Bio & Objectives
My name is Alex Umeki and this is my third semester at SF State. I went back to school during COVID after working in restaurants for 6 years. I completed by undergraduate degree at Arizona State and focused on journalism, sports writing, and newswriting coursework. I’ve always been interested in the law and was saving money for law school until the pandemic happened. Like everyone, I re-evaluated many aspects of the bartending career I had and the practicality of pursuing a challenge like law school. The paralegal program at SFSU was mentioned to me some time ago, and I honestly didn’t know what a paralegal was at that time. After some phones calls and a few hours of Suits, I understood quickly. Meeting a lawyer, a day while working in the airport didn’t hurt either. Interestingly, none of these lawyers did any litigation. Almost seven years working at SFO, and I never once met a trial or criminal lawyer. I remember asking some lawyers, “When’s the last time you were in a courtroom?” I was always met with silence or a shocked dubious face. I could tell some had never even been in a court room and there were a few who had, but it had been years since they did any sort of litigation practice. I found this disturbing. Two major things I found in observing so many lawyers is (1) the legal field has become highly specialized and (2) majority of cases are settled to avoid trial. Be aware this was when I worked in the Admirals Club easily 90% of the travelers were traveling on a corporate account. If I think outside of this box, I easily encountered about 30x that amount working outside of the lounge in bars and restaurants. This group comprised of employment, patent, corporate, estates, and family lawyers. A few outliers were animal law, music law, beverage, and video game law.
Thus far, my electives include copyright intern, business/corporate law intern, patents, contracts, criminal law and real estate courses. I took the test for real estate license bit didn’t pass. I have also taken additional free course work involving intellectual property, music copyright, music agreements, and trademark. I got my start in music as a concert promoter and eventually become a DJ. I did promotions for a year and eventually dabbled in talent scouting and management.
This is where I got my first glimpse into the legal entanglements that can occur within record labels, music collectives, and management/distribution companies. In short, the artists I successfully signed to the label, rallied together, and protested their contracts as unfair/illegal. Initially, the artists made arguments about intellectual property. That tune quickly changed when lawyers got involved and told them it was contract dispute, and they could ask to be released from it. The latter happened. The one thing that stood out to me about this experience was that the artists were not eager to blame the lawyer or firm who drafted the deal. They blamed the me, the label CEO, and another A&R.
To avoid any further headache, we released 6 producers from their agreements. I never forgot about this even when I was in the pits of bartending and working myself into the ground. As mentioned though, outlier. I remember meeting one music lawyer in all those years in the airport. So, when I started my graduate education, I did it with the intentions of leaving the music industry behind. I never pursued a legal education thinking it could give me tangible skills that could not only keep me in the music industry but make me an extremely valuable and rare asset. I know many artists, who earn their living off music, producers, engineers, songwriters and have spent enough time in music studios to know that lawyers are an extremely overlooked part of the creative process.
This is for two reasons (1): lack of understanding of lawyers’ role in creative process and (2): highly specialized nature of the field. It is easy to find any business or transactional lawyer to read over and approve a contract for a rapper, for example. However, will that lawyer know and understand all the parties involved? Will they be able to advise a better distribution platform? Does that lawyer know what a sync deal is versus a publishing deal? Do they know the ‘major players’ and what companies work in what markets? This is often where young attorneys fall short in their ambition to get into this field. Lack of knowledge and ultimately connections is the tough barrier to entry. However, most lawyers do not realize it is not an issue of skill when it comes to getting involved in the music industry.
Business or corporate lawyers with a background in commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, intellectual property, and even immigration are the perfect candidates. Again, it just goes to knowing who to call. The year one my good friends went into to law school; a rapper called me and asked me to review his contract deals. At the time, I just did not have the expertise. Furthermore, my greater point is that I was waiting for that friend in law school to call me, he never did. It seems to be a regular occurrence that some lawyers I know who had connections to people like Leigh Steinburg or entertainment just weren’t willing to ask. In the music industry, there is no such thing. Getting involved in the legal side of the music industry takes knowing the actual industry. As I type, it sounds simple from someone with a music background but what about the lawyers preparing for the bar right now who are curious about getting into this field? Yes, there are amazing sections by the ABA and many online resources that shed light on practice area issues surrounding IP, copyright, and trademark. However, none of that is an ample or equal replacement for what being in the music business is like. Personally, I don’t believe there is any job or school in the world that can prepare you for what the music business brings. When I analyze further, I figure I would have gotten more out of promoting if I had bartended first. Does that make sense? The amount of people that come and go in the music business is insane and the first step, unfortunately, is dissecting and weeding out people based who can do what they claim to do. If they can most often, they are the best in the industry at doing it. Whether that be publicity, booking agency, promotions, or concert production.
Whatever field, competition is usually limited to a handful, if that. Again, regardless of the field you must be or involved with the top percentage of people doing it. In Arizona, for example, there is only one promotions company that does live production, artist booking, and marketing. Relentless Beats has no major competitor and operates its booking system on what some have called a monopoly. The counter to this is that the booking system is generally territory based anyway. Fortunately, time with this promotions company was not a waste. When I got into SFSU I reached out to the person that was my promotions team lead at Relentless. He is now a music agent at United Talent Agency. He put me in touch with a music attorney who was a rising star at Myman Greenspan, voted 2023 Hit’s Daily Double’s Music Hottest Law Firms. She graduated from Harvard Law School and is credited with starting Harvard Recording Artist Project (RAP). I also came across an article she wrote that was published in the 2017 Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal.
Knowing I already had an itch for intellectual property the title of the article left me nostalgic, "A Tale of Electronic Bass Music & The Elusive Composition Copyright: A Discussion of the Gap in Copyright Protection for Bass Music Producers." In just a few pages I was able to understand what happened to a music genre that I once consumed as a former DJ, talent scout, promotor, and fan. We were aware of the problems in clearing samples and releasing remixes but, there were truths and revelations in this article that could not be found elsewhere. In turn, this immediately reignited my passion for music, legal aspects of the industry, and intellectual property protection for creators. I was forced to re-examine the success or potential success of those who got involved in legal sides of entertainment.
The rise of the boutique firm
The rise of the boutique law firm: Is specialization a result of litigation burnout?
Over the past 10 years, the rise of independent or small legal practices who specialize in specific areas has become the normal post-life for those who exit big law or big firm life. Better work-life balance, elimination of toxic work environments, fewer conflicts, less long hours, and possibly larger profits are just a few incentives. Sure, there are highly specialized law fields such as entertainment and intellectual property but, the legal field has become more specialized in general. Pair this with flexible work schedule thanks to a more segmented demand of clients the result being happier clients and more efficient lawyers. This also gives paralegals more client contact that is typically reserved for lawyers. Perhaps the main concerns surrounding the evolution of boutique law firms should be (1): Does specialization make legal services more accessible, or less? (2): Is specialization a result of litigation burnout? And (3): Can boutique law firms weather an impending recession?
First, when analyzing the role of paralegals and legal assistants they were initially created to free up lawyer’s time and give the public more access to legal services. In general, it is fair to think that legal services have become more accessible with the rise of legal assistants, county clinics, and university law clinics. Even though certain people may be able to get what they need through a clinic or firm that specializes in one to three areas there still seems to be a drought or scarcity of trial and litigation attorneys. This does make some sense in a time where absolutely no one is willing or eager to go to trial and many lawyers take cases just to settle them. You mean to tell me that all these lawyers became so jaded and overworked by litigation that they decided to simply not do it anymore? They limited themselves to get more work out of themselves. Which sounds practical initially but benefits legal professionals far more than it does the public, if at all. This also suggests a realm or degree of exhaustion for the litigation process for law professionals and lawyers who practiced in the last 50-70 years.
Boutique law, specialization, and the growth of clinic practice and has created a broken bridge connection to accessibility. The rise of boutique law firms has only helped lawyers and the professionals who work underneath them. Even though some small practices operate more like some start-ups, placing affordability and client relationship above fees and billable, it is reasonable to conclude that some legal services are going to cost more simply because of specialization and scarcity. Second, a former bartender was interviewed for this article said that during her 7 years working in airports she easily met a lawyer a day, she never met one that did any litigation or criminal law. Think about that. She served thousands of people a day easily 500+ of them were lawyers and not one practiced litigation. Are you disturbed yet? “I would ask when they were last in court or if they had ever seen the inside of a courtroom. I was always met with silence or a shocked-dubious face.” Other times, “‘We don’t really do any litigation,’ was the final answer. I honestly got tired of hearing it.” So, what do you do if you don’t defend people? Well, the plethora of small to mid-sized practices that have popped up over the years sheds some light.
Third, time will answer how stable and profitable this model is for the legal industry to sustain. The economic future is uncertain and not exactly bright. If a recession does occur within the next 2 years one can anticipate some sort of shift, possibly back to general litigation, as businesses close, property crimes increase, civil and criminal wrongdoings/crime skyrocket, and unpaid back rents from the pandemic.
Wonders of Music Law
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Wonders of Music Law: Is it music at all?
In honor of Grammy Week, this post discusses music law what is it and why is it important? The truth is behind glamour and initial visions of stars and celebrities this field of law is often ambiguous to the musicians and creators it serves. Obviously, most elite stars have elite access to anything they want including legal services. However, the average independent musician, for example an electronic dance music producer (EDM) or bass producer, has no existing legal protections against copyright infringement under the Copyright Act of 1976. This sort of magnified legal issue involves layers and compartmentalization in knowledge of both music and the law. Separate copyright from trademark, examine the genre, sub-genre, and note trends between the two in concurrence with the current year. If you can do all of that from reading Marr’s article title, then you maybe be in “good shape” to practice music law. If not, then consider it an informative and persuasive view any music fan or music lover can appreciate. Surely, it gives an un-intrinsic answer to “what is music law?”
Knowledge of music sounds simple on its base, but it truly takes encyclopedic knowledge of music to specialize in a genre like electronic dance. Most music journalists, talent scouts, and artists & repertoire (A&Rs) agree that the death of this genre is a direct result of the lack of copyright protections for bass music creators and fall of digital streaming provider (DSP) SoundCloud. Often producers of bass music, some regarded as original founders of the sound such as TroyBoi, ventured into alternative-like sounds where copyright is established in genres like drum and bass or dubstep. Thus, if the law is the arbiter of what is and is not music, then electronic bass music, dominated by percussive rhythms and diverse sonic elements, is not music at all[1]. [Since] the compositions underlying bass music would surely not qualify as music works[2]…Further analysis gives way to the fact that rhythm and rhythmic patterns on their own are not subject to copyright protection[3]. Again, a reminder of why music law is highly specialized and speaking to the depth in attempting to define the practice.
To avoid using too many music terms related to sound engineering and music theory suffice to say that legal protections for the processes related to mixing and mastering, in other words music engineering, a sound recording are nonexistent and do not offer much hope either. Agreeing with Marr this seemingly automatic loss of copyright protection is alarming because 1) it illustrates copyright law’s disconnection from music producers in an age where technology is a core component of music writing 2) bass producers have no copyright protection even when incorporated and normalized in mainstream music and 3) copyright loss arising from third party (record label) ownership of master recordings. These are all compelling and relevant issues that anyone who has DJ’d, worked in concert promotion, music management, or spent lots of time in music studios could attest to.
Fortunately, for the old-fashioned rock or country music writer the process for a copyright infringement claim is plausible and the expectations standard. There are protections in this respect because the courts have a simple demand: provide sheet music. The claimant and defendant must both provide sheet music showing the underlying composition of the work in question. The court then compares the two, and anyone who can read music notation would be able to note a clear difference or similarity. Simple right? While it appears a reasonable demand the lack of sheet music for bass music producers is its inevitable downfall. The further problem being that in bass music all the melodic and harmonic elements, which are copyrightable, are generally sonically similar[4] while the rhythmic and sonic elements (noncopyrightable) are what makes the songs unique from another. This means that if an analysis of sheet music were to take place all tracks in this genre are similar based off what sheet music could be produced. However, in electronic dance music even though the songs are melodically and harmonically similar they operate in away where they are distinct tracks instead of copies of each other.[5]
First, Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), is basically a shrunken down synthesizer. Musical notes, timings and pitches are pre-programmed inside which it uses to play music from its own sound library. Merely plugging a MIDI into an outlet gives extraordinary power. Meaning that without instrumental/musical training, classical training, or knowledge of musical composition, an illiterate bedroom producer[6] can come out with the same exact sounds and notes a classily trained musician would. All thanks to electric power. Second, a plaintiff’s case is arguably stronger if the copying artist is more mainstream, however, the trouble is most music created today for the mainstream audience incorporates elements from all genres.[7] The gaps and disconnections in copyright protections speaks to the overall lack of protections for creators based on scenes à faire doctrine. Which describes a standard, cliché, or over used themes that are commonly found in specific genres or creative works. And finally, the term “masters” or master recording has become an essential part of creative ownership and maintaining creative control. Many artists find themselves only left with the underlying composition or pre-mastered version of a sound recording once they sign a record deal. This leaves artists in a position where earning economic utility from these works is not viable because according to courts the underlying composition is not considered music under the law.
[1] Jennifer T. Marr, A Tale of Electronic Bass Music & the Elusive Composition Copyright: A Discussion of the Gap in Copyright Protection for Bass Music Producers, 16 VA. Sports & ENT. L.J. 244 (2017).
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] ibid