The document discusses the essential elements for building an artist's brand as a business, emphasizing the importance of understanding their audience and strategically leveraging technology and social media. It highlights the roles of an artist's executive team, including managers, business managers, and attorneys, and underlines the need for effective protection of intellectual property and personal assets. Finally, it touches on the evolving landscape of the music industry, including new business models and potential litigation issues arising from technological advancements.

1. Building Your Artist’s
Brand as a Business
Dina LaPolt, Attorney, LaPolt Law, P.C. (USA)

2. Table of Contents
1. Building Your Artist’s Brand as a Business
2. The Artist’s Executive Team
3. Understanding the Basics: Intellectual Property and
Corporate Formalities
4. Brand Building
5. Technology and Social Media Tools
6. Net Effect of Brand Building on the Music Industry
7. Litigation Hotspots
8. About the Author

3. 1. Building Your Artist’s Brand as a Business
It’s an obvious statement, but a brand cannot exist without customers. Artists must ensure that
what they present to the world is of the highest quality attainable at that time if they expect to
attract any early adopters. Too often, artists prematurely present their vision or message to
uninterested business people and audiences due to a lack of analysis as to who their fans might
actually be and the best way to approach them. It is unproductive for the “artist brand” to
anticipate their target demographic is the entire world. The artist must give their own brand the
respect it deserves if they ever expect anyone else to. Fans are the lifeline of the “artist’s brand”
because without them the brand dies.
This topic can be addressed by discussing the members of an artist’s “core” executive team, using
intellectual property and corporate entities to protect the artist’s brand, various ways of building
the artist’s brand, the power of technology and social media, the effects these changes are having
on the music industry and some areas ripe for litigation.

4. 2. The Artist’s Executive Team
Behind almost every great artist has been a great team (and sometimes a not-so-great team…)
taking care of and nurturing the artist’s business. When you think of an artist’s business team, you
probably think of managers, booking agents, business managers, attorneys, publicists and perhaps
a few others. The titles of CEO, CFO, and General Counsel would seem foreign in this list, however
the analogy is uncanny.
The Manager as “CEO”
The manager can be seen as the CEO of the artist business. Managers are, according to
Whitesmith Entertainment’s Emily White, the “captain of the team, the leader of the pack, the
guidance counselor, an honest confidant and coach, a team builder, a power networker, and
business developer.” These are all responsibilities that generally sit with the CEO of a major
company. Both must keep the big picture goals in mind and continuously search for additional
avenues to exploit and monetize their brand.
The Business Manager as “CFO”
The business manager – the CFO here – is not only in charge of collecting monies and royalties and
making income projections, but is also responsible for maintaining multiple corporations or other
corporate entities, putting together complex tour budgets, overseeing general risk management
and insurance issues, handling tax planning (both national and international) and supervising and
overseeing royalty audits. Shane Glass, partner at the Glass Jacobson Group, LLP, emphasizes the
importance of being “aware of the numerous types of earnings available to an artist and the
methods of collecting such earnings…

5. Accordingly, a harmonization of complex responsibilities is required of today’s business
managers in their complex roles of chief financial officer, financial controller, tax advisor
and auditor for the artist’s enterprise.” Finding a CFO for your brand who can
competently navigate all of these areas is critical for success.
The Attorney as “General Counsel”
The duties of the entertainment attorney are becoming ever-broader. Instead of
spending the majority of their days negotiating and re-negotiating record deals (which
still happens), they are doing a myriad of other entertainment-specific agreements such
as those relating to television, endorsement, and other brand-specific deals. All while
they are keeping an eye on and overseeing a stable of other specialized attorneys who
may be engaged from time to time to render services on other artist matters such as
litigation, real estate, estate planning, corporate, trademark and others. In addition,
entertainment attorneys must also wade through new legal territory in connection with
all the new types of distribution models and revenue streams that come with new legal
and practical considerations in the music business that didn’t exist even a few years ago.
The Agent as “Vice President of Business Development”
The role of the agent has also evolved far beyond his or her original role in the music
industry. Traditionally, a music agent’s job was to find performance engagements for
artists. Now, agents not only bring tours to the table, but they are fundamental in
creating opportunities in sponsorships, endorsements, film, television, fashion and other
non-traditional music artist income streams.

6. 3. Understanding the Basics: Intellectual Property and Corporate Formalities
It is imperative that both the artist’s intellectual property and personal assets be
protected. It is also important to understand all branches of intellectual property rights,
not just elementary copyright law. Part of being a successful brand is making good use of
all of your assets.
An emerging significant revenue stream is sponsorship and endorsements, which exploit
an artist’s name and likeness rights and, sometimes, their copyrights and trademarks.
What used to be seen as “selling out” is now seen as acceptable, if not necessary, to fund
a career in the music industry. Brazilian music attorney Marcelo Goyanes notes that, in
addition to the financial benefits of endorsements, “those arrangements must also be
seen as innovative ways to promote the artist’s music for different types of consumers
and otherwise unthinkable or unreachable markets.”
Different artists call for different business entities. Acts just starting out are generally de
facto sole proprietorships or partnerships. As an artist gets more successful and
develops more assets to protect, he or she should consider forming various corporate
entities. The artist’s business structure should not only protect against third parties, but
should also – especially in the case of bands – protect against other members of the act.
Band member agreements (or, in the words of United Kingdom attorney Julian Turton,
“commercial prenups”) may be uncomfortable to discuss when everything is going well,
but become incredibly important when a member leaves the band or when the band’s
relationship becomes tense.

7. 4. Brand Building
What is right for one artist may not be right for another. An artist’s target audience and
any potential partners’ audiences should be closely analyzed before launching any
campaigns. Who precisely is this artist’s target audience? Can that be expanded? What
do these people like? Where do they spend their free time and extra money? These are
critical questions to ask when developing the artist brand. Or, in other words, Giles
Fitzgerald of FRUKT Communications says “artists need to think like marketers rather
than musicians.” It is a big change to make for some, but a necessary one.
After artists have an idea of who their fans are, they must decide how best to reach
them. As discussed above, sponsorships and endorsements can net not only money and
free products for an artist, but can also keep that artist in the public eye. Further, there
are lifestyle-specific stores that marketers can target. Acts like the Black Veil Brides
would be right at home at Hot Topic while the more mellow Zee Avi meshes well with the
Starbucks crowd. Start thinking like your fans and ensure that your brand is everywhere
they are.
Geographic considerations are also important. Different markets operate differently.
Electronic music does much better in many parts of Europe than it does in the United
States. Perhaps it would be more beneficial for such an artist to fly to Europe and tour
there rather than traverse the U.S. multiple times. Asian markets tend to focus on
domestic artists rather than international ones. French radio has a quota for French-
language songs. If your fans are in France or Quebec, it is a good idea to have them
record at least one song in the language. In India, the most popular way to consume
music is via mobile telephony. Where are your fans and how do you reach them?

8. 5. Technology and Social Media Tools
Advances in technology and new social media tools are revolutionizing the way we
consume, produce, distribute and discover music. There are more ways than ever to
expose an artist’s art and music to billions of people, but making it equally as difficult to
rise above all the noise. Now that almost everyone has access to social media tools and
Garage Band or ProTools to make a record, how do you ensure that your brand gets into
the hands of your target audience?
Music today is consumed in more ways than ever. It is also more omnipresent than ever.
People often wake up to the radio, listen to their iPod on the subway to work, bring up
their new Spotify playlist in the office, DJ with their friends on Turntable.fm during their
lunch break and play Guitar Hero when they get home in the evening. Artists should not
fear this new technology; in fact, they should embrace it. How awesome is it that people
can see what albums their friends are listening to via Facebook? Word of mouth is
critical in spreading your brand’s message. New technologies and social networks make
this easier on a daily basis.

9. The importance of these social networking sites also means that artists must make time
to interact with their fans. A quick tweet from the road or the recording studio (even
better if it has a picture attached!) gives fans a look into the world of their heroes.
Facebook allows for the quick spread of important press or ticketing links. Sites like
Ustream.tv enable artists to reward fans with video chats or to stream their concerts live.
In a similar vein, alternative artist Florence + the Machine just sold tickets to an online
stream of their album release show. For £3.99, fans could watch the show in high
definition in real-time and follow along with a show program, a “signed” setlist and
Florence Welch’s performance notes.
There are also downsides to the new advents in technology. Beyond the piracy problem,
there are also privacy issues with social media data. Clashes between Facebook and its
users over such changes happen on a regular basis. Recently, there was a backlash
against Twitpic’s when the company began licensing users’ photos to stock photo
licensing agency WENN.

10. 6. Net Effect of Brand Building on the Music Industry
Antiquated copyright laws need revision and the old school way of thinking needs
reform. Two examples are the advent of cloud computing and new business models
between the artist and the record label.
Entertainment is quickly moving from the user’s CD player or hard drive into “the Cloud.”
First with the Amazon Cloud Player and Netflix and now with iCloud, consumers can
listen to their music library, view their photos and watch their movies at their computer,
TV, mobile phone or tablet. Eventually, there may be a Cloud accessible by everyone, not
just smaller, personal clouds. This also challenges our current views of copyright law.
Should there be separate payments for content on different platforms? How will rights
holders be adequately compensated in this new age? Copyright law has always been
slow to evolve, but these changes will hopefully speed up the process.
Very recently, some record labels have experimented with a “joint venture” with their
artists. In these cases, the artist and label form a company together and share in all
profits (and losses). Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Records says the joint venture
“borrows from the venture capital model in which the investor puts up high risk capital
for a potential very high return on her investment. She expects to have one big hit in ten
shots.” In this model, one major act will pay for everyone else. The joint venture gives
record labels incentive to do what is actually best for the brand, which might be releasing
singles or EPs rather than full-length records, because they get 50% of all monies earned
from every revenue stream. The record label here is investing in the artist brand itself,
not simply an album.

11. 7. Litigation Hotspots
Advents in technology also lead to an advent in litigation. In some territories and states
within the United States, it is crime to impersonate a celebrity on Facebook, Twitter or
other social media sites. There has also been a boom in so-called “twibel” suits, or libel
suits brought on by allegedly defamatory tweets. Almost everyone has heard of the
infamous defamation suit brought by Dawn Simorangkir against Hole front-woman
Courtney Love. Though eventually settled out of court for over $400,000, the case
demonstrated just how dangerous tweets can be. Expanding artist teams can lead to
breach of fiduciary duties and the duty of loyalty that various representatives of the
artist’s executive team have to the artist. Lawyers have an ethical duty to their clients,
but what happens when one manager, agent or record label is feeding that lawyer most
of his or her clients? Who is the duty to then? Managers are the least-regulated (and
usually not regulated at all) member of the artist’s team, but they are also generally the
one who is most involved and closest to the artist. Finally, jurisdictional issues can be a
problem. The world is an ever-smaller place and many disputes are fought over state
and country lines. A victory in one jurisdiction does not mean that it can always be
enforced against the losing party. Pick your legal battles wisely, and the location you
bring suit just as wisely.

12. About the author
Dina LaPolt is an entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, California at LaPolt Law, P.C.
LaPolt Law, P.C. is a boutique transactional entertainment law firm that specializes in representing clients in the
music, film, television, merchandising and book publishing industries. The firm's clientele include prominent
recording artists, songwriters, producers, music publishers, managers, independent record companies, radio
personalities, merchandise and apparel companies, film production companies, directors, writers, authors, and
actors. In addition to practicing law, Dina teaches "Legal and Practical Aspects of the Music Business” in the
Entertainment Studies Department at UCLA Extension.
LaPolt is editing the upcoming book from the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL) entitled
Building Your Artist’s Brand as a Business. The book expands further upon the concepts discussed in this white
paper in addition to analyzing the various changes in the music business and how we need to adapt to them in
order to maintain stability and long-term success. The publication will first be made available at MIDEM 2012.
For more information on LaPolt or her law firm please log onto www.LaPoltLaw.com.
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