Musical America Blogs

By Brian Taylor Goldstein THIS WEEK’S BLOG IS BEING WRITTEN FROM THE MIDWEST ARTS CONFERENCE IN GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN WHERE ROBYN AND I ARE TEACHING SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS. HERE’S A SHOUT OUT TO THE INCREDIBLE STAFF AT ARTS MIDWEST!! And now back to our regularly scheduled blog… We re-booked a popular classical artist to perform […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Can you answer this question for us?  My soon to be son-in-law is a musician. He has written and recorded many songs, and is producing his first CD.  One of the songs on the CD, he had a female friend sing with him.  If he plans to put this song on […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear Law & Disorder: I recently came across the website of an artist management agency in Europe where they had posted the following: “The press review is temporarily not available. German newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung recently started to pursue institutions and artists using texts (press reviews, interviews, commentaries […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein We teach classes, put on concerts and run festivals.  At all of these events we take photos of the participants along with the members of our group. We want to be able to use the photos on Facebook and our website.  So I am looking for a “blurb” to put in […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Do we legally have to have a music license if we have bands performing in our Country Club at weddings, social events, etc.? Yes. Anytime music is publically performed, either live or by playing a recording through a sound system, a “performance license” is required. A “performance license” is a fee […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear FTM Arts Law: Could owning copyrights individually (as opposed to being owned by a corporate entity) ever be a personal liability?  I understand that if copyrights are held in the name of a S-corp, C-corp, or possibly LLC, the corporate veil would shield my personal assets. There is no liability in […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear FTM Arts Law: I am writing on behalf of our non-profit theater group. Several years ago, one of our volunteers designed a new logo for our theater. We paid her $500. At the time, she was friends with our Artistic Director, but they had a falling out. She recently sent […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein HELLO – How can an organization that presents music programs, and puts some of them on the Internet, find a good general release form for artists/speakers to sign? The tricky part about forms is not finding them, but choosing which one is right. There are lots of sources for good general […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Hello Law and Disorder, We have met numerous times at conferences, (I love going to your sessions!) and you have been very helpful with questions about our presenting contracts. We also rent our facility and I now have a question about that side.  We recently received a letter from BMI stating […]

By Robyn Guilliams Dear Law and Disorder, What are the copyright issues in posting a performance of a piece of music on YouTube for global streaming?  And, since people can easily download YouTube content, what are the implications for the person who’s posted it, or the downloaders for that matter? Before answering your question, I […]