![]() “There used to be a few producers for every album now there might be 20 or 30 different writers and producers.” And a contract has to be drawn up and negotiated for each one of those collaborators. “The workload of an artist attorney has definitely increased as music-making has become more collaborative,” says Adam Zia, founding partner of the Zia Firm. “Every role has been affected by the oversaturation our market is experiencing.”īillboard’s 2023 Top Music Lawyers RevealedĮxecutives on both sides of the debate agree that there are more artists than ever before, and today’s music lawyers have more to do than their predecessors. “The blame shouldn’t all fall on shoulders,” Bourne acknowledges. The simmering tension between music-industry factions is partially a symptom of a shift in the broader ecosystem. “Lawyers aren’t just like, ‘We’re gonna cash these checks and screw our clients because we don’t care,'” adds Zach Bohlender, a former music attorney who left the profession to co-found Charta, a company that aims to save lawyers time by distilling the process of drawing up side-artist and producer agreements. “Even some managers that are very prominent in the business have no idea what they’re doing” - and they bog down lawyers with requests that should be handled by an accountant or a label, the attorney continues, preventing them from focusing on their actual jobs. ![]() “Often, lawyers will be blamed for the shortcomings of incompetent managers,” one attorney says. Other attorneys bristled at the critique. It’s something that reflects poorly on our profession as a whole.” ![]() “I sometimes don’t get a response from an opposing lawyer for months, and these lawyers somehow flourish professionally while routinely not responding to people or getting transactions closed. “This is a problem with lawyers that I’ve observed since I started practicing,” adds Gandhar Savur, founder of Savur Law. “Some lawyers abuse that position because of the money that can be made when you’re in such a unique space.” Jason Berger, a partner at Lewis Brisbois, was among those who reached out to Bourne after the post. “There’s no way to hold them accountable other than firing them.” But “there is no scrutiny on lawyers,” says one artist manager who requested anonymity to speak freely. With great power comes great responsibility. As a result, “Lawyers are the center of A&R.”įed Court Rips Napster Settlement That Paid Songwriters 30 Times Less Than Their Lawyers Artists require a lawyer before they can sign a record deal, and “the lawyer controls that conversation in most cases,” explains one senior label executive. While attorneys operate almost entirely behind the scenes in the music industry, they wield a significant amount of power. “I could have never imagined the volume of responses that came in from fellow managers, artists, producers, and even lawyers.” ![]() “I just had this feeling that if both myself and another respected peer were both experiencing these same difficulties, we couldn’t be alone, and I was curious to hear other people’s perspectives on the matter,” Bourne tells Billboard. Earlier that day, he had posted an exasperated friend’s observation about the habits of some music industry attorneys: “Seems like the standard with all these lawyers is sign a million things you can’t possibly time manage.” Many of Bourne’s followers were quietly harboring the same frustration, and they started sending him their own stories of long delays and extended silences. In June, Dylan Bourne, who manages JELEEL!, DWLLRS, and dazy, opened Instagram to find his inbox flooded with messages. ![]()
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