Don't ignore the legal aspect

I believe to be successful in the music arena, you need to align yourself with good people. This does not only entail other talented musicians and music producers.

If you want to make a living from music, as soon as your career starts to gain momentum, you will need the support of professional advisors. These advisors are there to help you with the business side of your career and will advise and assist with issues you may be unfamiliar with. To ensure your interests are always protected. For instance, you want a lawyer to look at a contract you have been offered to sign, an accountant to make sure your finances are in order and a music manager to negotiate your engagements and fees.

In this column, I will share why it is important to have a music lawyer. This is a subject I have been wanting to address on this platform for a while now but I needed to research on it first. In the coming weeks I will also touch on the importance of other professionals such as accountants and music managers.

In simple terms, music lawyers are entertainment lawyers who represent many different professions within the music industry. The music business is faced with so many legal issues thus it is important for all musicians to hire a lawyer. However, I must not that I you are looking for a lawyer you should choose the best lawyer available. One may argue that our industry is too small for artists to have lawyers or it might be too costly but I can't emphasise enough how important a lawyer is.

Significant progress has been made in the music scene and overall entertainment in Namibia. Despite this progress, one element that is important but does not get the attention it deserves is entertainment law. So many musicians get exploited but all they do is go online and vent. With so many cases of artists not being paid for their gigs, awards, features and other creative work, I really believe it is high time entertainment lawyers become a thing in Namibia.

We need entertainment lawyers so that they may solve the legal issues that experts who work in the industry are facing. Creatives need lawyers so that they can ensure nobody takes advantage of the entertainer irrespective of their power or money.

There are so many musicians in our country who claim to be signed to music record labels but there is no paper work involved. It's just verbal agreements. This is where lawyers come in to negotiate contracts on behalf of the artist and make sure everything works by contract.





[email protected]; @MichaelMKAY on Twitter