Musical America Blogs

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    Dear Law and Disorder: Our organization has engaged a foreign musician whose European agent is balking at the artist having to obtain an O-1 visa that we know he needs. We want to do this right, so I’m getting my ducks in line to tell him no and part […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: Hypothetical: A theatrical production company would like to produce a tribute musical production to a songwriter using only the songwriter’s music being performed by the cast of the production. The production would be held at a community theater which is not licensed by ASCAP or any […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: We are a dance company who is going to perform in March in the United States. We gave the list of names for Visa purposes last September to the venue. Now we have some changes, we have to replace two technicians who are essential for the […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    I work for a small performing arts organization which performs each year in a tax-payer funded, non-traditional space. The venue makes itself available for rental as an event space. In the past, we have been allowed to pay them a reduced rental rate in exchange for a full-page ad […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    Dear Law and Disorder: I’m dealing with a presenter who wants to cancel two weeks out due to poor ticket sales. While it’s not a huge engagement fee, my artist has already contracted its performers and paid out expenses for the date as its part of a bigger tour. […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.     We booked a tour for a folk/rock group that will be touring the US for the first time. It took a lot longer to get their visas approved because US Immigration kept asking for unreasonable things like background information on venues and festivals and even made us get […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    Dear Law and Disorder: We obtained a three year O-1 visa for one of our artists. We are the artist’s agent and served as his petitioner. A large venue wants to book the artist, but they are insisting that, according to their finance department, they cannot pay us as […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    Dear Law and Disorder: Loved your recent Musical American newsletter article on ethics.  As a manager, I was very interested when you wrote: “Indeed, the time is long overdue to start considering changes to the long standing paradigms and business models between managers and artists that, for many reasons […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    Dear Law and Disorder: We have booked one of our artists to perform at a venue. As we are the agent, our booking agreements are always between the venue and the artist, and we sign on the artist’s behalf. However, the presenter is insisting that, if we want to […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.    Dear Law and Disorder: I recently received an RFE for a group touring the US this summer. The group is represented by a European manager who books their dates, but our US management company has previously filed petitions for them in the past, all of which have been approved […]