Ask the music lawyer

Did I tell you that I started out in the music industry as a music lawyer?

Solid skills to underpin what I do now.

So, I'm biased, but I recommend listening to music lawyers, both in relation to your rights, what they are and how to protect them, but also these days because they get involved in helping you get noticed and get a deal.

This new piece from Sentric Music looks at those issues and is well worth a read.

“If you’re in the music business, you’re in the copyright business”.

Never a truer word has been committed to digital ink on this blog and it is of upmost importance you remember this tiny idiom.

It’s these tricky little titbits of intellectual property that will ultimately result in an artist earning a living from his/her craft and therefore any deal they make should be tooth combed by someone trained in the relative judicial law the contract is written in.

Following are crowd sourced questions from various areas of the music industry answered by three lawyers at the top of their game. The contributors are anonymous in order for them to give the most honest answers possible without fear of feeling the wrath from the aforementioned ill-educated.

Enjoy…

Read it here.

What to do when your band has the same name as another

Image by xkcd

This is a phenomenally good post that deals with the exact legal situation should you find yourself in a band when all of a sudden you're horrified to realise that there's another band out there using the same name.

It also goes into trademark and other protection of your band name and logos in great depth. Plus domain names, what to do about the name if a member leaves and loads more really good stuff.

Bookmark it so that you know where to go should that day sneak up and batter you!

It's one of those situations that you hope never happens to you. But let's face it: with millions of bands online, there's actually a decent chance another active band has exactly the same name as you. And the likelihood increases if you are managing or working with several groups.   

So what do you do? Before this conflict occurs, proper trademarking and registration can go a long way.  And, the band that understands these processes best has a better chance of keeping their identity - or choosing a better one from the start.

Read and bookmark this excellent piece here.