Music
Simpsons is unique in the breadth of our practical experience in the Australian music industry.
Our clients include singers, musicians, conductors, composers, orchestras, ensembles, record producers, agents, managers, record companies, music publishers, distributors, software developers, and multimedia producers.
Areas of expertise include:
- Recording contracts
- Publishing contracts
- Distribution contracts (including pressing & distribution and digital distribution)
- Copyright and performers' rights
- Bootlegging and piracy
- Multi-media, on-line services and new technology
- Licensing
- Commissioning
- Management
- Agency
- Promotion
- Sponsorship and merchandising
- Collecting societies
- Live performance and touring
- Financing and investment structures
- Sponsorship
- Customs Seizures, Copyright and Trade Mark Objection Notices
Simpsons represents the Australian interests of many USA and Europe-based corporations and celebrity performers.
Shane Simpson was the contributing editor of Music: The Business and the Law, (Law Book Company, Sydney, 1986) and author of Music Business (Omnibus Press, Sydney, 3rd edition 2006) which has become the standard text for the music industry in Australia.
In 1994, Shane Simpson conducted a Federal Government inquiry resulting in the report Review of Australian Copyright Collecting Societies. Legal Profiles in its annual review of Australian law firms, ranked Simpsons Solicitors as "Premier" in the entertainment field.