Vondran Music Law – Affordable Music & Entertainment Attorney [California and Arizona]

Introduction

If you need a music lawyer to help you with any of the following, contact us to discuss our low flat rate legal fees (for non-litigation transactional services) or to discuss our litigation services.  We can help with the following types of cases and legal issues:

• Creation of LLC or corporation
• Band agreements (ex. song splits, voting rights) (the best time to enter into a contract is when you are all friends)
• Draft and review recording agreements, publishing agreements, soundtrack agreements, management contracts
• Copyright licensing agreements (to license creative third party content to use in your video games, films, YouTube channels, documentaries, movies, software programs, websites, mobile applications etc.
• Producer and production contracts
• Registration of film, video, music, lyrics, ringtones, songs, recordings, and other copyrights (make sure you own the legal rights to your music)
• Merchandising and licensing agreements
• Registration of trademarks (ex. band name, logos, slogans, stage names)
• Management and booking agent contracts
• Concert tours (venue agreements) - make sure you are getting paid.
• Parody songs (protected by first amendment) (Parodies can be tricky - like "shooting at the king" you better not miss)
• Concert sponsorship agreements
• Artist endorsement agreements
• Record label contracts (call us before YOU SIGN YOUR RIGHTS AWAY)
• Copyright reversion and recapture
• Employment agreements
• Video director and production company agreements
• Documents to form a publishing company or record label
• Trademark infringement (someone using your band, or stage name, or cybersquatting on your domain name)
• Legal issues dealing with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Warner Chappell Music Corp. or SoundExchange
• Copyright infringement – someone using your song, lyrics, without your permission.
• Seeking written authorization to publicly perform cover songs or other copyrighted content
• Band "exit" agreements (band member wants out, what now?)
• Right of Publicity legal issues (who will control your name, image or likeness)?
• Artist and musician representation (record label interested in signing you and/or your band? Get music counsel!)
• Copyright fair use for bar performers
• Infringement of music compositions
• Royalty disputes (ex. failure to be paid your royalties)
• Co-writer song rights (ex. who owns the music copyright?)
• Public performance agreements (ex. copyright clearance to sing song at weddings, parties, dance, festival, bar mitzvah or other event)
• DMCA take down notices (someone posting your music clip online without your consent)?
• Cease and desist letters
• “BlastMyTunes” music discovery service for new artists
• Social media disputes (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Soundcloud, Reddit, etc.)
• Work for hire agreements (and copyright assignments)

Contact us to discuss other items that may not be on this list.  We have experience in a wide range of business, intellectual property and entertainment law issues.

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How to LEGALLY use royalty-free music in Videos and Podcasts

VIDEO:  Watch Attorney Steve® explain the ins and outs of finding FREE music on Youtube Audio Library which offers royalty-free music through the Youtube creator studio.  Pretty nice perk for Youtube video creators.  Make sure to SUBSCRIBE to our popular YouTube channel to join over 40,500 great folks that love our legal channel.  As we like to say "Be Smarter Than Your Friends."

10 Important Music Law Cases

Here is a blog I wrote about ten famous legal cases dealing with music law.

What does "Royalty-Free" really mean?

Music Law Blogs

1. Essential ingredients to a band agreement
2. Overview of music licensing agreements
3. Can you copyright protect a jingle?
4. How to copyright choreography (dance moves)
5. Music infringement cases (brief 5 cases IRAC style) involving MIXING / SAMPLING. 
6. Can you get sued for performing unlicensed music in public? [ASCAP / BMI demand letters]
7. How to buy a music portfolio/catalog (can you find sources where people list their songs for sale)?
8. What is the mechanical licensing collective?
9. How to terminate and recapture your music copyrights.
10. What you need to know before submitting your songs to a contest site.
11. What are the top music domains (ex. .music, .artist) I am not sure if there are any, but would like to do a blog on domain names and the musician/band.
12. Can I use a person's name in my song?  Right of Publicity issue in California.
13. Music glossary – the top 25 legal terms every artist should know the meaning of (ex. in perpetuity)
14. Celebrity endorsement issues for the artist and musician.
15. How to start a record label
16. Fair use (mixing, sampling) – brief 5 cases.  We offer fair use opinion letters.
17. What is sound exchange?
18. Top 10 music industry contracts (I want to do a draft agreement and explain the details). 
19. Music Royalty Disputes
20. What is the RIAA
21. Parody music – how to pull it off!
22. Artist-manager disputes
23. IFTA arbitration overview (this deals more with film distribution) but has been on my list.
24. Music Guild arbitrations (can you find out if there are any music associations that hold arbitrations)?

We can help you protect your IP and handle the Internet law legal issues!

VIDEO:  Click to watch our promotional reel for low cost IP legal services.  Make sure to SUBSCRIBE to our popular YouTube channel to join over 41,000 others who love our legal videos.  Beats the pants off of watching boring politics.

Contact a California Music Lawyer

Attorney Steve® Slappin the Bass!

Affordable Music Lawyer (California / Arizona)

Before you dive into an agreement (usually out of excitement), make sure to have your contract reviewed.  You need to understand what you are getting yourself (and perhaps your band into).  Who will own the intellectual property (composition)?  Who gets to control your name, image and likeness (call publicity rights), what will you be paid as a royalty?  What services will be provided, and how much do they charge for production costs, PR, social media costs, etc.  The best money you can ever pay a lawyer is UP FRONT before there are problems, and not after you have a legal BLOWOUT.  

We have offices in Santa Monica (serving greater Los Angeles area), Newport Beach (serving Orange County), San Francisco (serving Silicon Valley and the Bay area), and San Diego.  We also have two offices in Phoenix, Arizona serving the entire state from Flagstaff to Maricopa County.  

Call us to discuss your project at (877) 276-5084 or email us through our contact form  We offer low flat rate fees for most non-litigation cases and have over 15 years of legal experience.

Check out our client reviews on Avvo.