The Four Most Important Agreements in the Recording & Music Publishing Industries

Contracts are essential to the music business. Over the years four "standard" forms of agreement have emerged that apply to relationships between the principal players in the business, that is, artists, songwriters, and producers on the talent side, and managers, record companies and music publishers on the business side. These contracts are an artist's recording agreement with a record company, the management contract between a manager and talent, a producer contract with a label or with an artist at the direction of a label, and a music publishing agreement with a writer.

Countless hours are spent negotiating monies payable under the agreements and the details of other terms, but the basic legal and business relationships between these parties are largely defined by and generally fall within the parameters of the standard form agreements.

Generally there are two kinds of standard agreements – one pro talent and the other favoring the manager, record company or publisher as the case may be. In this seminar, entertainment law attorney and returning Lawline Faculty Member Steven Gordon joins music lawyer Bob Celestin to discuss the standard terms of these contracts and the best positions, regarding each key term, for talent and the best position for the other side to better prepare you to represent talent or the manager, label or publisher as the case may be.

Learning Objectives: 

I.     Gain an overview of the most important agreements in the music business

II.    Identify the main deal points and legal issues in those agreements

III.   Grasp the new choices and methods of distribution in the record business

IV.   Know how to best represent your clients in the music business

V.   Identify the major sources of income from music recordings and songs and how those monies are paid and to whom