Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer

Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson

The Right Choice for Bands in California Who Need a Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer

Bands mostly just want to create music and live the life of an musical artist. They want to perform, get recognized for their talent and hopefully, make some serious money if they get famous. Being in a band is also a great way to meet people and share ideas with other musicians. Understandably, many never consider the fact they could use a good Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer for their band, especially at an early stage in their careers.

What band members don’t want to have to do, is think about legal issues that can cause a dispute among the band members or to even talk about what to do in the event they break up. But band members get married, move or simply move on to other things.

Disputes are also common with bands. One or more band members feels slighted because they’re not getting solos to perform or not getting as much money as much as other band members who write most of the songs, or because their music or ideas for lyrics aren’t liked as much as those of the other band members

A band can have other issues that need to be sorted out as well. How do you handle the shares of money when one band member leaves and another replaces him or her? What ownership rights will the band member who left have in the band name, or in their contributions to songs the band wrote, recorded or performed?

Unless a band takes the time and pays for the cost of having a band agreement drafted at an early stage in their career, the band is going to have some serious legal problems that will cause a great deal more dissent than if they constantly have to fight among themselves every time a legal issue or one involving costs, ownership and profits comes up.

By placing the matter of having a band agreement put together in the hands of a lawyer who can present the key issues to a band for a vote, band members can avoid looking like the bad guys and without much argument, provide for a way in which the profits will be distributed based on their musical contributions to the band, who owns the copyrights, the band name and trademarks, how a band member leaving or being fired from the group can be handled and then what moneys they’ll be entitled to after their departure.

Think the band name isn’t a big deal? Consider what can happen if the band breaks up and every band member forms a new band and calls itself the same band name. With no agreement in place, each of the band members may have the same nonexclusive right to use the name of the band.

There Are Other Reasons You Need A Band Agreement As Well

Being in a band is rewarding just in itself, but it’s also a business. There are expenses and band members who pay those expenses, book performances or pay for someone to book shows, pay for recording time, pay for CDs to be manufactured, promoted, marketed and sold, make posters, find or provide rehearsal space, pay for pizza or beer, or who write the songs or just the music or the lyrics, or who get stuck paying for legal fees or permits, are going to want to be reimbursed or have others pay or contribute their fair share, and/or be paid more out of any royalties or profits.

The band is also going to need a mechanism for making decisions. Will everyone have an equal say or will certain band members have more of a say or even the final say?

Just because a band has reached the point where the band members need to sit down to discuss the fact that an agreement needs to be drafted and signed by all the members of the band, doesn’t mean the band’s creativity has to be ruined. If anything, by having some of the matters discussed that have been “bugging” the band or creating arguments should make life easier for the band and return it to the time when you just wrote or performed music without having gripes about each other, about the expenses or how the profits should be divided.

Without a band agreement in place, a band member who leaves the band may try to prevent CD’s from being sold, music videos from being used, or songs from being performed that they helped create or whose images the band has no right to now use.

Types of Business Entities Bands Commonly Form For Their Bands

Partnerships are preferred over corporations by most bands because of their flexibility and ease to set up, operate and amend. With a corporation, there is the risk of double taxation if all of the cash is not distributed at the end of the year.

An LLC has an advantage over a partnership in that the band members are not personally liable for the acts or omissions of the other band members. For that reason, some bands form an LLC.

Because corporations being more expensive to set up and run, they continue to be disfavored by bands. LLC’s can require as much or more in the way of attorney’s fees to set up if in addition to an operating agreement, an employment agreement is needed as well. Despite this, some bands also form a separate LLC for tour income in order to avoid claims that may arise from a band’s tour.

By default, in a partnership, each member is personally responsible for the debts of the partnership, is personally liable for the actions of the band and shares equally in the income.

However, the partners in a partnership can have a lawyer add provisions to their partnership agreement that address the issues of liability, how income will be divided, partnership voting rules and how assets such as band equipment and the band name will be controlled or held in the event of the breakup of the partnership.

For these reasons, a band should not attempt to draft their own partnership agreement or form an LLC on their own or through an online service instead of through an experienced music and entertainment attorney.

Band Trademarks, Service Marks and Copyrights

The band’s name needs to be protected so only that band and not other groups can use it, or any other similar name that might confuse the minds of the public, as a band or in any other business that might cause dilution of your trademark. That protection, afforded by obtaining a service mark registered with the trademark office (the USPTO) entitles the band to sue anyone else using their band name for trademark infringement.

A band’s name is protected by filing an application for a service mark with the USPTO. If the band wishes to use the band’s name with or without a logo on goods as well, the band will need to apply for trademarks for each class of goods on which the band wishes to use their band name. Coffee cups with the band name, for instance, is a different class of goods (thus requiring an additional fee to the trademark office) from clothing with the band’s name on it.

If you wish to protect your service mark and any trademarks in countries besides the U.S., it can be done, but will cost a band additional money to do so.

Simply having a domain name for your band is not the same as having a trademark. Similarly, having a corporation with your band name also does not afford you trademark or service mark protection.

As a band, the song writers will also need to file copyright applications for the songs they write. If another band member or an outside individual writes the lyrics, the contribution of that individual will also need to be stated in the copyright application.

Because of the importance of copyrights to song writers for the royalties band members and their estates will receive over the lifetime of the song writer and beyond, and because of issues that can arise with regard to copyright ownership and transfers of ownership rights, band members should have the advice and assistance of a music attorney to ensure that copyrights are obtained for every song created by the band and every music video produced.

Profit Percentages in Band Agreements

Many bands are controlled by one or two members while the rest of the band members are in effect, employees. Even as employees, however, the lesser band members can receive either a salary, a percentage or both, though if they do receive a percentage, it’s usually considerably less than that of the major band members.

In such cases, the band name is owned by the controlling band member or members and the other band members have no right to its use upon leaving or being dismissed from the band.

Other Band Agreement Provisions

Often only one or two members of the band have the right to make key decisions as well or have extra votes while other members only have a single vote.

Band agreements also commonly contain buyout provisions upon a band member leaving the band. Such provisions also provide how and over what period of time, a leaving band member’s percentage of a band’s hard assets such as its equipment, will be determined and paid.

Call Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson For Your Band Member Agreement

Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is known as the entertainment lawyer for Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley area, a popular destination for bands and their followers who travel to the desert area each year to events such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Stagecoach and now Desert Trip.

With offices in Palm Desert as well as in Newport Beach to serve all of Orange County and Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson provides his expertise as a music and entertainment lawyer to bands, and artists in the entertainment industry, to writers, sports figures and models around the world.

Sebastian Gibson has been named a 2022 Top Lawyer by the prestigious Palm Springs Life Magazine for the 12th year in a row. He has also been named a “Superb” lawyer by Avvo, their highest rating, which rates attorneys all across the nation.

With law degrees in both the U.S. and in Great Britain and over 35 years of experience in both countries, Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is a former musician who traveled internationally as a musician and performed on the international stage nightly with an Oscar nominated actress and on a national television special with Bob Hope and then Governor Ronald Reagan.

Palm Springs and Orange County Band Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson also wrote and recorded a musical on the life of Shakespeare while working in London as an attorney and has written articles for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal newspapers. He is also a published novelist.