Last Friday, I had the privilege of being a panelist at Syracuse University School of Law’s Fifth Annual Law Entertainment & Sports Law Symposium. The event coincided with the Law School’s Open House for students admitted for the Fall, so the Law School was packed. The panel was held in the Moot Court Room, pictured below, which is two stories tall (!)
My panel discussed the Music Modernization Act, which was passed by Congress last fall, to ensure that songwriters and music publishers get a fair royalty from streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, which now account for almost half of all music business revenue.
Following a nice networking lunch, in the afternoon I attended a panel discussion led by ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg, talking about amateurism in college sports, recent court cases about athletes’ name and image rights, and some predictions regarding how much longer the current system will stand.
On our music business panel, it turned out that two of us both had worked for Martin Bandier, the music business mogul who founded the Bandier Program at Syracuse University in their Newhouse School of Communications.
The program was created with a gift from Marty to the school, so that they could teach students what it is like to work in the music business, from a practical perspective. The head of the Bandier Program at Newhouse, Bill Werde, was a former editor at Billboard magazine, and was our moderator. You can learn more about the Bandier Program at the link below:
https://newhouse.syr.edu/academics/degrees/bachelors/bandier-program
It was a terrific day! I made some new friends and contacts. I admit that I had to “study up” on the latest music business developments to be able to contribute to the discussion, and I even got some CLE credits for the day.
Beautiful way to spend a gorgeous Friday in Syracuse.
