Power Lawyers: THR’s Top Music Attorneys of 2024

Lisa Alter & Katie Baron

Up to now 18 months, Alter and Baron have negotiated and closed $1 billion in offers. They’ve represented Main Wave within the acquisitions of a number of catalogs, together with Def Leppard, The Strokes, Ramones, James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Whitney Houston, Bob Marley and a share of Stevie Nicks’. The duo has helped different firms purchase extra catalogs, together with Iconic Artists Group (Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker), Affect Media Companions (Future, Blake Shelton, Enrique Iglesias), BMG Rights Administration (Peter Frampton, ZZ Prime) and Reservoir Media Administration (Sonny Rollins, Louis Prima).

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR

BARON “Pink Pony Membership,” by Chappell Roan.

ALTER “Houdini,” by Eminem

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW

BARON New Children on the Block

ALTER Visitors

John Branca, David Byrnes & David Lande

From engaged on Beyoncé’s epic Renaissance tour and movie in addition to Cowboy Carter album — which snagged 11 Grammy nominations — to negotiating Pharrell’s Piece by Piece cope with Focus Options and a brand new Adidas settlement, Ziffren Brittenham’s music division is in prime type. Additionally they negotiated a significant deal for Barry Gibb’s Bee Gees catalog and Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour, in addition to her partnership with Gen Z-obsessed Stanley water bottles and profitable Lancôme endorsement deal.

MY THOUGHTS ON AI IN MUSIC

LANDE “Thrilling to view the alternatives via the lens of my Gen Z purchasers who’re embracing the expertise and discovering attention-grabbing methods to create utilizing it.”

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW

LANDE The Rolling Stones

Tiffany Dunn

Dunn has represented John R. Money Revocable Belief in issues regarding Johnny Money emblems, copyright and extra, from a collab with Jacques Marie Mage eyewear to the posthumous Songwriter album to Money’s statue on the U.S. Capitol, making the late icon the primary musician to be honored in such a means. For Luke Combs, Dunn has labored on his collaborations with Crocs, NASCAR and NBC Sports activities; his partnership with Miller Lite; and his Nashville restaurant, Class 10.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE OR SHOW ABOUT LAWYERS Legally Blonde

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW “At Six Flags. My first nation present was Garth Brooks.”

Damien Granderson

Granderson represented High quality Management Music in its sale to Ok-pop energy HYBE America, and he additionally reps triple Grammy nominee Raye, dealing with efficiency agreements for her reveals at London’s O2 Area, Coachella, Saturday Night time Reside and Royal Albert Corridor. He additionally negotiates for J Balvin and Ne-Yo.

MY THOUGHTS ON AI IN MUSIC “AI-powered instruments make music creation, distribution and consumption extra accessible and personalised whereas serving to artists and companies optimize their processes.”

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW Fugees

ARTIST COLLABORATION I WOULD LOVE TO SEE Stevie Surprise and Raye

Palisa Kelley

As gross sales of music catalogs have skyrocketed over the previous few years, Kelley has emerged because the premier dealmaker within the area. She’s helped purchase the catalogs of among the greatest artists on the planet, together with Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Pat Benatar, Christine McVie, Nelly, Florida Georgia Line and Brad Paisley. Kelley has made offers for greater than 55 catalogs and 29,000-plus songs throughout grasp recordings, publishing revenue streams and musical compositions.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE OR SHOW ABOUT LAWYERS “Extraordinary Legal professional Woo. I sit on the board of a company that serves adults with mental and developmental disabilities. This Ok-drama about an lawyer with autism is an entertaining manufacturing that leads with compassion.”

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR “Not Like Us,” by Kendrick Lamar

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE … “Ladies of coloration in govt positions.”

Christine Lepera

Lepera is the litigator artists name once they want assist in courtroom, particularly with regards to copyright, trademark and contract disputes. She’s represented Common Music Group, Drake, Katy Perry, Put up Malone and Dr. Luke, amongst others. For Dua Lipa, she efficiently obtained dismissal with prejudice of a copyright infringement case towards the pop star and Warner Music Group for “Levitating,” Billboard’s No. 1 track of 2021; Lepera additionally received a abstract judgment for Timbaland and different defendants on claims of infringement.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE OR SHOW ABOUT LAWYERS To Kill a Mockingbird

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR “Texas Maintain ‘Em,” by Beyoncé

Donald S. Passman, J. Eugene (Gene) Salomon Jr. & Ethan Schiffres

This trio’s purchasers mirror the Billboard charts — there’s Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Adele. For the latter, they labored on her Las Vegas and Munich residencies, whereas different offers embody Inexperienced Day’s Saviors album and tour, in addition to Pink’s newest dwell trek. The agency additionally negotiated the asset sale by Cher to Iconic Artists Group and represents Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning composer Ludwig Göransson for his work on Oppenheimer and Infantile Gambino’s newest album. Additionally they depend Stevie Surprise, R.E.M. and Adam Lambert as purchasers.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE OR SHOW ABOUT LAWYERS

PASSMAN Fits

SALOMON The Verdict

SCHIFFRES The Agency

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE …

SALOMON “Ladies in the studio and in management positions.”

Adrian Perry & Jonathan Sperling

Perry and Sperling co-led a group of attorneys that represented a music firm in one of many largest music catalog offers within the business. With such purchasers as Sony Music, Disney, Amazon, the NBA and the NFL, Perry continues to be an authority on AI offers, digital content material distribution points, and knowledge assortment and licensing, whereas Sperling is a go-to litigator for labels in copyright and royalty disputes.

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR

PERRY “Persona Disaster,” by New York Dolls

SPERLING “Am Yisrael Chai,” by Eyal Golan

ARTIST COLLABORATION I WOULD LOVE TO SEE

PERRY Billie Eilish and Julian Casablancas

Julian Petty

Warner has been on a white-hot profitable streak due to breaking new acts like Benson Boone and Teddy Swims, together with the continued success of Zach Bryan. And Petty is working throughout these new artist offers in addition to renegotiations because the label’s govt vp and head of authorized affairs. As well as, he negotiated Linkin Park’s partnership with Riot Video games and continues to work on the Warner Music/Blavatnik Middle for Music Enterprise Fellowship Program at Howard College, established after the dying of George Floyd and geared toward rising the pipeline for Black executives within the music enterprise.

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE … “Respect for its OGs. I understand it’s a youth-driven enterprise, however there’s lots of expertise and perception held by the legacy artists and older execs. We have to do a greater job harvesting that institutional data and expertise.”

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW “DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Contemporary Prince. I vividly keep in mind them rocking the home and strengthening my love for hip-hop.”

Alexis Robinson & Daniel Schnapp

For the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Robinson and Schnapp negotiated multiyear licenses with Netflix, Spotify, BBC, Univision and extra to publicly carry out the repertory of musical works of the performing rights group. The duo additionally put collectively quite a few membership and monetary incentive agreements for brand spanking new and current ASCAP members Lauryn Hill, SZA, Kacey Musgraves and Fall Out Boy. Different large purchasers embody TikTok, Vevo and the Songwriters Corridor of Fame.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE OR SHOW ABOUT LAWYERS

ROBINSON My Cousin Vinny

SCHNAPP The Satan’s Advocate

ARTIST COLLABORATION I WOULD LOVE TO SEE

ROBINSON Amy Winehouse and Kendrick Lamar

SCHNAPP Metallica and Put up Malone

Angela Marie Rogers

After working her personal agency for greater than a decade, Rogers joined gamma. — the media and expertise firm and new wave document label — as head of enterprise and authorized affairs. There, she handles signings for companions like Usher, Snoop Dogg and Insurgent Music’s Sexyy Pink whereas additionally spearheading strategic partnerships. As well as, she led manufacturing authorized companies at Mass Attraction for the Hulu documentary Freaknik: The Wildest Story By no means Informed, concerning the iconic Atlanta road get together that passed off in the course of the ’80s and ’90s.

MY THOUGHTS ON AI IN MUSIC “Nonetheless formulating.”

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE … “Creativity on the enterprise facet. The normal main document label mannequin and conventional impartial distribution mannequin want to alter. That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about being a part of gamma. Something’s potential over right here.”

Jess Rosen

Nation music has at all times been certainly one of music’s prime genres, however up to now few years, these stars have dominated the pop scene and reached newer heights. Rosen has been working behind the scenes alongside the style’s greatest acts, negotiating main tour offers for Kenny Chesney, Kacey Musgraves and Kane Brown, whose publishing catalog he additionally helped promote. Rosen — who secured greater than 240 offers, collectively valued at greater than eight figures, up to now yr — additionally negotiated celeb restaurant license offers for Brown and Miranda Lambert.

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR “Summer season Wind,” by Frank Sinatra

Angela Martinez

Martinez is the founder and sole operator of AngieLaw and represents among the world’s greatest Latin acts, together with Ozuna, Luis Fonsi, Feid, Sebastián Yatra, María Becerra and Alemán. Up to now yr, she continued to navigate the complexities of music legislation, closing a collection of high-stakes agreements, together with recording, publishing, distribution and asset buy offers, collectively securing greater than $130 million.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE OR SHOW ABOUT LAWYERS My Cousin Vinny

MY THOUGHTS ON AI IN MUSIC “New applied sciences in music usually meet resistance, as we noticed with cassettes, CDs and digital music. Whereas I perceive considerations round AI, I imagine the business ought to give attention to methods to monetize it and create distinctive fan experiences that solely artists can present. Embracing AI can open new alternatives with out dropping the private connection central to music.”

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW “Vanilla Ice, En Vogue and MC Hammer — don’t choose me!”

Bobby Rosenbloum

Up to now yr, Rosenbloum has orchestrated offers totaling greater than $3 billion. He oversees music licensing and technique for music AI firms like SourceAudio, Klay Imaginative and prescient, Songbird AI and Oy, in addition to social media platforms like Meta, Snap, TikTok, X and Twitch. He’s on pace dial as outdoors music counsel for such prime firms as Mattel, the Coca-Cola Co., Amazon Studios, Lululemon, Verizon Wi-fi, MLB and Apple Studios — simply to call a couple of. And he serves as deputy basic counsel of the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy.

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR “Espresso,” by Sabrina Carpenter (produced by our consumer Julian Bunetta).

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE … “Options for international music publishing licensing. The present fragmentation of {the marketplace} has made it far too tough for brand spanking new companies to innovate.”

Matthew Thompson

Thompson assisted Warner Music Group in its current reorg of Atlantic Information, together with the elevation of 10K Tasks founder Elliot Grainge to CEO. Thompson additionally helped WMG and its associates on a three way partnership with 10K Tasks, residence to Ice Spice, Artemas and Trippie Redd. And he’s labored on large catalog acquisitions, together with WMG buying the whole recorded music catalog  of Sure.

MY THOUGHTS ON AI IN MUSIC “Hold it out. Music is a deeply human creation and expertise and may keep that means.”

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE … “Means to attach emergent artists with followers. I do know there are a ton of how to make this occur, however so many younger up-and-comers simply by no means discover their viewers. It’s unhappy.”

Debbie White

Name White the queen of Ok-pop collabs. She’s represented HYBE — residence to BTS — for seven years, and her current offers embody Jung Kook teaming up with Usher for “Standing Subsequent to You”; RM and Megan Thee Stallion becoming a member of forces for “Neva Play”; and Jimin linking with NLE Choppa, JVKE and Muni Lengthy on “Angel Pt. 1” and “Angel Pt. 2” from the Quick X soundtrack. She additionally labored on NewJeans’ international model ambassadorship with Coca-Cola and is busy outdoors of the Ok-pop spectrum, dealing with offers for purchasers like Howdy Sunshine, The Who, Duran Duran and Christina Aguilera, for her Las Vegas residency and an Airbnb partnership.

THE SONG THAT DOMINATED MY AIRPODS THIS YEAR “Fireplace for You,” by Cannons, and “A Sky Stuffed with Stars,” by Coldplay.

MY FIRST-EVER LIVE SHOW “Carpenters in Level Nice, New Jersey. Nonetheless, the primary live performance I actually keep in mind attending was Styx at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor.”

This story appeared within the Nov. 20 difficulty of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.