Ask Music Lawyer

The old saying, more money, more problems, rings true for Kanye West who recently proclaimed to be $53 million dollars in personal debt from following his dreams in the fashion industry. Kanye personally funded his entire fashion line. Apparently no one ever told him that the fashion industry requires big money up front without a promise of a return. You can’t knock a man for following his dream, but putting music aside, which was a sure thing for him, to pursue fashion, whic

Sometime last week, ESPN filed suit in a New York federal court against Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) to have the court set a new rate for licensing music from BMI, as ESPN contends that the rates set by BMI for ESPN are unreasonable. Both BMI and ASCAP operate under a consent decree, which allows those looking to secure licenses to seek relief in the court if they find the rates being offered are unreasonable. ESPN is not like most other networks in how they obtain rights for

Rita Ora wanted out of her Roc Nation label agreement and filed suit against them in California in December 2015. In her lawsuit, she alleged that Roc Nation began to focus on other things, such as their roster of athletes they began to represent, and Tidal’s streaming service (although I don’t know if that is an argument I would pursue given the results Tidal has received in the marketplace. She might be hard pressed to show they focused on anything that flopped the way in w

Wednesday, March 16 2:00PM - 3:00PM Austin Convention Center Artist Central in Ballroom E 531 E 4th St Kendall Minter will be a presenter/panell member at the "Music Publishing Contracts & Income Streams" Panel at this year's SXSW! Music Publishing is a vital aspect of the music business for producers, recording artists, songwriters and music publishers. Two key deals exist in music publishing: administration and co-publishing deals. A music industry attorney will analyze key