Who Owns That Tune? Issues Faced by Music Creators in Today's Content-Based Industry

• Author: Adam J. Reis, Manon L. Burns
• Pages: 13-16

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 12, Number 3, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2019 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.

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Who Owns

That Tune?

Issues Faced by Music Creators

in Today’s Content-Based Industry

By Adam J. Reis and Manon L. Burns

ontent is king, and his edict is inundation. If an artist or brand can saturate the market with content,

and thus capture every possible click, like, and repost, it can increase its chance of being seen and,

hopefully, paid. Content can be anything: a simple status update, a short lm, a sponsored makeup tutorial, a

new meme. And, of course, content can be music, along with every medium in which music can be incorporated.

One of the key issues inherent in the creation of music-based content is ownership. Is the owner the party who

solicited the content and described exactly how it was to be done, or the creator-inuencer who made it happen?

The singer-songwriter who strummed the acoustic guitar, or the producer who provided feedback on the lyrics, the

style, the melody? And, if all of these contributors are joint authors of the work, how are royalties divided among

them? Because individuals are no longer limited from making contributions by physical or geographical barriers

thanks to the magic of the inter net, there can easily be dozens of contributions to a single instance of meme-able

content. This can lead to headaches when attempting to assist clients who want to make sure that their

rights in their content are protected against other parties.

Understanding the importance of content, and in particular videos, in today’s music market and the fundamentals of

copyright ownership is only the beginning, as one of the biggest challenges faced by any lawyer representing creatives is

ensuring clients enter into the agreements that will best protect them. The more we understand these processes as attor-

neys, the better chance we have of best representing our clients.

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