One of my main tasks as a music lawyer is to review contracts that my clients receive. What I do is read through the contract and then write comprehensive comments on each problematic clause. I then send the contract with my comments back to the client. My reason for doing this is so that they (my clients) can see and understand what aspects of the contract are problematic. This will help them to identify these problematic clauses in the future if ever they come up again (which they will).
Below is a typical and real-life example of a license agreement contract I did for an artist recently. This particular contract was bad (and short), so I thought it would serve as a perfect example to show my process and to showcase how dangerous these types of contracts can be. I’ve redacted the text that identifies the contracting parties. A pdf version is also available if you prefer to download and read it later. Oh, you’ll be happy to know that the artist did not sign this contract!
