Tony Berman
October 22nd 2008

Music Industry Attorney

Pyramind and its students were very happy to spend an afternoon with a true class act. Music Industry attorney Tony Berman presented a 2 and a half hour lecture in what can only be called one of the most informative events of this year’s “Planning for Success” series on October 22nd 2008. Tony is the founder of Berman Entertainment and Technology Law, a San Francisco based law firm focusing on issues implicated by the convergence of technology and the entertainment industry.

Tony began with his early history in New York, and he wanted to be involved in the music business (in some form or another) from a very young age. His father, a judge and law school professor may have been somewhat instrumental in guiding his eventual decision to go into law. He attended NYU and then got his JD at New York Law School. Prior to practicing law, Tony was involved in the entertainment industry as a manager, producer, performer and concert presenter/promoter. While he attended college he was a music journalist and even a radio deejay. When he was much younger in New York, he worked for Arista Records and Good Morning America.

That day’s presentation talked about many aspects of current copyright and publishing issues, and how the students might protect themselves in terms of making basic agreements before doing business with anyone in the industry. He also stressed that without a simple and specific attention to detail, artists would lose out on possible revenues and royalties. His presentation was very clear, and many of the students asked very intelligent questions about how some of these aspects might affect their own careers moving forward.

Overall, Tony stressed that each student could control and protect many of their revenue streams and minimize the many issues and problems that anyone in the music business could face. He gave the students his e-mail address and encouraged everyone to contact him directly if they had any “legal” questions. He also gave everyone the link to his blog http://www.beat-law.com/melonblog.html which answers simple, general questions and discusses many issues that face the industry as a whole. Everyone enjoyed and appreciated what Tony had to say, and we all look forward to him returning in 2009.