Music Agreements

The regulation of the relationships between artists, managers, and record labels has, over the years, been one of the most difficult and contentious areas in music. A fair, balanced and properly negotiated deal is key to the relationship and, equally as important, key to the end of it. Artists need considered commercial and independent legal advice. This is equally important for the record company, which does not want the contract to be later challenged on the basis of duress due to the inequality of bargaining power between the parties. 

Some of tensions surrounding music contracts have been exacerbated by the increase in the way you can hear music whether streamed or synced on a social media platform.

In addition to the technical and commercial arenas, the legal landscape can be equally daunting. A record will itself consist of multiple copyrights (such as musical copyright in the music, a separate musical copyright in the arrangement and a further one in any samples, along with a literary copyright in the lyrics and a separate copyright in the sound recording).  As a result, in a single record there may be many copyright owners and many separate rights to licence.    

Our specialist team of lawyers have expertise across the gamut of relevant agreements and rights, including copyright, PRS and licensing.  Whether negotiating record deals, licensing music outside of the PRS scheme or negotiating management arrangements, our lawyers will ensure all the bases are covered and no right or rights owner is left out.

For information on music disputes, please see our specialist disputes team.