Music

The music industry is in a state of flux, and facing some fundamental questions about what the business model of the future will be.

On this view, the future lies in greater use of Digital Rights Management software to track the use of music so that listeners can be charged each time a track is heard.

Others believe that music has become a commodity, and that the future lies in subscription services, whereby for a monthly fee subscribers will have the ability to access music freely.

What is certain is that the convergence of technology, brings ever greater challenges not just to the business models, but also for lawyers involved in this industry, who have to keep pace with the fast moving technological developments. One of the latest examples of this is the exploitation of content via mobile telecommunication devices

Our clients are drawn from artists, publishers, and producers from the music and television industries as well as record companies.

Through understanding the needs of both publishers and artists, often involving the use of new media and new merchandising platforms, we have a real grasp of today's commercial legal issues together with potential conflicts arising between writers and publishers and the ways in which those conflicts can be handled.

We have particular expertise in arranging clearances and drafting the variety of contracts that this industry requires, including:

• Recording and publishing agreements including sub-licensing and sub-publishing arrangements
• Management contracts - how to put them together - what to do when they fall apart
• Advice to bands on partnership matters including what to do if you fall out with one another
• Protection of copyright and enforcement of rights
• Sampling - when you've sampled someone else's work or if your work has been sampled, what you do about it?
• "Branding" issues - protecting a name and reputation, trademark and domain name applications and enforcement of rights
• Merchandising and sponsorship agreements
• Distribution agreements including distribution via new technology
• Setting up a label on your own or as a joint venture with others
• Libel, defamation and relationships with the media
• Internet and online issues including webcasts, online licensing and drafting terms and conditions of use for websites
• Clearances and contractual arrangements for live events, tours and concerts
• Use of music in computer games, television programmes, films and musicals
• "Premium" uses of music where music is used to help promote another product
• Mobile phone ringtones