How To Make More Placing Your Songs In Movies & TV Without Devaluing Your Catalog

Musicians have sought more opportunities to exploit their songs using placements in motion picture and television projects as record sales have decreased over the last twenty-five years. As the competition for placements has increased, more publishers, music libraries, and song pluggers have stepped into the market to offer songwriters an advantage in their efforts to secure …

The Mechanics of Starting A Music Library Business

Music Library businesses have increased dramatically over the last decade or so as artists have sought to bring in extra income by placing their music in television shows, movies, and commercials. As record sales declined during the digital age, the negative stigma that existed for artists that sought these opportunities diminished. Since then, more entities …

When To Form Your Business as an LLC or an S-Corp?

Over the last year or two, I’ve been surprised by the number of clients looking to start businesses that have inquired about the viability of organizing their business as what is known as an S-Corp. For years, Limited Liability Companies (“LLCs”) seemed to be the popular business entity of choice for small business owners. Lately, …

The Five Regularly Occuring Income Streams For Indie Artists

Music industry income sources have multiplied in recent years. Both the number of artist entrants and platforms where artist’s works can be accessed have been democratized in the digital era. The access model basing income on track plays has replaced past models where customers paid higher prices to own copies of artists’ works. It behooves …

How Every New Music Artist Should Prepare To Get Paid

In today’s music industry, the ease with which music can be recorded inexpensively has lead to more artists entering the marketplace. At the same time, customers have had more access to music on an increasing number of platforms.  Streaming service models have slowly started to out-pace file sharing as the primary way consumers get and …

Influencer Agreements: What Are They & When Do You Need Them?

Brand managers are entering into agreements with social media influencers to promote the value of their brands. These arrangements are commonly known as Influencer Agreements. Influencer Agreements explore and measure quantifiable ways expectations can be met for how owners of popular accounts on social media can be compensated for endorsing the products and/or services of …

What To Consider When Drafting An Operating Agreement

Most small businesses choose a Limited Liability Company (LLC) as their business form because of the flexibility it allows and the relative ease of setting up such an entity. LLCs provide protection for each owner’s personal assets from the liability and debts of their business. An LLC can be one person or several people. An …

Twitter Shaming as a Tool For Dispute Resolution. Does Donald Trump Have a Point?

Twitter Shaming has existed as a strategy since the advent of social media. In the business setting, Twitter Shaming involves one party exposing the behavior or practices of another company over Twitter’s network for the purpose of changing the company’s behavior through public embarrassment and pressure. People are paying more attention to its use and …

Should Arts Companies Form As Joint Ventures Or New Corporate Entities When They Collaborate?

In the arts community there are often times where two companies decide to coordinate on the completion of a project much like a singular business entity would. This happens for a variety of reasons. Sometimes these companies compliment each other when one provides expertise critical to the enterprise that the other does not have. Sometimes …