Music Business Made Simple: Don’t Use AI to Draft Your Music Business Contracts
By J. Scott “Skip” Rudsenske, Attorney, MusicContracts.com
It seems a bit ironic and self-preserving that a lawyer that represents a form music contract site would write an article about the dangers of AI drafting your music business contract. After all, if you purchase an agreement from a forms website like MusicContracts.com, how do you know the terms are correct or even current? A valid question for both the forms website and AI. Even I use artificial intelligence (AI) as a starting point for research or as an editing tool when creating and changing contracts. AI can certainly help reduce the time spent researching or editing a contract clause. But what it lacks is experience in the music industry, years of representing clients, countless continuing legal education seminars, meeting with clients, drafting contracts for said clients, seeing the law and industry changes and adapting contracts for those changes.
Lawyers who draft contracts in any industry have been relying upon various printed legal sources to find draft agreements as a starting point since the first Cro-Magnon attorney hung up a stone shingle. But as a starting point and not as the final product. It’s in rare cases that an attorney would draft an agreement in an industry starting from scratch, when there are enough resources today to draw from. When I first started practicing, I started with form music industry agreements that are available to lawyers in (very expensive) form books, that were provided by experienced entertainment lawyers. Over the years, I have improved my forms (the ones used on this site) from the deals I have done with other experienced attorneys. As changes occur in the industry, I review those form agreements and determine if a change in the law or the industry, warrants a change to the agreement. Not all changes in either case warrant an overhaul of an agreement. For example, most recording agreements define “records” or “audio products” to include new technologies so that the invention of new technologies (like streaming) is covered under an agreement without the need for addendums and lawsuits. Does AI know this?
So what’s my point? AI can’t practice law. Practicing law is not just grabbing a form agreement, filling in the names of the parties and handing it to a client. There is critical thinking involved; critical thinking that AI simply can’t do. If AI drafts a 70-page recording agreement from a Warner Bros. Records agreement it found on the internet, will it work for your independent label that’s recording singles? What if you tell it to write you a 10-page contract, will you know what’s missing? Do you think AI understands the legal difference between owning masters as a work made for hire versus a transfer of copyright (one gives the label the rights for the life of the copyright and one provides a reversion to the artist). It might know the difference, but does it know when to apply it?
In an experiment for this article, I asked AI a series of questions to help me draft some AI clauses for contracts. While it gave me some good provisions to work with, it also missed the mark as it didn’t write the clauses based on the parties I was using (artist collaborators). Because I have been working and drafting contracts in the music industry for over 30 years, I understand what I needed and the legal principles involved. I knew what was right and what was wrong. Most people without both industry and legal experience would not know. And so what? Well, as we say in the legal business related to contracts, it’s not a problem, till it’s a problem.
In summary, if you’re going to run a business in the music industry, or collaborate with others, you’re going to need contracts, no different than if you drive a car, you’ll need a mechanic. Unfortunately, both cost money. Over time, with experience, you may learn how to work on your car or understand the terms in a contract. But like most mechanics who have seen their fair share of customers asking them to repair a customer attempted fix, so have I (and both costs more to fix than if you’d gone to either of us to begin with). My suggestion is to either start with an attorney, or a friend in the business or from a form agreement that you find from a reliable website that has an attorney working for it. Do not ask AI to draft an agreement. for you, and do not ask it to make changes to an agreement you found. Take that agreement you obtained from the legitimate website and spend a little money going over that agreement with an experienced entertainment attorney. We, at MusicContracts.com offer a $100 consultation with an experienced entertainment attorney to go over the agreement with you and answer all your questions (cheaper than a mechanic). But, even if you don’t use us, there’s lots of capable entertainment attorneys that can explain the contracts to you and let you know if what you have is the right contract and how to make changes. We know we’re more knowledgeable, and possibly more fun to talk to, than Claude or Gemini.