Back on topic:

The Real Book is published by Hal Leonard, now part of Muse Group (MG).

There are ways to obtain access it so that everyone gets paid. MG has systems in place that satisfy the courts and sub publishers — almost nobody knows about them, however. Here's a brief overview and it mentions The Real Book: Muse Group Acquires Hal Leonard . "Brief" is quite subjective—plan to take some time to absorb it all but it's well worth it.

Oh, "free" is not an option. Somehow, some way, at some point somebody must get paid. At the moment, it's through their MuseScore PRO+ subscription plan (I pay $39.99 annually)

Muse Group is bent on world domination of the music industry and they have the Dough for the Do-Re-Mi (BMI slogan from the '70s) to make a run at it. One benefit is that MuseScore, by their own admission, will have to become good. Version 4 is a step in the right direction but they have a long way to go. I expect that AI will feature prominently in version 5. They are hiring AI engineers and I don't think you have to move to Cypress to work for them (I could be wrong on this, BTW).

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