I'll try to put an end to the confusion here; please read carefully.
There's a difference, with music rolls being classified as "Sheet Music"
or "Sound Recordings", depending on how you want to ship them.

1.  The United States Postal Service has ruled that music rolls are
"Sound Recordings".  Here's an excerpt from a ruling I solicited from
the Postal Explorer:

  "Player piano rolls are classified as sound recordings and
   eligible for the Special Standard Mail rates."

You may send music rolls through domestic mail via "Media Mail"
because they allow sound recordings with this tariff.  "Media Mail"
now replaces "Book Rate" and "Special Standard" rates, which no longer
exist.

You should get no flack from a postal clerk when sending rolls
domestically.  If you are asked it's contents, simply reply "Sound
Recordings".  I've rarely been challenged.  When that happens I whip
out the ruling that I carry with me for such occasions, printed from
the above response to my direct question to the Postal Explorer.  Then
they say "Where did you get THIS from," and they take it in the back
room to "ask the boss about this -- I don't know!"  Then they come out
and process my package with a weak apology.

The regular clerks know me now.  Only once early-on did an anal clerk
threaten to search my package, but that was as far as it went after
I counter-threatened that it would be repackaged to my strict standards
while in my view.  With "Media Mail", recordings are clearly media,
so there really should be less confusion now.  Just _don't_ use the
term "Music Roll" -- many clerks don't know what that is and will push
you to the "Parcel Post" classification.


2.  Music rolls are _not_ "Sheet Music".  Postal Explorer says:

  "The player piano rolls do not qualify for the book and sheet music
   rates but can be sent at the regular M-Bag rates."

There are two categories of M-Bag tariffs: "Periodicals, Books,
Sheet-Music", and all else (regular).  Music rolls therefore fall
into the more expensive "all else" column.

Be careful: nowhere in the M-Bag verbiage is the phrase "Sound
Recording".  M-bag is strictly for books and sheet music, and
descriptive examples of books and sheet-music mean something to them.
There's no way one can twist their definition to mean 'rolls'.

So to send music rolls to the UK via M-Bag means $15.95 for the first
11 pounds, and $1.45 for each pound thereafter.  There are other rates
for other countries.  This is clearly spelled out in the document
"Categories of International Mail", page 7-8 found on their website.

Karl Ellison


 [ "Postal Explorer" is a CD-ROM, published by United States Postal
 [ Service (USPS), containing PDF files of USPS publications.  See
 [ http://pe.usps.gov/pe_about.htm
 [
 [ USPS operations are implemented by the USPS Domestic Mail Manual
 [ (DMM).  The current revision is DMM Issue 56, dated 7 January 2001.
 [ Section E713 contains the procedures for "Media Mail", including
 [ definitions:
 [
 [   Paragraph E713.2.1 -- Qualified Items
 [
 [   Only these items may be mailed at the Media Mail rates: [snip]
 [
 [   e. Sound recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use
 [   with such recordings.  Video recordings and player piano rolls are
 [   classified as sound recordings.
 [
 [ The citation above is found at this horribly long URL:
 [
 [ http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm/E713.PDF#xml=http://pe.usps.gov/search97cgi/s97is.dll?action=View&VdkVgwKey=d%3A%5Cinetpub%5Cwwwroot%5Ccpim%5Cftp%5Cmanuals%5Cdmm%5CE713%2EPDF&doctype=xml&Collection=Domestic+Mail+Manual&QueryZip=player
 [
 [ -- Robbie