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Does any one know about music copyright ? 

I made a composite photo of a musical instrument against a grungy background.  This background is a mixture of texture and an old page of sheet music.

I removed all text, so it's just the notes.  The music book I took the page from has a copyright mark dated 1913.  So both the publication and the music must be at least 96 years old.
Shutterstock refused the photo because of copyright reasons - so I expect other agencies to follow.

Did I make a mistake here?    Would mentioning the age of the music help?   

Good point, but no, there's nothing on the instrument - no name, no signs or anything.

I should've thought of that of course, I just liked the old parchment paper so much.
But hey, here comes photoshop, so I can have both : use the parchment, remove the notes and put traditional music on it instead. 
However, I'm still curious if - legally - I can/could use sheet music published in 1913?

i won't rely on dates, as what is considered PD in USA may not be the same in other countries. And we know that not all music comes from USA. Many traditional are from Europe. So best to ensure it is PD by the printed statement rather than the date of the composer 's death or the works.
But once again, you have a lot to choose from, so i would, as you say, replaced the music via Photoshop with one that is PD.  no one would know that you used a grunge background for a gregorian chant, but then again, with the fusion going on in music nowadays, that too would be a cool combination. perfect potential photo for some of the already established string quartets who are playing everything from Schoenberg to Thelonius Monk to Led Zeppelin, no?

It used to be from the date of creation (before 1978) and for sheet music published in 1913 I don't know of a country were that sheet music would still be covered by copyright.

That's an interesting point.  There are many publishers for the Bible, or for Shakespeare works, etc.  Unless you show the cover or anything that clearly shows its origin, can they really claim anything?  It is not a photograph of the sheet anyway, as far as I understand, the sheet is an element.

If I buy a book of Shakespeare, I can not make xerox copies of it, for sure.

Regards,
Adelaide

Wow, that's a cool toy!   

That's good news.  Fotolia accepted it today too.  The others are slower, so I'll wait and see.
For the ones that have not been submitted yet, I will replace the notes by public domain stuff - once I have a nice "old" sheet with public domain notes I can re-use it all the time!

Great Find!