Music & Entertainment

Overview

Combining firsthand industry experience with legal insight, O’Hagan Meyer’s Music & Entertainment team delivers practical counsel across transactions, intellectual property, and regulatory matters, helping clients protect and leverage creative works.

We represent authors, songwriters, recording artists, managers, labels, and global entertainment promoters in a wide variety of music and entertainment transactions. From contract structuring and negotiation, licensing and monetization, creative asset protection, including name, image, and likeness protection, to live event and touring agreements, performance and promotion agreements, management agreements, and visa matters, our lawyers provide the structure needed to move projects forward efficiently.

We help creative professionals and entertainment companies manage the legal and business issues that arise throughout the lifecycle of a career or project, offering practical solutions that protect rights and revenue while enabling clients to focus on creating and performing.

Our lawyers have worked in the music and entertainment industry. We understand the ins and outs of how the industry operates and use that insight to deliver commercially realistic guidance aligned with our clients’ goals. By bridging legal requirements with business realities, we streamline negotiations, anticipate challenges, and tailor agreements to protect our clients’ interests without impeding business momentum.

We identify risks early, structuring flexible agreements integrating regulatory, IP, and dispute prevention strategies into transactions to allow for changes and support long-term success. By incorporating intellectual property, regulatory, and dispute prevention considerations into our work—and advising on evolving licensing, technology, and distribution models—we help clients adapt while preserving opportunities and minimizing disruption.

Approaching every matter as a business partnership, our lawyers focus on clarity, practicality, and long-term value. Whether advising emerging artists or established industry participants, we protect creative works, preserve leverage, and help clients adapt as the industry and regulatory landscape continue to evolve.

Experience

• Structured licensing agreements for digital phonorecord delivery and ringtone distribution for independent musicians and small record labels, drafting and negotiating agreements that protected attribution, royalty streams, and distribution rights while expanding digital access and monetization opportunities.
• Advised on and structured artist management and label relationships for a record label and its affiliated management company. Aligning management, label, and artist incentives while minimizing financial and liability exposure, clearly allocating duties, compensation, and intellectual property rights while reducing disputes and ensuring scalable growth.
• Negotiated live performance and promotional agreements for touring artists and promotional companies, addressing performance terms, payment protections, and cancellation risk. Achieved commercially practical agreements that balanced revenue generation with effective risk mitigation in live event settings.
• Developed company-wide standardized agreements for a live entertainment booking agency that safeguarded intellectual property, confidential information, and protected financial interests across business operations.
• Advised on international performance and regulatory compliance for an artist roster touring outside the United States; navigated foreign performance regulations and U.S. immigration requirements, conducted regulatory research, and supported visa documentation processes, enabling lawful international touring.
• Provided strategic advisory support in contract negotiations for artists and managers; translated complex contractual provisions and long-term financial implications into clear, practical guidance, empowering clients to make informed decisions.