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Media Law Prof Blog
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Evaluating the “360 Deal” and Its Impact on the Recording Industry

By Media Law Prof Blog
Douglas Okorocha has published A Full 360: How the 360 Deal Challenges the Historical Resistance towards Establishing a Fiduciary Duty between Recording Artist and Record Label, in volume 18 of the UCLA Law Review. Here is the abstract.

Courts have historically denied claims that artist and their respective record label are fiduciaries to one another. The music business has changed since many of those early cases on the subject were decided. The 360 deal and its prevalent use in today’s music industry confirm this change. The crux of a 360 deal is a profit sharing arrangement where both artist and label contribute time, capital, skills and effort to maximize the profitability of an artist’s brand. A partnership is defined as an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit. Partnerships carry with them fiduciary obligations. If artist and label are found to be partners under a 360 deal, then, as a matter of law, they become fiduciaries. A fiduciary duty can bring balance to the artist-label relationship, as well as fix the music industry’s perpetual problem regarding its royalty accounting practices.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.