Industry Update Music Royalties

Our Company performs royalty & participation Compliance Audits, to find Client’s unpaid royalties and profit participations. These are often called “Royalty Audits,” Profit Participation Audits,” “Forensic Audits” or “Compliance Audits.” We also provide Litigation Support, Expert Witness testimony, Income Generation and Commission Checking. We do this work in many industries, including Film/TV, Music, Consumer Products, Licensing, IP, Oil/Gas, Patents, and many others.

James Leach serves as Vice President, Creative Operations at SESAC Performing Rights, where he is one of the leaders for its Los Angeles-based Creative Services team in supporting SESAC-affiliated songwriters and publishers. In this role, Leach is also responsible for cultivating relationships, recruiting and signing new talent.

After joining the performance rights organization in 2001, Leach helped to launch the west coast office and explored new business strategies for the digital music/media convergence. As a strong songwriter advocate, he has worked with several talented affiliates including Danja, Harvey Mason Jr., DJ Dahi, Ab-Soul, Gabe Roland, Jacob Luttrell, and the legendary George Clinton.

Ryan Lehning is Assistant General Counsel, International at SoundExchange, responsible for international activities on behalf of the company’s member artists and labels.  Prior to joining SoundExchange, Ryan served as counsel with SONY BMG Music Entertainment in New York where he handled copyright, trademark, e-commerce, new media, and other intellectual property matters. Prior to SONY BMG, Ryan was an associate in the law firm of Smith & Metalitz LLP in Washington DC where his practice focused on domestic and international copyright matters for a diverse portfolio of clients in the music, film, television, software, and book publishing industries. In addition, Ryan served as counsel for the Coalition on Online Accountability, a group working to ensure the enforcement of copyright protection in the online world. Ryan is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (2002) and Belmont University (1997).

Dynamic Leader who has designed, built, and managed several legal, financial, and administrative client service organizations and successfully led significant transformational initiatives. 

Innovative Executive who has devised and implemented a host of data-driven and process-based strategies that have increased quality and performance, delivered value, and improved employee morale.

Experienced Attorney who possesses extensive experience negotiating complex music, entertainment, technology, and other agreements; analyzing complex intellectual property matters; resolving significant business disputes; and counseling C-Level corporate executives.

After spending four years working as a musician, with musicians, and for music companies in various facets including song pitching, A&R, film and TV licensing, recording, producing, songwriting, and performing in musical groups around the greater Los Angeles area, Michael Peters went to law school to pursue his passion for advocating for artists and the arts. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southwestern Law School’s SCALE Accelerated 2-year program in 2018. While at Southwestern, Michael furthered his knowledge of and passion for the entertainment industry by concentrating in entertainment and media law. He was a Dean’s Fellow, a member of the Southwestern Negotiations Honors Program, and awarded the Biederman Scholarship.

Michael has experience in a wide variety of entertainment law matters including the litigation and negotiation of copyright, contract, and privacy disputes, as well as transactional work such as music production agreements, film and TV production counsel, distribution counsel, film finance, copyright clearance, corporate creation and maintenance, and copyright and trademark management.