Music

The work we undertake in the music industry ranges from acting for record labels, music publishers, managers and agents to advising individual artists, bands and composers. When contracting with a record label, manager or publisher artists or composers will want to ensure that they are getting a good deal but often do not have the experience or understanding of legal documents to know whether the deal that is presented to them is fair. On the other hand, a record label or publisher will want to protect its investment in an artist by contractually ensuring that it gets as high a return as possible from the exploitation of the artist’s work. However, a record label or publisher also needs to consider whether the recording or publishing contract is fair on the artist, otherwise it runs the risk of the contract being found by the courts to be an unreasonable restraint of trade. Whichever side of the deal you are on we can advise on the legal issues involved so that the deal is enforceable and fair yet protects your interests.

In addition to recording, music publishing and artist management agreements, the Media team advises in situations where music is used as part of another production. We have particular expertise in dealing with all aspects of the creation, synchronisation and secondary exploitation of sound track music, the use of music on video, in television, in theatrical productions and on sound tracks for computer games. We also regularly advise a number of specialist music video producers.

We are currently retained by a number of catalogue owners who we advise on licensing issues as well as copyright infringement. In addition, we have considerable experience of investigating and acquiring catalogues of existing recording and music publishing rights.

On the contentious side, we have handled a number of high profile High Court and Court of Appeal cases involving ownership of copyright in recordings and disputes with recording artists, songwriters, producers and recording companies.