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Erin M. Jacobson

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki




Erin M. Jacobson
Born
🏫 EducationUniversity of Southern California (BA)
Southwestern Law School (JD)
💼 Occupation
Attorney
🌐 Websitethemusicindustrylawyer.com

Erin M. Jacobson is an American attorney, writer and member of the State Bar of California.[1][2] She has written articles in the Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, a publication of the American Bar Association.[3]

Jacobson is a “music attorney who specializes in negotiations between music creators (artists) and music owners (labels or publishers).”[4] The Los Angeles Times stated that she is an “attorney specializing in music industry intellectual property.”[5]

Jacobson has appeared on ABC News television and has been heard on CBC News radio in the United States and Canada, respectively.[6][7] She has also been heard on BBC News radio, which has affiliates in Great Britain and around the world.[8]

She has handled music legal matters involving Elvis, The Ronettes, Sam Cooke, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Prince and others.[9][10]

Jacobson shared the stage with, and was interviewed by, American musician, record executive and television presenter, Randy Jackson, best known as a judge on American Idol from 2002 to 2013.[11]

Jacobson was named to Billboard magazine's Top Music Lawyers list for four consecutive years, 2020–2023.[12][13][14][15] She has written feature articles for Billboard and Forbes magazines.[16][17][18][19][20]

Jacobson was chosen by Super Lawyers as a “top rated entertainment & sports attorney in Beverly Hills, California” and was also “selected to Rising Stars: 2018 - 2019.”[21]

Her legal commentaries have appeared in Rolling Stone,[22][23] Time,[24] Los Angeles Times,[25][26] Pitchfork,[27] CNBC,[28] Us Weekly,[29][30] Glamour,[31] Music Connection,[32] Vice[33] and other publications.

She was featured in Music Business Worldwide's Inspiring Women interview series, chronicling her rise in the music business and thoughts on the music industry's most pressing issues.[34]

In a feature article written by Jenna Paone of The Women's International Music Network, Jacobson stated that “some people refuse to take advice from women,” therefore, “as women we need to support each other, especially in a male dominated industry.”[35]

Jacobson was featured in an issue of Shoutout LA magazine. The article highlights a few of her personal and business interests. She acknowledged her mother, stating, “my mom’s unconditional love, support, and teaching was instrumental in my success.” Concerning her law practice, she stated, “I really enjoy the CEO role in addition to the attorney role...”[36]

Jacobson was featured in a Fox Rothschild article on October 9, 2017.[37]

On October 13, 2019, Jacobson was a special guest on a Synchtank program.[38]

Elvis Presley and his manager Colonel Tom Parker 1969

Jacobson was mentioned in the book Leaving the Building, by Eamonn Forde. The book delves into the many complex issues faced by estates of famous musicians, and, as the title implies, focuses heavily on the handling of the Elvis Presley Estate.[39] In Chapter 2, “The Inescapable Importance of the Will,” Forde stated, “Los Angeles-based music lawyer Erin M. Jacobson says it can be a Sisyphean struggle to get artists...not just to think about their estate planning but also to treat it with the seriousness it deserves.”

Jacobson was quoted several times in Steve Barden’s book, Writing Production Music for TV: The Road to Success. In addition, he stated in the acknowledgement section of his book, “thanks to music attorney Erin M. Jacobson for her detailed insights into contracts.”[40]

Jacobson was mentioned in Bobby Borg’s book Music Marketing for the DIY Musician. She emphasized the importance of DIY artists keeping track of metadata in an ever-increasing digital music world. She stated, “Keeping meticulous, accurate records will help artists to keep track of uses and make sure they are getting paid for all uses of their music.”[41]

In 2020, Jacobson published her book Don't Get Screwed! How to Protect Yourself as an Independent Musician. On February 3, 2021, the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers gave Jacobson the opportunity to discuss her book via their website platform.[42] She also founded Indie Artist Resource (IAR), an ecommerce website providing contract templates and educational resources for independent musicians. Her primary goal for doing so was to "eliminate the barriers musicians often face to meet their basic legal and business needs".[43][44]

Education

Jacobson attended the University of Southern California.[45] She worked at the school's student radio station (KSCR) as a disc jockey.[46] She “had the “‘most-listened to’” morning show where she would feature an interview and live set with a different independent artist each week.”

Jacobson was interviewed by former American Idol judge Randy Jackson at Newman Recital Hall, USC Thornton School of Music.[47]

On February 11, 2016, Jacobson participated in a group discussion at the USC Thornton School of Music. Former American Idol judge Randy Jackson moderated the annual event known as Music Career Night. One of the questions Jackson asked Jacobson pertained to networking...how it helped her career. She “emphasized that joining professional organizations can increase professional contacts.” After Jacobson and the four other panelists answered that particular question, they “addressed questions from the students and young musicians in attendance.”[48]

Jacobson later attended Southwestern Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor. While there, “she served as the President of Southwestern’s Entertainment and Sports Law Society, the national Student Liaison to the ABA Forum Committee on Entertainment and Sports Industries Law and the Student Liaison to Southwestern for the Beverly Hills Bar Association.”[49] After passing the California Bar Exam, she opened up her own law practice in Beverly Hills, California.[50][51]

Career

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Jacobson worked for Capitol Records before becoming an attorney

Jacobson “worked in the publicity department of Capitol Records, as Director of Promotions for AO Recordings.” She worked for Rick Dees, helping him produce Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown, which is currently the longest continuously running countdown (featuring pop music) in the world. She “worked at Bug Music and other music publishing companies, as well as several music law firms.”[52][53]

Jacobson stated in a Billboard article that she "works with a variety of award-winning artists, estates, publishers and other music companies." She has handled music legal matters involving Elvis Presley, The Ronettes, Sam Cooke, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Prince and others.[54][13] In addition, she has also dealt with legal matters regarding “iconic TV theme songs and holiday classics, among many others,” stated Bill Donahue and Thom Duffy in a Billboard article.[55] That same Billboard article stated that “Jacobson identifies the industry’s most pressing issue as one that's extremely of the moment: AI.” She said that artificial intelligence “‘is an emerging area that will present a lot of practical and legal challenges as new avenues of technology.’”

On November 5, 2020, Jacobson was a participant in a Sofar Sounds discussion that was made up of an “all-female panel of musicians and industry professionals.”[56]

Notable legal discussions

Jacobson shared pertinent perspectives during the Taylor Swift masters controversy. She said on CBC News, "the structure of a label owning the master has been in place for such a long time that a lot of people are just used to that." She affirmed that Swift has no legal recourse on the contract but can effect change in the music industry and benefit all artists.[57] Jacobson also stated in a Glamour article that Swift will continue to get paid since "the buyer is usually obligated to follow the terms of the purchased company's existing contracts." That being mentioned, "Ithaca Holdings would now be responsible for collecting all earnings of the masters and paying Swift her contractual royalties."[58] In a Nightline interview, Jacobson stated, "in a record deal, it's standard for the record label to own the master recordings" and "its the exception when the artist owns the recordings and licenses them to the label"; she also mentioned that a more common option for artists is to be able to purchase their masters from their record label to regain independent ownership of their masters.[59]

During Nightline, BBC News, CBC News, Glamour and Us Weekly interviews, Jacobson shared legal commentaries regarding the Taylor Swift masters controversy.

On November 14, 2019, Swift posted on her Instagram page that Borchetta and Braun informed her that she couldn't perform any of her old songs at the upcoming 47th annual American Music Awards.[60] According to Swift, Borchetta and Braun were prohibiting her from doing so in order to keep her from violating the terms of her contract, which clearly stated that she couldn't re-record any songs until 2020. They proposed that since the AMA's would be "recorded", her participation in performing her old songs would break the terms of their agreement. In a Us Weekly article the day following Swift's Instagram post, Jacobson explained that Borchetta and Braun "cannot prevent Taylor from performing any song live" due to the fact that the "rights to the compositions are controlled by Taylor's music publisher".[61] Swift, in spite of Borchetta's and Braun's alleged demands, ended up performing four of her old songs at the AMA's that year.[29][62] In a BBC News interview, Jacobson stated that this particular situation “‘with Taylor Swift will create a lot more awareness for artists about signing to a label and what that means.’”[63]

In a feature article in The Fader, Jacobson shared her professional point of view regarding the legal action that Taylor Swift took in 2015 to prevent ETSY store owners from merchandising “items with Swift’s trademarks and lyrics printed on them.” Jacobson stated that Swift’s legal team “‘are completely in their rights to go after them if they want to.’”[64] The premise for Swift exercising her legal right regarding the issue with ETSY was predicated on a statement that she made in a 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed — “‘Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.’”[65]

File:Halsey 2019 by Glenn Francis (cropped).jpg
On May 23, 2022, Time published Jacobson’s legal commentary regarding Halsey’s So Good release controversy.[66]

In March 2022, an article written by the Los Angeles Times reported that the Prince Estate recently informed Morris Day that he "can no longer use Morris Day and The Time in any capacity". Jacobson was mentioned in that same article where, after reading the letter that was sent to Day from the estate, she explained that it was more accurate to say the letter stated that Day could not claim "ownership of the name", but there was still opportunity to use the name via an agreement with the Prince Estate; and that these types of agreements provide terms for the party using the name to monetarily compensate "the trademark owner in exchange for the ability to continue using the name".[67]

In January 2022, Halsey wrote and produced a song, titled "So Good". When the song's release was withheld from release due to Capitol Records needing to test the song's "virality", Halsey posted a TikTok video criticizing Capitol on May 22, 2022 for not being allowed to release "So Good" "without an accompanying campaign or TikTok video to make it go viral". Five days prior, without the approval of Capitol, Halsey played a snippet of her song in a TikTok video. In the days following her post, questions arose regarding whether Capitol was going to take legal action against her. Jacobson was quoted in an article by Time, "It is rare that a label would sue one of its own artists, especially when the label plans to continue working with that artist. Further, using such a short piece of the record could also be seen as a promotional use."[68] Capitol Records eventually conceded on May 31, 2022, amid criticism and scrutiny from a variety of music artists, and set a release date for the song of June 9, 2022.[69][70]

Marcus Gray (left) sued Katy Perry (right) in 2014 for copyright infringement.

On July 1, 2014, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Christian rapper Marcus Gray, professionally known as “Flame,” filed a lawsuit against Katy Perry for copyright infringement on the Grammy-nominated song "Joyful Noise". During the federal trial in July 2019, Perry testified that she had never heard "Joyful Noise".[71] The lawyer for Gray and the other plaintiffs noted that Perry in the early 2000s started her career in Christian pop, to which Perry replied that even during that part of her career she was "mostly always listening to ... secular music anyway".[72] On July 29, 2019, a federal jury found that Perry and others were guilty of infringement. The jury awarded the plaintiffs $2.78 million.[73]

Four days later, via Twitter, Jacobson posted that she was going to be discussing the recent ruling of Gray v. Perry on Los Angeles radio station KNX. A few months after that discussion, on December 18, 2019, Jacobson made some insightful comments about the case on her blog in the article titled “2019 Legal Round-Up...And What It Means For The Music Industry In 2020.” She stated that “copyright infringement lawsuits require two elements to be proved, substantial similarity and access.” First, the potentially infringing work must display a substantial similarity to the original work. Second, the “infringing party must have had access to, i.e. heard, the allegedly infringed song.” Basically, if overwhelming evidence exists against the infringing party, the infringed party wins the case. At the time, Jacobson mentioned in her blog that she believed that the verdict issued by the jury in the Gray v. Perry case was not justifiable due to “a lack of compelling evidence for both elements.” Expressing her sentiment further, she mentioned that she was hopeful that the “verdict (would be) overturned on appeal.” On March 17, 2020, a [Ninth Circuit]] judge did just that, overturned the verdict, citing numerous factors.[74]

References

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  5. Brown, August (2021-05-06). "A homeless LA musician helped create a Daft Punk classic. So why hasn't he seen a dime?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
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  67. Roberts, Randall (March 4, 2022). "After 40 years, Prince Estate claims band name 'Morris Day and the Time' belongs to it". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  68. Chow, Andrew R. (May 23, 2022). "Halsey Is the Latest Artist Complaining About the Music Industry's Reliance on TikTok". Time. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  69. Garcia, Thania (2022-05-23). "Halsey's Label Responds to Singer's TikTok Claim That They Won't Release New Song". Variety. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
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  71. Patrick, Robert (July 1, 2014). "St. Louis Christian hip-hop singers sue Katy Perry over 'Dark Horse'". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  72. Eggertsen, Chris (July 19, 2019). "Katy Perry Takes the Stand on Day One of 'Dark Horse' Copyright Trial". Billboard. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
  73. "Katy Perry among those ordered to pay a total of $2.78M in song copying lawsuit". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  74. Dohanue, Bill (March 10, 2022). "Katy Perry Wins in 'Dark Horse' Copyright Appeal". Billboard. Retrieved March 11, 2022.

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