Maeve de Bordons speaks with Jennifer Marr about her new venture, The Legal Centre for Dance Music, and its mission to provide legal support to professionals in electronic music.
Contracts can be daunting, even for seasoned professionals in the music industry. With so many intricate clauses, it’s easy to gloss over the details rather than fully understand what’s at stake. The good news, however, is that you don’t have to be a legal expert to protect your interests — there are free resources that can help you navigate the essentials.
I recently met with Jennifer Marr over lunch to discuss one such resource: The Legal Center for Dance Music. Jennifer, an entertainment lawyer and founder of the female-forward music festival 808s & Heartbreaks, has built her career representing electronic artists like RayRay, Alice Longyu Gao, and FiFi Zhang, along with high-profile names such as Ciara, BABYMETAL, Erykah Badu, Godsmack, and Big Wild. Currently practising at the renowned U.S. law firm Myman, Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light LLP, Jennifer’s experience spans both the legal and music worlds.
As we talked about her journey from agent to attorney and her shared love for the LA rave warehouse scene, it became clear how her passion for independent artists fueled her new venture. The Legal Center for Dance Music aims to demystify the legal side of the industry by offering accessible, free resources for those looking to better understand contracts, rights, and legal protections. It serves as a companion to the traditional music business guides, focusing specifically on the unique challenges faced by electronic artists.
Jennifer Marr - "The basic premise is that to win the game, you have to know the rules"
Maeve: How would you advise artists and labels to navigate the legal aspects of the music industry?
Jennifer: Many dance music acts and labels start by putting on parties, where countless hours go into researching venues, booking the right DJ or finding the right sound system. The same amount of time and effort should ideally also be put into catalogue building and the boring stuff like learning the business structures of music distribution and publishing, as well as the laws around music copyrights and contract protections. If you put all of that together, you're in a really good spot.
It doesn’t mean you’ll never make a mistake in your career, but the critical difference is that you will be making informed decisions every step of the way. If you do decide to take on risk, it allows you to structure your deals and projects so that you can minimise that risk and the chances that you may make a mistake. If it does happen, it's something that you can recover much more quickly from if you have that knowledge base.
[quote align=right text="Be careful about what you're putting into AI platforms. Once uploaded, the entire internet may have access to your proprietary work"]
What’s your take on the rapidly growing number of AI tools emerging daily?
The basic premise is that to win the game, you have to know the rules.