Musical America Blogs

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: If I am doing a fee split, am I entitled to the emails of the people who purchase tickets? Our group booked a show at a venue where we are supposed to be getting a portion of the ticket sales. We have asked for the names […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder We recently has a situation where one of our groups showed up at a festival, but just before they were to go on stage, the police shut down the event due to an approaching electrical storm. The presenter had given the group a deposit for 50% […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder   We booked an artist to perform at our theater, but ticket sales have been much lower than we expected. The show is a month away. We are a small venue with a small budget, and can’t afford to present an artist if we can’t sell […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder I work for a venue that engaged an artist for a concert. I agreed to pay for hotel and travel. After the engagement, the artist told me that she decided to stay with friends and drive. I can’t get my money back. Can I deduct my […]

By Robyn Guilliams Dear Law & Disorder: Performing Arts Division, We are a small presenting organization, and we use an outside company to handle our ticket sales.  The company provides us with cloud-based software, which we use to process both online and box office ticket sales. We were recently informed by the software company that […]

By Robyn Guilliams Dear Law and Disorder, I have been in artist management for a long time, thought I had seen it all, but something just came up for one of my artists that has me completely stumped.  My client was sent a 1099 for a hotel stay that the presenter provided for an engagement.   […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: In all of my artist’s booking contracts, the presenters are required to obtain ASCAP, BMI and SESAC licenses. I recently received a contract back from a venue in which they crossed out that language. They told me that their policy is not to get these licenses […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: If I am booking an artist, whose job is it to draft the contract? Some venues ask me to send them my contract, but other venues seem to have their own. What’s the normal practice? Since you asked for the “normal” practice, I shall tell you: […]

By Robyn Guilliams Dear Law and Disorder, I run a small nonprofit presenting organization. We recently received an email from a patron who wanted to attend a particular performance, and he asked if we provide accommodations for the deaf.  He indicated that either an American Sign Language interpreter or some sort of close captioning system […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: I have read your clearly stated articles about mechanical use and rights.  What about “fair use”? Aren’t there specific scenarios where permission is not needed to use a recording of someone else’s music? Beware of what you ask. You are about to open a box whereupon […]