Rent 9780823007080 | What They'll Never Tell You about the Music Business : The Myths, the Secrets, the Lies (& a Fe...

Summary Table of Contents Author Biography

This insider guide discloses the hidden dynamics and often unfortunate consequences of what really happens when a deal is prepared, contracts are signed, and promises are made--and alerts musicians, attorneys, songwriters, and anyone else interested in the music business to the potent dangers lurking beneath the surface of this incredibly competitive industry.

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Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Selecting the Right Attorney	p. 2
Personal Representation	p. 3
Deal Makers: Why You Need Them	p. 4
Deal Blockers: How to Get Past Them	p. 5
Staying the Course or Calling It Quits	p. 6
Investors: The High Costs of Low Finance	p. 8
The Costs of Being Heard	p. 8
Of Investors and Investment Agreements	p. 9
Finding the Money	p. 9
Internet-Specific Offerings	p. 12
The Safe Harbor Disclaimer	p. 13
Getting the Right Advice	p. 13
Paying it Back	p. 13
Overcalls and Conversions	p. 15
Commissions	p. 15
Should He Who Pays the Piper Call the Tune?	p. 16
Advances: Why They Seem a Lot Like Loans (and Vice Versa)	p. 17
A Sad Story and a Happy Story About Advances	p. 18
Is One Person's Money Another Person's Motivation?	p. 20
Royalties: Some Unvarnished Truths	p. 22
How the Royalty Pie Is Sliced and Who Gets the Pieces	p. 23
Recording Costs	p. 24
Payment on Less Than 100% of Records Sold	p. 26
"New" Technology?	p. 26
"Special" Categories	p. 27
Two Diabolical Deduction Devices	p. 29
Reducing Mechanical Royalties	p. 31
Special Issues Regarding Controlled Compositions	p. 32
The Beat Goes On: Other Important Deductions	p. 33
Prepayment of Royalties	p. 36
The Myth of Royalty Escalations	p. 37
Free Goods	p. 38
Lost or Misplaced Royalties	p. 39
Chipping Away at Post-Term Royalties: Synchronization Licenses	p. 39
Accountings, Audits, and the Statute of Limitations	p. 40
How Responsible Should Record Companies Be?	p. 42
The Effects of Digital Downloading on Pricing and Royalties	p. 43
Personal Management: The Whys, Wherefores, and Watch Outs	p. 49
What a Personal Manager Should (and Should Not) Be Expected to Do	p. 50
Managing the Five Stages of an Artist's Career	p. 51
Remakes	p. 54
KMMA Keep My Music Available-At All Costs	p. 55
Choosing Your Manager	p. 59
The Question of Clout	p. 60
Paying Your Manager	p. 62
The Term of the Agreement	p. 67
Extending or Terminating an Artist-Manager Relationship	p. 67
Breach of Contract in Artist-Manager Agreements	p. 72
Managing Your Business and Your Financial Future: When "Show Me the Money" Isn't Enough	p. 74
What a Business Manager Does	p. 75
Finding the Right Person	p. 75
Certified Public Accountants	p. 75
Auditing the Auditor	p. 77
What Kind of Business is Being Managed?	p. 77
Should You "Do Business As" or Form a Partnership?	p. 78
Money Means Options: Resisting the "Keep 'Em Poor" Philosophy	p. 84
Managing Your Money	p. 85
Making It and Saving It	p. 89
When Your Jon Is More than a Gig: Employment Agreements and Disagreements	p. 93
Term of Employment	p. 93
Duties	p. 93
Reporting Lines	p. 94
Confidentiality and Competition	p. 95
Stock Options	p. 97
Perks	p. 98
Termination	p. 99
Relocation and Re-Relocation	p. 102
Visas	p. 103
Disability and Death	p. 103
Provisions That Survive Termination	p. 103
Vacations	p. 104
Release and Settlement	p. 105
Employment Issues Specific to the Music Industry	p. 105
Variations of Royalty Calculations	p. 107
Employment Agreements with Celebrities and Others Otherwise Engaged	p. 110
Mail	p. 111
The Ownership of Ideas	p. 111
Record Producers: Are They as Sharp as Their Points?	p. 113
How 25% Can Equal 100%	p. 113
Cross-Collateralization: It Does Not Apply to the Producer	p. 115
Producers' Royalty Provisions: The Basics	p. 116
The Producer as Author of the Sound Recording	p. 122
Producers and Neighboring Rights	p. 123
Getting Your Record Heard: A Practical Guide to Marketing and Promotion	p. 125
Marketing Tools	p. 125
The Goal-Oriented Campaign	p. 126
The Record Contract	p. 128
Do Record Companies Know What They Are Doing?	p. 132
Victim or Victor?	p. 133
Television Campaigns	p. 134
Radio Promotion	p. 134
Airplay and Payola	p. 135
The Same Old Song (Only the Coda Is New)	p. 138
The Beginning of the End?	p. 140
A Brief Look at the Promotional Picture-From the Artist's Point of View	p. 141
Touring concerns: Trials and Tribulations	p. 143
The Club Tour	p. 143
The Grand Tour	p. 144
Merchandising: Your Band; Your Brand	p. 160
Tour Merchandising	p. 160
Retail Merchandising	p. 169
Confidentiality	p. 173
Compliance with Local Laws	p. 173
End-of-Term Inventory and Sell-Off	p. 174
Artwork and Photographs	p. 174
Coupling	p. 175
Life and Disability Insurance	p. 175
Piracy	p. 176
Audits	p. 177
Audits: Truth or Consequences	p. 178
Examining the Audit	p. 178
The Flow of Money	p. 181
Access to Registration Information	p. 182
The Black Box or "Something Is Abyss Here"	p. 182
Television Campaigns	p. 183
Interest Charges	p. 183
Statutes of Limitations	p. 184
Conducting Audits In Foreign Countries	p. 185
A Few Practical Suggestions	p. 186
The Right to Audit: A Contract Issue	p. 188
Music Publishing: The Odyssey of the Song	p. 190
What Is a Music Publisher-and What Does It Publish?	p. 190
Copyright: A Bundle of Intangibles	p. 192
Financial Secrets and Realities	p. 195
Mechanical Royalty Rates Outside of the United States	p. 197
Top Gun-A Top Buyout for Paramount	p. 198
The Administrating Function	p. 200
Family Ties (Too Close to Sue)	p. 201
When Your Publisher Forgets You	p. 202
Foreign Taxes	p. 203
At-Source Versus Receipts Deals	p. 204
The Black Box Revisited	p. 205
Copyright Reversions	p. 206
When Rodgers Meets Hammerstein: Determining Songwriter Credits	p. 208
Cowriting Agreements	p. 208
Cowriters Who Are Band Members	p. 209
Being Your Own Music Publishing Company: Pros and Cons	p. 213
Self-Publishing	p. 213
Getting in Touch with the Copyright Office	p. 214
Why Bother Doing It Yourself?	p. 218
Acquiring Copyrights	p. 219
Reversion of Copyrights	p. 219
The Value of the Copyright	p. 221
The Impact of Administrating Costs on True Earnings	p. 222
The Cost of Giving Away a "Piece" of the Publishing	p. 223
Internet Entrepreneurship: Doing it Yourself	p. 224
Competing with the Big Boys	p. 224
Artist, Songwriter, Performer-and E-Commerce Expert?	p. 225
Making a Living	p. 226
Stealing and Protecting Against It	p. 227
Do's and Don'ts of Internet Entrepreneurship	p. 227
Manufacturing and Distribution	p. 229
Podcasting	p. 229
Instantaneous Dissemination of Live Performances	p. 230
Creating a Website	p. 230
Which People Should Do It Themselves?	p. 231
A Word of Warning-And Encouragement	p. 232
Lost, Misplaced, Neglected, and Abandoned: Royalty Opportunities You Were Never Told About	p. 233
An Introduction to Neighboring Rights	p. 233
Broadcast Mechanicals	p. 234
Neighboring Rights in Our Own Backyard: Canada	p. 235
Lost, Misplaced, Neglected, Or Abandoned: Which Category Are Your Royalties In?	p. 236
Show Me the Money	p. 239
Two Neighboring Rights-Friendly Countries: The U.K. and the Netherlands	p. 239
Urban Music: The Beat Goes On	p. 242
Roots	p. 242
The Milieu	p. 242
Urban Music: The Producer's Cosmos	p. 244
Different Strokes For Hip-Hop Folks	p. 244
Rap as Protest	p. 246
The Importance of the Mix	p. 247
Career Ceilings	p. 247
Hip-Hop and Pop Culture	p. 247
Business Management and the Management of Business	p. 248
The Changing Image	p. 249
Contractual Issues	p. 249
The Rap Coalition: Self-Help Exemplified	p. 250
Hip-Hop Rules	p. 251
Classical Music: Dead or Alive?	p. 252
A Little History	p. 252
Demise or Rejuvenation?	p. 253
An Essential for Success: Spirituality	p. 257
New Life for an Old Genre	p. 258
The CD Arrives: Both a Blessing and a Curse	p. 259
The Internet: Is It the Answer?	p. 260
The Role of Record Companies	p. 262
The Composer-Artist: Special Considerations	p. 265
Classical Management	p. 266
Presenting the Singer	p. 269
Music Education	p. 270
Termination of Grants Of Copyrights: For Every End, a Beginning	p. 273
Basic Term of Protection	p. 273
Termination of Grants	p. 273
"K-K-K-Katy"	p. 274
Duration of Copyright: Subsisting Copyrights	p. 274
Who Can Terminate	p. 275
The Control of Termination Decisions	p. 275
The Rights Granted	p. 275
The Windows for Termination	p. 276
When Automatic Renewal Applies	p. 277
The Sonny Bono Term Extension Act	p. 277
Keeping Records	p. 277
The Technical Requirements for Termination	p. 278
Compliance With Copyright Laws: Hints for the Corporate Counsel	p. 279
Intangible Rights and the Internet	p. 279
Licensing From Music Publishers and Sound Recording Owners	p. 280
Copyright Provisions Applicable to the Internet	p. 282
Term of Copyright	p. 284
Sampling, Borrowing, and Stealing	p. 284
Rights Management	p. 285
Dangerous Language Alert	p. 285
Music Clearance: The Music Industry's Revenge	p. 286
International Issues: One-Stop Shopping	p. 287
Catalogue Valuation: How to Improve Your Odds at Winning Big	p. 289
Factors in Valuing Catalogues: An Overview	p. 290
Evaluating Data	p. 293
Who Owns the Catalogue?	p. 296
Termination Issues	p. 297
The "Trunk"	p. 297
Who's Sorry Now? The Blackbird	p. 298
Copyright Issues: A Sampler	p. 300
Changing Copyright's Image	p. 300
Copyright Infringement	p. 301
Sampling	p. 304
The Impact of the Internet on Recording and Publishing Agreements	p. 306
The Internet Is Global: So What? I'll Tell You What	p. 308
What Is to Be Done?	p. 309
The Fairness in Music Licensing Act	p. 312
The Copyright Term Extension Act: A Lesson in Leverage	p. 312
MP3: How Two Letters and a Numeral Terrorized an Entire Industry	p. 313
Napster and Post-Napster	p. 313
Copyright: Can't Live With It-Can't Live Without It	p. 315
Battles or Battle-Axes	p. 315
Copyleft (aka Copy Wrong), But Not Copyright	p. 317
The Clearance Nightmare	p. 321
Copyright and Personal Property	p. 324
Misuse of Copyright	p. 325
Some Suggested Solutions	p. 326
Index	p. 331
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Peter M. Thall has practiced law for more than 40 years and has represented many of the world's greatest artists, from Simon Garfunkel and Barry Manilow to ABBA and Pat Benatar. He is a frequent contributor to Billboard and Broadcasting, and-has appeared on news programs as an expert on copyright law and the First Amendment, www.thallentlaw.com

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