Entertainment Attorney Trey Rick Talks Blurred Lines in the Music Industry with Edmond Sun's Business Times

New Artists Need to Know Their Business: Local entertainment experts see vast change in the music industry

Nope. Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" never came up -- not even once -- when I spoke with Van Mitchell about the music industry for his recent piece featured in The Business Times, a monthly publication of the Edmond Sun. But maybe it should have.

Our conversation centered on what new artists should know about today's music business to increase their likelihood of success (or survival) in light of changes in the way music is consumed. So, is it even worth the trouble?

Without a doubt, the landscape has changed. The roles of traditional intermediaries are either less significant or in a state of flux.

But don't believe -- just yet -- that the answer to the modern music industry's struggles is as simple as out with the old and in with the new. In the immediate future, artists and music companies would probably be best served to continue incorporating some of the old into their business models while embracing a lot of the new (e.g., interactive streaming or "on-demand" streaming). For example, the record business won't survive on sales of shiny plastic discs alone -- but it could survive on a model that involves exploiting sound recordings in diverse formats distributed across a multitude of physical and digital delivery systems creating value for consumers. Of course, that's a lofty goal. But nobody said any of this would be easy! However, it can be made easier.

"Students of the entertainment industry need to be skilled at recognizing what rights authors have in their creative works. And specifically in the music business, exclusive rights to songs are important to music publishers, and record labels are interested in exploiting rights in sound recordings. But, today, we have blurred lines."

Read the entire article in the August 2013 edition of The Business Times (Volume 5, Number 8) here: 

New Artists Need to Know Their Business: Local entertainment experts see vast change in the music industry

--TR