Steve Gordon Law

Steve Gordon is an entertainment attorney and consultant based in New York City specializing in the production, distribution and financing of music, television, documentaries, feature films, and digital entertainment projects. Steve also operates a music clearance service for producers, filmmakers and labels who use music in films, concert programs, documentaries and compilations.

He is the author of The Future of the Music Business, and hosts a radio show at MyRealBroadcast.com that focuses on the revolutionary changes happening in the music business - to listen on this website, please click here.

Also an educator, Steve has served as an Adjunct Professor at CUNY Graduate Center and the New School, and lectured at Columbia University Law School and the Wharton Business School. He recently won a Fulbright Scholarship and delivered a series of lectures on copyright law and the music business at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital Technologies (2nd ed. Hal Leonard 2008) focuses on the rules pertaining to the music business and new business models made possible by the Internet. The book provides a legal and business roadmap to artists, music industry professionals, and entrepreneurs for using the new technologies to succeed. Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, wrote the Forward to the book and Bob Clarida, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, edited.

Steve is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in music and copyright law. He was invited by Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, to lecture as a Fulbright Scholar in their masters program for Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment in November 2007. Steve is proud to announce that he will again be a visiting Fulbright Scholar in Spring 2010, to Tel Aviv University in Israel. While there, he will teach a course based on his book.

Steve has provided legal services to major companies such as MTV, Music Choice, Sony Music, Time Life Music, Microsoft, leading on-line media companies such as Pitchfork, and many independent artists, producers, managers, and entrepreneurs. For a list of representative clients, please click on Additional Information.

From 1991 to 2002, Steve served as Director of Business Affairs at Sony Music. There he negotiated and drafted agreements on behalf of Sony with recording artists, and was responsible for all legal work pertaining to TV and video for artists such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and many others. He also served as counsel for Automatic, Sony's in-house TV production company. In that role he oversaw all business and legal matters for the music based TV series "Sessions at West 54th" on PBS and "Live by Request" on A&E.

Prior to joining Sony, Steve drafted and negotiated recording agreement on behalf of Atlantic and Elektra Records with urban, rap, dance, hip hop and R&B artists.

Steve is the host of a radio show called The Future of the Music at MyRealBroadcast.com. The program focuses on new digital business models and opportunities, and features interviews with artists, music executives, entrepreneurs, scholars, journalists and attorneys. Through MyRealBroadcast Steve also hosts an online legal and business service. To confer with Steve about any music law or business issue click here.

Steve also frequently contributes articles on entertainment and copyright law to Entertainment Law and Finance, and serves on that publication’s Board of Editors. To read a comprehensive article on licensing music and other copyrighted materials click on "Tips for Clearing Music for Television and Motion Pictures". To read his other published articles, click on Recent Publications.

On May 31, 2007 Steve addressed the Future of Music conference in Denmark. Click here to see and listen to his lecture.

Steve recently lectured at Wharton Business School with DJ Spooky. To listen to the lecture, click on the link and scroll down to "Wharton B School" under "Shows".

Steve moderated a seminar at Columbia University Law School titled "Music Sampling and Derivative Works in the Digital Era." For the program description, please click here.

Steve moderated a special forum on the convergence of music and fashion titled "Magical Mystery Tour: Music's Impact on Fashion" at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). To view the introduction click here.

He also presented a seminar at Columbia University, titled "Should Digital Music Be Free?" for the PowerPoint presentation accompanying this seminar.

For recent speaking engagements, please see Additional Information.

Steve served as Senior Vice President of Content, Licensing & Acquisition for MUSIC ON DEMAND, INC. m/OD is a partnership between the cable TV industry and the music business to create a subscription video-on-demand service airing music programming on cable, and selling CDs, DVDs and merchandise to the subscribers of the service.

Click here for Steve’s full résumé. You are also invited to view Steve's profile on www.celebrityaccess.com, and see the December 2005 issue of Music Connection Magazine for an interview about his practice and his book.