Musical America Blogs

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: Help! We are a small agency. We booked an engagement for one of our artists at a venue that has now cancelled the date. We had a series of emails with the venue confirming the date and fee and then sent them a formal contract that [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. No sooner had Super Storm Sandy begun crashing into the East Coast when my phone started ringing with cancellations. The most common question went something like this: “The presenter needs to cancel, but they already paid a deposit. Do we have to give it back? What the protocol?” The second [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein I just got a notice that a venue where I booked one of my artists is closing. I have a written engagement contract that was signed by the venue over a year ago. The notice I received says that they have run out of money and are cancelling their season. Can [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein So glad I found your page on the internet, so far it’s been the most helpful out of all my Google searches! I have just a couple of questions. We are from Australia and I have a 14 year old son who has signed a recording contract in the US. Currently we are traveling [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein I run a small management company. In addition to our commissions, we bill our artists monthly for their share of expenses (conference fees, publicity materials, etc.) One of our artists is now refusing to pay unless we provide her with an itemization of expenses. Do I have to give her one? [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein I wonder if you would mind giving me some advice on a visa situation with one of my artists. To summarise, I represent a British artist who was commissioned to write a 7 minute piece for a university in the United States which will be premiered in 2013. The artist will [...]

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 Dear Law & Disorder: After we booked an artist, the artist’s agent booked them to perform two weeks later at another venue 25 miles away from us. It’s a smaller venue that charges less for tickets than we do. This will impact our sales. Can we cancel? I was told that [...]

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 I recently attended an arts conference where there was a panel discussion on music contracts. An attorney said that artists don’t really need to read or review contracts because you can always declare them null and void later and get a new contract. Is this true? This is why 99% of [...]