We work for bands, artists, songwriters and producers, never for labels or publishers. We read show contracts for venues too.
We handle record deals, publishing, band agreements, royalties and show contracts. Send us the contract and we’ll tell you, in plain English, what it does and what to ask to change.
We’re on Waterloo Rd in Collinwood, open weekdays 10 to 6 and evenings by appointment for bands with day jobs.
Every word, before you sign it.
Until you sign, the other side expects you to ask for changes. After, they don’t have to make any.
Five kinds of work, with who does each one and what it costs. See an example clause from each
We read label deals, distribution deals and 360s, where the label also takes a cut of touring and merch. We check what the label takes back out of your royalties before you’re paid, how long it keeps your masters and how many extra albums its options let it call for.
We read co-publishing deals, where a publisher owns part of your songs, and admin deals, where it just collects your money for a cut. We write split sheets, the signed page of who wrote what share, and register each song for you.
A band agreement says who owns the name, who owns the songs and what happens to both when somebody quits. It is a much shorter conversation before anyone wants to leave than after.
Priya checks your statements against your contract and chases money that never arrived, like the performance and mechanical royalties on songs nobody registered.
We read show contracts for bands and for rooms. If we already work for the other side of your show, we tell you before anyone reads your contract.
Got a contract waiting on you?
The first call is free and takes about twenty minutes.
Book a free callWe’re two lawyers and a royalty analyst in one room upstairs on Waterloo Rd. You talk to the person doing the work, every time. More about the three of us
Partner. Record deals, publishing, producer agreements and sync.
“I played bass in touring bands for nine years before law school. I signed two record deals and a publishing deal, and didn’t read any of them properly. Now I read other people’s, front to back.”
Partner. Venues, promoters, touring, band agreements and band names.
“I booked a two-hundred-capacity room in Cleveland for six years. I wrote the radius clauses and settled the door at the end of the night, so I know what those clauses cost a band and what a settlement sheet can leave out.”
Royalty analyst. Statements, registrations and audits.
“I’m not a lawyer. I read royalty statements against the contracts behind them, line by line. Plenty are right to the cent. When one isn’t, I take it to Dana, because deciding what to do about it is legal work.”
Upload the contract on the booking page, or call us and describe the offer if it isn’t on paper yet. Tell us when you have to answer.
We call you within two business days of the contract arriving. In about twenty minutes you tell us about the deal, and we tell you who would read it and what it costs: a flat fee, or a written estimate for hourly work. If you have to answer in less than two business days, call us and tell us the date.
Once we both sign an engagement letter, which says what we’ll do and what it costs, we read the whole contract, including the definitions and the schedules at the back, where a lot of the money gets decided.
We list the changes in order of how much they matter, with the wording we would ask for. Then we go through it with you on a call. If you want us to negotiate with the other side, that part is billed by the hour.
What to change, in order
Recording agreement, one album plus four options, read by Dana Kovach
We’ll call you Thursday at 4:30 to go through it.
Upload it on the booking page. The first call is free, and you’ll know the price before any paid work starts.