Unofficial Guide to South By Southwest 2015

The rules of professional conduct apply to all lawyers. However, because of nuances from one practice area to another, the rules may have a disparate impact on entertainment lawyers. This panel will address issues and recent legal authority concerning confidentiality, attorney work product and privileged information, conflicts of interest, the overlapping roles of agents, managers and lawyers, engagement and retainer agreements, compensation structure for professional services, multi-jurisdictional practice, on-line related rules and the judicial authority to oversee lawyer behavior.

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Licensing music is often a difficult exercise, even for professionals. At the same time, advances in digital distribution and production technology make it easy to participate in culture, including through the production of user-generated content and music mashups. Is it time to retool copyright? Solutions to make licensing music easier include registries, compulsory licenses, and voluntary collective licensing. The panel explores today’s music licensing challenges and the proposals to alleviate them, including the latest from the Copyright Office.

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This panel will take a look at the art used to promote and celebrate popular music, and the attendant legal issues and competing interests – the rights, possibilities, and pitfalls – confronting graphic artists, bands, and their representatives, concert promoters, collectors, dealers, and third-party licensees, and assignees.

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In late 2014, federal courts in California and New York ruled against Sirius XM for refusing to pay royalties on their broadcasts of sound recordings made prior to 1972. These so-called “Flo & Eddie Cases” (because they were brought by the founding members of the rock group “The Turtles”) could result in a huge financial windfall for many heritage artists and their record companies. They also touch the third rail issue of performance royalties for sound recordings and how they are currently paid differently for interactive media (Spotify) versus non-interactive media (Pandora) versus terrestrial media (where they are not paid at all). The panel will look at these cases and their implications.

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This panel will identify and tackle various pitfalls in advanced negotiations of key music industry contracts. It will break down recording artist/distribution agreements, management agreements, and producer/production agreements and identify those important areas that should not be overlooked. The panel will discuss these pitfalls from both the company and artist perspective.

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This panel explores the practical impact of recent court rulings involving, among other essential topics, copyright co-ownership disputes, joint ventures between record labels, publicity rights in performance footage, attorney fees in music royalty disputes, talent discoverers’ rights in artists they find, and the costs for obtaining court injunctions in battles over band names. 

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Streaming services are hailed as the "saviors" of the music industry yet artists and songwriters are not so sure. What should their lawyers think?  In this session, the former General Counsel at the National Music Publishers Association, Pandora's counsel in its lawsuits vs. ASCAP and BMI, and Senior Counsel at SoundExchange square off for an examination of the current state of affairs for both artists, songwriters, publishers, labels, and music services in non-interactive streaming. 

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As the music economy changes, so too do the priorities for artist representatives. The new music order requires a different focus and creative efforts to develop, break, and sustain an artist career. The monetization of Artist talent, content and rights must be carefully negotiated and protected in transactions. Lawyers and managers in particular are tasked as professionals and fiduciaries to advise and make the right deals. This panel of lawyers and managers will identify and analyze the challenges and opportunities for artist (and their representatives’) careers.

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