes
    % 30 Gather, Gather Comprehensive, Ritual Song
    % 10 Worship (I-IV)
    % 10 St. Michaels', Vatican II, Spirit and Song, Homemades
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  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    If anyone is considering making a small survey, the parishes should be randomly selected across the country, in case there are regional differences. (I expect that there are.)
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  • Arthur Connick
    Posts: 494
    If the info you require is intended to illustrate, or set a context, for the circumstances under which you are conducting a study, then contact the major publishers for their sales stats which they will be happy to give you. Non-major publishers (Ignatius, etc) should be described "Other" and calculated by difference. Clearly cite the source of your info.

    If you are collecting data to be analyzed for a study, then you have not provided enough details for anyone to meaningfully comment. Here are examples of seemingly similar questions that can lad to very different results:
    - What hymnals to parishes buy?
    - What hymnals to parishioners sing from at liturgies?
    - What hymnals are in the pews today?
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • jesigler
    Posts: 2
    The hymnal circulation question is necessary for sampling, not for the formulation of our research questions. What we want to do is content analyze the hymns in the 5–10 most used hymnals in the United States. In my experience, Breaking Bread is everywhere. But beyond that I really don't know what else might be popular.

    @chonak: I will contact my librarian, but I'm at a state university that doesn't carry much religious stuff, so I doubt they'll have the numbers. Still, this was a good idea. Thank you!

    @ghmus7: This is what we were planning to do if there was no list, but how do I know which 6 are the most used? I see many people here referring to the "big publishers". I don't even know who those are. Could someone make a list of them?

    Given that there is no list, would you all mind to guesstimate which 10 hymnals are the most used, and list them here, together with their publishers? That would be a great start to our calling the publishers to ask for sales stats!
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    I'm sure that publishers would be more than willing to tell how many they sell a year. That's a major selling point for them.

    Here are the publishers in my guess to their position in share of the market:
    OCP
    GIA
    WLSM
    St. Michael
    Ignatius Press (Adoremus and the new Pew Missal)

    (let me know if I have left anyone out)

    They know exactly how many churches use their books. In fact, I bet each one knows the figures of the others, since they calculate sales goals on the number of churches in the USA and what their current percentage is. That should give Jesigler the info he needs.
    Thanked by 1jesigler
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Identifying the major publishers is the easy part:

    Oregon Catholic Press, Portland
    GIA Publications, Chicago
    World Library Publications (division of J.S. Paluch Co.), Chicago
    Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN

    Hymnals:
    GIA: "Worship" (4th ed.) and "Gather" (3rd ed.)
    OCP: 2015 editions of "Breaking Bread", "Heritage Missal", and "Today's Missal Music Issue"
    (WLP and LP also have hardcover hymnals, but I think they have little market share.)

    Missal periodicals that also contain hymns:
    OCP: "Today's Missal"
    WLP: "Seasonal Missalette"
    LP: "Celebrating the Eucharist"
    (I believe GIA has a subscription worship aid also, but I've never seen it.)

    Note: each of those firms is also a publisher of sheet music, so they issue works of certain composers, and they tend to favor them in the hymnals and booklets they produce.

    You'll find differences in formulation: e.g., more or fewer recent compositions; more or less use of chant-style music.

    For simplicity, I'm listing only English-language materials.

    For contrast, you might look at these two less prominent hymnals, which favor classic hymns and promote plainchant:
    Adoremus Hymnal (Ignatius Press)
    St. Michael Hymnal (St. Boniface Church, Lafayette, IN)
    Thanked by 1jesigler
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