Category: Law

Misconception #1: Once I Get My Deal, I’m Good.

As we have explained we work with clients in every segment of the industry from musicians to managers to labels to distributors and more.  Because of our diverse client base and years of experience, we are able to recognize certain trends, hot topics, common misconceptions, and red flags while working within the music world.  Each month we are going to look to highlight one of these areas that, to us, have a deep impact on an artist’s career as a musician.

#1 Misconception:  Once I Get My Deal, I’m Good.
For some reason, there is this complete falsehood that runs rampant throughout the music world that once an artist signs a deal with a label or a publisher (or these days, with a distributor) they are good to go.  We could point out the countless song lyrics that allude to this gross overstatement, but we don’t have enough room here for that.
In actuality, here is what happens when you sign a deal (regardless of what type of deal it is, publishing, recording, management etc.):  a contract is signed (hopefully reviewed by a reputable attorney), royalty or revenue splits are agreed to, an advance may be paid, deliverable requirements in the form of music recordings or compositions are promised, dates and budgets are set once music is delivered and accounting cycles are determined wherein reports and money will be paid (or might, depending on if you recoup an advance).  While this is definitely a gross over-simplification of what actually transpires, it gives you the gist of what happens upon signing.
The advanced portion is obviously super important to all involved and it should be.  However, it is what happens after that money is delivered to the artist that is really important.
Depending on the deal that an artist signs, that advance may actually be a recording budget, it may be an all in lump sum for living expenses, recording, tour support and marketing; maybe it is a bit of all of the above with some percentage paid out at signing for living expenses an the rest to be utilized to record the next project.  Sometimes deals are backloaded with incentives.  If the first LP does well maybe you get a bigger advance for the second album and so forth.  The point is, if you don’t know what you are supposed to use that money for, you may have just completely screwed yourself.
Imagine getting a six-figure signing bonus.  Naturally, anyone would want to spend some of that money on “non-essential” and “non-music related” items.  But if that is all the money you get to record, mix and master and then promote (which includes, PR, tour support, radio promotion, videos and more) and you spend a large chunk on a house or a car or both, how is your music ever going to actually get produced?
There is no question that a solid deal can help an artist’s career in a major way (pun intended).  But it should never be viewed as the end of the work required by that artist or her team.  The responsibility does not get transferred.  Someone still needs to make sure registrations are being registered, statements and payments are delivered and are accurate and that promised support is actually made.  Options need to be exercised or termination notices need to be made.  The work continues…

The FIRST Industry Standard Podcast

Seems like everyone has a podcast these days.  Not wanting to be left out, we are pleased to announce the launching of our affiliated podcast:  The Industry Standard.  Perhaps a little late to the game, we are trying to bring L4M to the masses by any and all media available to us!

Eddie Sanders and Josh Kaplan will be bringing this site to life (and then to the cloud) a couple of times a month.  We will host the broadcast here but it will be available wherever you find podcasts.  Hope you tune in and enjoy!

Sharing is Caring, but please paper your collaboration


As seen from our last L4M post, success in the music industry is often dependent upon the people around you; managers, lawyers, and booking agents make up your “team”. But what about those other musicians that help you create the sound? The artist’s you work with to make a song. Collaborations are so common these days even bands with numerous members are bringing in teams of producers, a second percussionist or guitarist, and additional vocalists. So why does it matter? You work with your friends to create great music, right? Its true, but defining roles and ownership is essential in protecting your music. Some of the biggest disputes in the industry today involve payments to collaborators, the rightful ownership to a song involving guest musicians and artists.

Take for example the dispute between Jack Urbont and Sony Music Entertainment over the theme song for Iron Man. (Urbont v. Sony Music Ent., 100 F.Supp.3d 342 (2015)). Sony released a song by hip-hop artist, Ghost Face Killah, which used a portion of the Iron Man theme song and only received permission from Marvel Television but not Urbont. The main issue being when Urbont worked on the original theme song with Marvel was whether his contribution was considered a work for hire or should he own part of the composition with Marvel. The parties ended up settling out of court after Sony was granted the right to use a work for hire defense against Urbont. So what’s the takeaway? You need to decide prior to releasing any music whether your bestie is taking a fee, getting any rights to the composition or both.

“Work for hire” is a legal term in the copyright act that in a nutshell means you are being paid for your services as a musician but will not own any of the intellectual property to the song. Think of it as any service you pay for, if a carpenter makes you an original table, you pay him or her for the workmanship and the table, but the carpenter doesn’t receive ownership in the table and doesn’t receive a portion of the funds when you resell it. Same for a work for hire musician or vocalist. Work for hires are the most common when the musician doesn’t create anything original, they are just playing or singing what you put in front of them. However, work for hires are becoming more and more common with writers, musicians and producers who contribute original material to the song. Why would they do that? First because you give them a big paycheck and second because they don’t think the song will make more money then the paycheck, it’s a win-win for them.

On the other hand, if you are a songwriter and you ask your friend the guitar player to come in and write the melody, it makes more sense to split the ownership of the composition. This is when you want a guest artist agreement in place so that you won’t have to track down the guitar player every time you receive a license request or want to make a remix. What if you want to use part of that melody in another part of a song? You will need to ask the guitar player for permission and he or she can argue that they want their ownership percentage to stay the same even though your using only a portion of the melody. A guest artist agreement will prevent this headache as you can outline each individual’s rights and permissions involved with the song.

Sometimes artists will collaborate and give both a fee and ownership over the composition. In this case, the fee is treated as an advance that needs to be recouped against profits. Think of it as paying the artist upfront for what you think they will make off of the sale of the song in the future. Until the song recoups the advance amount they won’t receive payment from a label or you, even though they own rights to the composition.

So how do you ensure that all of this is done correctly? Unfortunately, a handshake will not suffice. A legal document signed by both of you will be necessary. Lots of writers and producers use session sheets to delegate publishing splits, but this doesn’t clarify who can do what with the copyright and definitely doesn’t help you in a work for hire situation. Having a lawyer draft this for you is the safest bet, but the good news is that often you can reuse work for hire agreements by changing the name and the fee instead of paying for a new document every time (don’t tell your lawyer I said that). The most important thing is to read the agreement and make sure you understand it!! Ask questions, do your research, and know what rights you have or are giving up. Just make sure that on the day you hit number one you’re not scrambling to get your former bestie to sign a work for hire agreement.

by Lauren Schulz (


Pandora: More Users. Less Cash?

Pandora recently announced that it has passed 200 Million Users on its streaming music platform.  This reportedly includes over 100,000 artists that compile the Pandora catalog of music.  

Pandora which went public back in June 2011.  Its stock has fluctuated after an inflated IPO.  However, the recent news made public by the SEC, shows that its founders are cashing out as if they were dependent on streaming revenue to pay their bills (sarcasm intended).  The SEC Form 4 report show that Pandora’s top brass has cashed out approximately $87.6 million dollars of their own stock all within less than 2 years of going public.  

So what does this mean?  Well, it means several things: 1. the executives are now rich (assuming they weren’t before they sold their own Pandora stock), 2. the stock will likely slide in value as the market watches the top executives’ behavior as an indication of the health of a company, 3. the streaming music model is not working well.

Point 3 should be the most alarming and obvious to artists.  We’ve reported numerous times of the apparent inadequacies of streaming revenues (e.g. 1,000,000 streams equal some insanely low amount of money).  With this new information it is clear that the streaming financial model in place with Pandora, while inadequate for most artists seems to be inadequate for Pandora itself.  It appears that the royalty rates that Pandora agreed to pay the labels set the bar at too high of a rate to be a sustainable or scalable model. 

For the artists out there, how much have you seen in terms of streaming revenue to date?  Are you sound exchange numbers increasing in a proportional manner?  Curious minds want to know. 

Please write in with your comments.  Stay tuned for more.

Will Copyright Laws be Simplified?

For decades the industry has struggled with interpreting the pre 1972 copyright laws on recordings.  Due to complicated state copyright laws which directly contradict or confuse federal law, the music industry (artists on one side and labels/publishers on the other, naturally) have been battling over the rights in sound recordings.  The issue has been coming to the forefront as many extremely popular works recorded prior to 1972 are up for recapture (See our articles on Recapturing here). 

In a remarkable act of sanity by Washington, Congressman Jared Polis (NY) has introduced new legislation that aims to simplify, clarify and end speculation as to the true meaning of the US Copyright laws as they relate to sound recordings.  The Sound Recording Simplification Act (HR 2933) is not wordy or complicated (yet).  Rather it seeks to completely federalize all copyright laws thereby eliminating the existing confusion and contradiction created by conflicting state copyright laws.

The passage of this Act would help to eliminate a hurdle in songwriters recapturing their rights by eliminating the labels/publishers creative arguments of conflicting copyright statutes.  Stay tuned to watch the progress of the Act.

Thinking of Streaming Some “Free” Programming? Careful!

Recent proposed legislation will make the illegal streaming (not downloading) of copyrights a felony rather than just a misdemeanor.  Check out the proposed Senate Bill here, entitled Commercial  Felony Streaming Act.  This is not a surprising move as the music industry, headed up by the RIAA, has been on the warpath against illegal file sharing sites like Limewire for quite some time.  The RIAA, backed by the labels, has essentially drained the pockets of Limewire (and others before that) in litigation.  Now, with the deep pockets of the Hollywood lobby behind it, the government is stepping in to add an extra and potentially devastating punch not only to file sharing/downloading sites, but to those sites which illegally host streaming content.   

The proposed Bill modifies the current punishment provision of Section 2319 of Title 18 (Criminal Infringment of a Copyright).  What was once a misdemeanor, punishable primarily by fines, will now carry a much more severe penalty of higher fines and potential jail time.  The penalties will be identical to those imposed against the file sharing/downloading sites.  While the Bill is aimed at the proprietors of the sites that provide illegal content, experts expect to eventually extend to the users as well. 

The Senate subcommittee on the Judiciary approved the proposed Bill and it will go before a vote of the full Senate shortly.  Stay tuned for more updates.

CELABELS: Anyone Can Have a Music Label.

Music Mogul?

What are the requirements of owning and operating your own music label?  Apparently having a recognizable name and a healthy checkbook and/or ego are prerequisites.  Recently, Perez Hilton announced the launch of his label Perezcious Music, then David Letterman through his hat into the ring with Clear Entertainment and just this week, the most qualified American Idol judge, Ellen DeGeneres, joined the fracas by forming ElevenEleven Music.

So these media moguls who have worked very hard for a long time to reach their respective level of celebrity recognized the same thing that we have been writing about for the past few years: Major Labels are dying.  There is a wide gap in the industry where well funded and well publicized projects can have a real impact and make real money.

The independent model (self funded, self produced, self released) has fizzled a bit over the best year or so.  The glut of content and ease of production has made it harder to get noticed.  But the labels remain in disarray and the old multi-album record agreements are not coming back.  So is the only way to get your music out and actually noticed partnering with a celebrity?!?  We’re here to say…not necessarily.

What do these new Celables (I want credit for this new moniker) s have that attracts musicians?  1.  Money (in Letterman’s case, a whole lot of it); 2. Celebrity/Fame/Recognizability and 3. Easy Access to the Public.

Each one of the above three examples has enough money (or access to money) to fund a “major label” like push for an artist.  (Notice that they are starting modestly with one or two artists evidently learning from the failed major label model of signing every artist and hoping one hits)  That means that they can afford to pay for the production and recording of an album, pay for the marketing and advertising prior to and during the release of the album (including paying to get music in the right places, on the radio, on MTV, etc.), pay for a distribution agreement and pay tour support to get the artist out on the road in front of his newly purchased fan base.  The obvious HUGE plus with being part of a Celeb label is the instant recognizability that it gives to the artist.  Any piece of press that talks about Ellen’s new label will inevitably mention her new artist as well.  Finally, what better way to push the artist in front of an enormous audience than to promote him or her on your own show or website.  The Celables will push (as all of them already have on their own shows, websites, and other appearances) their artists to their previously established enormous fan base.  Think how hard it is to get to perform on Letterman.  Now think how easy it is to perform on Letterman, in front of millions of potential purchasers of music, if you are on Mr. Letterman’s label.

So how can an indie compete with a Celable?  Well, there really is no replacement for the first requirement: Money.  However, as we have consistently written here on L4M, if you push your music to the level where an investor may be intrigued enough to partner with you, you may be able to get a regular old rich guy to take care of this need.  Now, your rich guy is probably not David Letterman, but with the rich guy’s best asset, money, you can purchase a lot of what the Celables have.  Buying the right marketing, or better yet, partnering with the right marketing and public relations firm can get you the placements you need, the buzz you deserve and even land you on the Ellen show.  Paying for an experienced management team can also get you that access as well as get you bookings at big shows or on legit tours.

The point, the model of a musician investor partnership can work.  Does it work better if that investor is uber famous?  Probably.  But, putting the right team together and using money in a smart and creative way can get you to the same point as Runner Runner (never heard of them?  they are Letterman’s band).


As the L4M family grows, so does our client base.  Check out this talented dude:

THE SHOW is about to start.  Nasser THE SHOW Goins is what’s next in hip hop.  You just might know it yet.  Letting everyone know that Uncool is the New Cool this Hip Hop Rock Star has all the tricks.  Check it: