Music & Entertainment Lawyer

The music and entertainment industry is built on talent, creativity, and relationships. It’s also built on contracts — and the wrong contract, a missed clause, or an unregistered copyright can cost you your career, your catalog, or years of revenue. You need a lawyer who doesn’t just understand the law but understands the business.

Joya Law Firm represents musicians, producers, songwriters, artists, managers, labels, and entertainment companies across the full spectrum of entertainment law. From negotiating recording deals and publishing agreements to resolving royalty disputes and protecting intellectual property, we bring legal skill with genuine industry knowledge. Attorney Kamran Joya founded Joya Law to serve clients whose work demands more than generic legal advice — it demands a team that speaks your language.

Contract Negotiation and Review

Contracts are the lifeblood of the entertainment industry — and they’re where artists are most vulnerable. A deal that looks great on the surface can lock you into unfavorable terms for decades if you don’t have an attorney review it before you sign.

We negotiate and review the full range of music and entertainment contracts:

Recording Contracts

A recording contract defines your relationship with a label — how many albums you owe, what you’ll be paid, who owns the masters, and what happens if things go wrong. Key issues we negotiate include:

• Advance amounts and recoupment terms — how much you receive upfront and how it’s paid back from royalties
• Royalty rates and escalation clauses — your percentage of sales, streams, and licensing revenue
• Master ownership and reversion rights — who owns the recordings and whether rights revert to you after a set period
• Release commitments — ensuring the label is obligated to actually release your music, not shelf it
• Option periods — how many additional albums the label can require and under what terms
• 360 deal provisions — whether the label takes a cut of touring, merchandise, endorsements, and other income streams

Publishing Deals

Publishing agreements control the rights to your compositions — the songs themselves, separate from the recordings. These deals determine how your music generates income through mechanical royalties, performance royalties, sync licensing, and print. We focus on:

• Ownership split and co-publishing terms — what percentage of your publishing you retain
• Duration and reversion — how long the publisher controls your catalog and when rights return to you
• Administrative vs. co-publishing vs. full publishing deals — choosing the right structure for your career stage
• Sync licensing approval — whether you have a say in how your music is placed in film, TV, ads, and games
• Accounting and audit rights — ensuring transparency in royalty reporting

Management Agreements

Your manager is one of the most important people in your career — and your management agreement is one of the most consequential contracts you’ll sign. We review and negotiate:

• Commission rates and sunset clauses — the standard is 15-20%, but sunset provisions determine what your manager earns after the relationship ends
• Scope of authority — what your manager can and cannot do on your behalf
• Term and termination rights — how long you’re committed and how you can exit if the relationship isn’t working
• Key person clauses — ensuring you’re working with a specific individual, not just a management company

Licensing Agreements

Licensing deals let others use your music or creative work under defined terms. Whether it’s a sync placement, sample clearance, or brand partnership, we make sure:

• The scope of the license is clearly defined — medium, territory, duration
• Compensation reflects the actual value of the usage
• You retain control over how your work is used and associated with other brands or content
• Exclusivity provisions don’t limit your ability to do other deals

Distribution Deals

Distribution agreements — whether with traditional distributors or digital platforms — control how your music reaches the market. We review terms around:

• Distribution fees and revenue splits
• Exclusivity and territory restrictions
• Term length and catalog release upon termination
• Marketing commitments and playlist support guarantees
• Data and analytics access

Copyright Protection and Registration

Your music is your intellectual property, and copyright is the legal framework that protects it. Under the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. §§ 101-810), original musical works and sound recordings are protected from the moment of creation — but federal registration with the U.S. Copyright Office provides critical additional benefits:

• The ability to file a lawsuit for infringement (registration is required before you can sue)
• Eligibility for statutory damages up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement — available only if the work was registered before the infringement occurred or within three months of publication
• Attorney’s fees — recoverable in infringement cases only with timely registration
• A public record of your ownership that serves as prima facie evidence in court

We help artists and rights holders register copyrights for compositions, sound recordings, music videos, and other creative works. We also advise on work-for-hire issues, joint authorship, and copyright transfer agreements — areas where misunderstandings can lead to expensive disputes.

Trademark Protection for Artists

Your name is your brand. Whether you’re a solo artist, band, producer, or record label, your name, logo, and visual identity carry commercial value that grows with your career. Federal trademark registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) protects your brand by:

• Preventing others from using confusingly similar names in the music and entertainment space
• Giving you nationwide priority over later users of similar marks
• Strengthening your position in domain name disputes, social media username conflicts, and merchandise licensing

We handle trademark searches, applications, and enforcement for:

• Artist and stage names
• Band names
• Record label names
• Logos, album artwork, and visual identities
• Catchphrases and signature tags

Trademark protection is something many artists overlook until it’s too late — until someone else registers your name or a knock-off brand starts selling merchandise under your identity. Securing your trademark early is one of the smartest investments in your career.