Legal Advice For the Emerging Artist

This week I had the pleasure to speak with the entertainment lawyer, Galen Hair, about different liabilities and legal issues that affect the music industry. Galen Hair is a partner at Varadi, Hair & Checki, LLC located in New Orleans, Louisiana, practicing in the areas of entertainment law, contract, torts, and more. Hair graduated from Tulane’s University Law School and received his Bachelor of Music from Boston University College of Fine Arts.

In our discussion we talked about a few things that an emerging artist and new indie labels need to do to avoid any legal problems in the future.

First, as an artist, you want to cover yourself so you must copyright all the material as soon as possible. A lot of artists put this task off and then fall into the situation that someone has used their music and they were not compensated for the use. In the Hip-Hop industry alone, there have been many incidents of people stealing music from others. So to avoid that, copyright your music especially if you know it is a hit.

Secondly, record labels should protect themselves from any legal issues by applying for trademarks. The company should have trademark protection on the company’s name, logo, and slogan. Having each of these intellectual properties trademark protected will make you the sole owner of those properties and negate others from using them. If a situation occurs with another company using your property, having proper legal planning and protection in place, your legal team in most cases can end a dispute with a cease and desist letter threating to sue.

We also discussed the importance of contracts and the many issues that can form if not properly reviewed. Issues concerning royalties, licenses, and 3^rd party distributions are areas that could be avoided ahead of time.  Contracts between record labels and artists are often at the center of it all in court cases between the two parties. Having an entertainment lawyer to review all contracts can help spot potential problems in the contract and make suggestions that work out for both parties.

In closing, our discussion ended on the topic on what an artist should look for when searching for an entertainment lawyer. The three factors to consider in your pursuit are cost, experience, and locality. Most emerging artists do not have the money to afford lawyers like those of Jay-Z, so you must find lawyers that are within your budget. Cost and experience are the two factors that go hand in hand, the greater the experience, the higher the price their time will be. Locality is important if the client is the type of person who prefers in office face to face meetings.   

The Legal Liabilities in Hip-Hop

           For the emerging hip-hop artist, a sure way to harm your career before it begins is to fall into legal issues about your music. Legal issues come in a wide variety such as defamatory statements and being sued for infringement on other artists’ copyrighted material.  Legal issues such as those can turn into long drawn out court proceedings that usually leaves one of the parties with an enormous amount of debt and legal fees. Obtaining a good understanding of the laws and regulations will help save you from such frustrations.

            An artist who benefited by knowing the law and having legal representation in his copyright lawsuit case is the megastar Kanye West.  The copyright lawsuit was over his hit song "Stronger" from his 3rd album Graduation. The lawsuit filed by Virginia producer, Vincent Peters claimed that Kanye West stole a portion of the lyrics from his song of the same name. The lyrics were based on 19th century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche's idiom "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." The courts agreed with Kanye West's claim that the famous phrase has been repeatedly used in song lyrics over the past century. The court noted at the time Kelly Clarkson was atop of the Hot 100 Peak Billboard with her song Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You).

Photo Courtesy of www.lawsuitloanlending.com

         
The hip-hop star, Pitbull, was another artist who recently won a lawsuit about his music. Eccentric actress, Lindsay Lohan, sued the rapper for lyrics that she allegedly felt were defamatory and disparaging. She claimed that the lyrics “Hustlers move aside, so I'm tiptoein', to keep flowin'/ I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan" was also causing emotional distress. The New York federal judge ruled that Pitbull's song was a work of art and thus protected under the First Amendment, and did not cause any emotional distress to the actress.

          A hip-hop artist that was not as fortunate in recent legal matters is Mac Miller. Lord Finesse sued Mac Miller and Rostrum Records for $10 million, for their use of his 1995 song “Hip 2 Da Game” for their own record called “Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza.” According to Lord Finesse, Miller and company publicly performed and distributed the material without Finesse’s consent.  It is common knowledge in the hip-hop industry that artists would use popular hit songs, replace the original lyrics with their own, and distribute the song on their mixtapes; a clear violation of copyright law. Mac Miller unfortunately decided to settle out of court for an undisclosed amount. This case may revolutionize the way hip-hop artists go about creating mixtapes in the future.

             So to the emerging hip-hop star, be observant of the material you use, and learn about the different laws and regulations that may apply to this industry. Take the time out to study and learn the laws so that you may avoid any legal ramifications.  The knowledge should prove to be useful to know as you go ahead throughout your career.

Raz Simone "Sometimes I Don't" Official Music Video

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis aren't the only ones making great music out of Seattle. Here is Raz Simone's latest song/video 'Sometimes I Don't' featuring Sam Lachow. This song will appear on his upcoming EP Solomon Samuel Simone which will be available for free download on March 19th. Raz and Sam are pretty familiar with working with each other. They previously released their hit joint project 5 Good Reasons in 2012.