Jeff Brabec is Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for BMG (representing, among others, the catalogues of Bruno Mars, John Legend, Kurt Cobain, Roger Waters, ZZ Top, OutKast, Buddy Holly, David Bowie, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, My Morning Jacket, John Lee Hooker, Devo, Hal David, Blondie, Paul Anka, Billy Idol, Jethro Tull, Burt Bacharach, Steven Perry, Tom Waits, Dan Wilson, Paul Anka, and Ray LaMontagne). BMG is the fourth largest music publisher in the world, owning and controling over two million copyrights.
He specializes in evaluating, analyzing, projecting income and negotiating music publishing catalogue acquisitions as well as songwriter, co-publishing, participation, administration, subpublishing, direct license, and joint venture agreements as well as termination rights issues. He also specializes in all music licensing issues including digital media, motion pictures, television, video games, apps, Broadway musicals, and new technology agreements and negotiations.
Previously, he has been Vice President of Business Affairs for both the Chrysalis Music Group and the PolyGram Music Group and Director of Business Affairs for the Welk Music Group and Arista-Interworld Music Group where he represented the catalogues of Elton John, Henry Mancini, Van Morrison, Waylon Jennings, Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II, among others.
Brabec is the co-author of the best-selling book Music, Money, and Success: The Insider’s Guide to Making Money in the Music Business, now in its eighth edition (Schirmer Trade Books/Music Sales). He has been awarded the Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism and the Texas Star Award by the Entertainment & Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in the Field of Entertainment Law.
Brabec is an Adjunct Professor at USC Thornton School of Music, Business Division, where he teaches music publishing and licensing, is contributing editor to the journal Entertainment Law & Finance and is co-author of the “Music Publishing” chapter in the 2018 Juris Publications multiple-volume treatise The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law.
The Brabecs lecture extensively throughout the world at conferences, universities, foreign country licensing and collection societies, industry associations, law firms, and management companies, among others. They have appeared on numerous legal and business panels for the Practising Law Institute (PLI), the bar associations of California, New York, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, SXSW, Midem, the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, ABA annual conference, NARAS, the Game Developers Conference, Song Summit Sydney, Billboard, Americana Conference, DIMA, AFM, MEIEA Educators Summit, the Cutting Edge Festival, Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), Entertainment Law Institute, California Lawyers for the Arts, Guitar Center, Canadian Music Week, Production Music Association (PMA), International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL), American Film Institute (AFI), NARM, New Music Seminar, Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, ASCAP Expo, and the Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO), among many others. They have hundreds of published articles on all aspects of the business and law of music and entertainment including the American Bar Association Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers’ Annual Handbook, Entertainment Law & Finance, the Mitchell Hamline Law Review, the Entertainment, Publishing, and the Arts Handbook, USC Entertainment Law Spotlight, The Score magazine, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and many others. Todd’s Entertainment Law Review article “The Performance Right: A World in Transition” was selected by West/Thomson Reuters as one of the best Entertainment Law Review articles of 2016 and was re-published in the Entertainment, Publishing, and the Arts Handbook. In addition, they have organized and participated in numerous American Bar Association webinars on music publishing, licensing, contracts, and sources of income in the music industry.
College, university, and law school guest lectures include USC, Harvard, NYU, Belmont, Loyola–New Orleans, Southwestern, Middle Tennessee State, University of Miami, Miami-Dade, Emory, Tulane, Florida State, University of Florida, Berklee College of Music, UCLA, the Trebas Institute, Hastings, Michigan State, University of Colorado, Five Towns College, Thomas Jefferson University, Victoria University, Syracuse University, California State University–Northridge and the Musicians Institute, among others.
Prior to their careers in music and entertainment law, they were legal services attorneys in Chicago for Community Legal Counsel (the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity). They were also recording artists for Audio Fidelity Records as “The Reunion.” Both are graduates of the New York University School of Law.