Team Work

Part of the role as a ‘Consultant’ in music for a Litigation solicitors firm is to translate the artists matter into terms and expressions that a lawyer can, if it goes that far, take into a court of law and present to a judge.

And therein lies the problem! Creating music is such a personal thing that it is very difficult for the ‘artist’ to remember every single event that happened during the creation of a ‘hit’.

You find a groove, a great melody. You write a great lyric. Your guitarist writes a riff that just works. The bass player comes up with such a fantastic ‘hook’ that it all starts blending. You laugh, you joke. You make promises to each other that “we did this together”! Then you play it to a friend who knows a friend in a label a publisher, a manager and before you know it somebody’s got to go because they don’t quite fit the ‘image’ of the potential ‘hit’ band.

If you agree your terms from day one everyone is protected. U2 is an almost perfect example. Everything split 4 ways. It doesn’t matter who started the ball rolling, it’s the unit that create the magic! Even Queen at the end agreed everything 4 ways. If you are part of a successful band that storms the world each member is responsible for that success.

The stories are endless. “Andrew Ridgely was nothing”? Are you joking? There would be no WHAM! without him, maybe even no George Michael because Andrew was beautiful, charismatic and protected George throughout their career, even afterwards. An Amazing, Gracious Gentleman. C+C Music Factory had a stunning fronting lady for video purposes, but Robert Clivilles and David Cole were the magic. No ‘Take That’ without Gary Barlow and Nigel Martin-Smith.

The 90s was spattered with groups that each member thought they were the reason for the success. It was the group, never the individual: S Club 7, 5ive all great people but it was the marketing and vision of the record labels that generated the success. Great Songwriters. Amazing Producers, Brilliant Marketing.

As I posted before, the Music Industry is almost a heaven on earth if you have all your contracts, terms & conditions in place right from the start.

Make it clear to people that are assisting you, YOU are paying them, YOU call the shots. Listen accept, question their advice but always make it understood that they work for you and NOT the other way round. That way almost everyone’s happy.

© David A.Nash “As always these are my personal opinions and experiences doing my engagement throughout the recording/publishing industry and do not generally reflect the opinions of the law firm Simons Rodkin Solicitors LLP”