Like many industries, the music landscape is changing faster than ever before, with artists needing protection from AI, copyright infringement and piracy issues, and savvy negotiation when it comes to catalog sales, brand deals and traditional record and concert contracts. Taylor Swift, Adele, Kenny Chesney, Rihanna, Jay-Z and Bob Dylan, plus such music powerhouses as Spotify, UMG and even spinning giant Peloton rely on these lawyers for navigation, strategy and to bring in the big bucks. Based on size of transactions, profiles of clientele and peer input, this list identifies the attorneys behind the past year’s billion-dollar deals, rivalry spats and library acquisitions that keep the industry turntable spinning.
Brigitte Alanís
KING, HOLMES, PATERNO & SORIANO
Alanís says that she’s “so proud of the breakthrough of Alex Warren – it’s been rewarding to watch him evolve from a viral creator to a chart-topping artist.” That journey might have started on YouTube but culminated in Warren’s “Ordinary” dominating the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks this summer and winning best new artist at this year’s VMAs. Alanís also shepherds negotiations for the recorded music and songwriting of three-time Grammy winner Victoria Monét and closed her debut book deal for Everywhere You Are.
MY THOUGHTS ON AI “As someone who spends a lot of time working to protect copyrights, I’m very concerned about artist’s catalogs being used to train generative AI models.”
Lisa Alter and Katie Baron
ALTER, KENDRICK & BARON
Hot catalog or master recording up for grabs? Alter and Baron are the duo often called in to seal the deal. This past year, they closed more than $1.2 billion in transactions, from Iconic Artist Group’s acquisitions of Rod Stewart’s catalog and partnership with RZA around the Wu-Tang Clan library to Influence Media Partners’ deal with DJ Khaled and masters’ rights acquisitions from Enrique Iglesias and Blake Shelton.
ARTIST COLLABORATION I’D LOVE TO SEE
ALTER “Stevie Nicks and Haim.”
Read the full list here
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-features/top-music-lawyers-2025-1236388837/
