billboard advertising essay

Everything You Need to Know About Billboard Advertising

Read about billboard advertising, the cost of billboard advertising, and how to design a billboard that connects with your audience

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Updated: 04/26/23

Published: 04/26/23

Whether you're commuting by car, bus, or train you may find yourself watching the world — and billboard advertising — go by.

Some billboards can be very entertaining. And according to 2023 research, 49% of adult consumers notice billboard ads more than they did just one year ago.

Billboard advertising isn’t your typical inbound marketing strategy. But it can be a powerful way to build brand awareness and attract customers. It can also work to strengthen other marketing efforts such as blogging, online lead offers, or SEO.

Keep reading to learn more, or jump ahead to the topic you're looking for:

Billboard Advertising

Billboard advertising statistics, billboard advertising cost, billboard design tips and examples.

Billboard advertising is the process of using a large-scale digital or print ad to market a company, brand, product, service, or campaign.

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Billboards are typically placed in high-traffic areas, such as along highways and in cities. This helps make sure that they're seen by the highest number of drivers and pedestrians.

And billboards fall under the category of out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Out-of-home ads can include billboards, bus shelters, wallscapes , and posters.

Billboard advertising is effective for building brand awareness. This is because it broadcasts your business (or product or campaign) to as many people as possible. Because they’re in such busy areas, billboards tend to have the highest number of views and impressions when compared to other marketing methods.

Does billboard advertising work?

Until 3D digital billboards started going viral, many people were thinking that billboard advertising was a dated strategy.

But while billboards are sometimes criticized for being disruptive , they're also quite effective.

While billboard rental costs can be higher than digital advertising, there are many benefits to this type of marketing. In fact, the scale of the audience alone can create a big boost in brand awareness. How big a boost? Let's go over some statistics.

Almost 82% of viewers can recall a digital out-of-home ad they saw over a month ago.

2022 Statista data shows that 32% of respondents like billboards, and 9% like them a lot. In comparison, a different Statista survey shows that online ads annoy 41% of respondents.

And research from OOH Today says that out-of-home ads show much higher recall for consumers than:

• Live and streaming television
• Podcasts and radio

These incredible numbers may be why top brands are increasing their OOH advertising spending.

The Out of Home Advertising Association of America data says that 79% of the top 100 advertisers increased their spending in 2021. Of those, 32% doubled their spending. 27% of the top out-of-home advertisers are technology or D2C brands.

Another important area of billboard statistics is the increase in digital billboard advertising. Per 2021 Statista data, there are 350,000 billboards in the United States. Of those, 9,600 are digital billboards.

And consumers who see digital billboard advertising often take action. According to 2020 Statista research, 35% of respondents visit a website or search online after seeing a digital billboard. And 20% recommend that product or brand.

Plus a 2023 Azoth Analytics report says that the global digital billboards market was worth over $18.5 billion in 2021. The report expects this figure to grow by 7% in the next five years, an increase of more than $1.2 billion .

The cost of billboard advertising depends on many factors. These include:

• Billboard location
• Total traffic in the area
• Estimated numbers of how many people will see your advertisement

Billboard advertising costs are typically charged monthly. They can range anywhere from $250 on a rural highway to upwards of $50,000 in Times Square. The average cost runs around $850 for four weeks.

Digital billboard costs start at a slightly higher price point. While some can charge as little as $10 per day, the average cost of a four-week campaign is $2,100 .

As mentioned above, billboard advertising is out-of-home (OOH) advertising. This is any advertising that reaches consumers when they’re outside their homes.

Each OOH advertising opportunity gets an OOH rating. This rating ultimately determines its value and cost to advertisers.

Geopath is a nonprofit organization that gives OOH ratings. To do this, it uses technology and media research to estimate the weekly impressions of every billboard in the country.

Then, OOH advertising companies, like the companies that own the billboard spaces, pay Geopath for this data. Then they share this data with potential advertisers.

According to Geopath, there are up to 10 determining factors that make up an OOH rating and, therefore, the cost of each billboard advertising opportunity.

Here are the three main factors:

Circulation

This is the total number of people who pass by the billboard each week. Local transportation authorities collect and share this information.

Demographics

This refers to the age, gender, income level, and other characteristics of the traffic that passes the billboard. Geopath collects this information from travel surveys and local transportation authorities.

Impressions

This is the number of people who see the billboard. This information is calculated based on many factors including:

• The billboard’s circulation
• Billboard size
• How close it is to the road
• Billboard visibility
• Traffic speed beside the billboard

But the cost of billboard advertising doesn’t stop with "renting" ad space. You must also consider the cost of designing the billboard as well as printing and construction. Depending on what kind of billboard you want to create, this could cost anywhere from $2,000 to $100,000 .

This cost won’t apply to every billboard, but is something to consider if you want to get creative with your billboard .

If you outsource your billboard design, these fees start at $150 but will go up depending on the agency or designer you choose. The complexity of your desired design matters too. For example, if you plan to create a 30-second 3D animation for your digital billboard advertising, these costs could start as high as $1,000 per hour .

Billboard Advertising ROI

While digital billboard advertising is clearly a popular choice, it's also expensive. But 2022 data shows that digital billboards deliver a 38% ROI . Traditional billboards also have good ROI, with a 40% return on investment.

Note : If you plan to run a digital billboard campaign to direct traffic to your website, this ROI calculator can help you figure out what to spend.

Billboard advertising ROI may be lower than other forms of content marketing . That said, one of the most powerful reasons to advertise with a billboard is brand recognition. If that's your focus you may want to measure ROAS (return on ad spend) instead.

Whether you're looking for a 3:1 or 5:1 return on your investment in billboard advertising, you'll need to do your research before committing.

Then, make a plan to create and measure your billboard campaign for effectiveness. For example, adding a CTA with a unique URL to your billboard ad can help you track conversions.

The billboard design tips below can also help you create a billboard with strong ROI.

If you’re going to invest in billboard advertising for millions to see, you want it to do its job. Here are a handful of billboard design tips and examples that’ll make sure your billboard is effective and eye-catching.

Tell a (short) story.

Successful billboards take viewers on a journey. Most billboard designs tell this story with imagery and maybe some text. In fact, most drivers stop reading after a few words. Use your billboard to show the essence of an idea or campaign rather than describing it with text.

Apple’s iPhone challenges gather stunning images from iPhone users that highlight the photography features of the product. At the same time, they also add inspiration to public billboards.

Image Source

A story doesn’t have to be complex to be exciting. This 3D digital billboard example from BMW tells the story of their latest model heading out for a quick drive.

Make it bold and simple.

Drivers or passersby only have a few seconds to get a glimpse at your billboard advertisement. To reach the highest number of viewers (and potential customers), keep your billboard design simple. After all, some people may be blowing by your billboard at 70 mph. Use big, bold fonts against contrasting background colors and avoid narrow, script fonts.

Also, choose colors that stand out to viewers. If your billboard is in a rural area, avoid greens, blues, and browns.

The fun example below plays with the traditional billboard format to quickly draw attention and engagement.

This billboard example is just text and color, but it makes a bold and clear statement. If your message is the most important part of your billboard, use design decisions like font , layout , and color to draw attention to it.

Consider its location.

You may not have grown up in the neighborhood where you live, but you've probably lived there long enough to foster a certain sense of pride. So, when you wander by billboards that are authentic, you pay attention.

Well-designed billboards reflect their location. They take advantage of sports teams, nicknames, nuances, or inside jokes related to the area. This can make the billboard (and brand) much more impressionable to those who see it.

The popularity of the Shinjuku digital billboard in Tokyo, Japan makes it a hub for creative inventions like this example from Nike.

Mobile billboard advertising like the example below can be where your audience is at the times they need what you’re offering.

Some billboard advertising is temporary, but the local billboard below is now one of the icons of the city of Portland, OR. This article talks about the history of the Portland stag billboard and its origins as a sportswear brand advertisement.

Make it interactive.

Depending on your billboard's location, you may be able to design it so it interacts with its surrounding environment. This strategy makes your ad stick out among the noise. It grabs the attention of passersby.

The billboard from Intel and Genvid below is also an interactive game that viewers can play with their mobile devices.

Make it memorable.

OOH advertising to stand out from the hustle and bustle of a regular commute (or the monotony of a long road trip). Your billboard shouldn’t be any different.

Every billboard advertisement needs to tell a story or share a call-to-action in a way that’s interesting and memorable. Whether you call on humor, anger, empathy, or cleverness, use emotional marketing tactics in your billboard design to help with recall. Take a look at these examples of eye-catching, creative billboards .

It's easy for anyone to put up a billboard, and businesses aren't the only ones looking to advertise. Proud moms congratulating recent graduates , singles looking for a date , and fans trying to save streaming shows are competing for billboard attention too.

While some of these efforts may not be right for your brand, they bring smiles and news attention, and many of these local efforts end up going viral.

Looking for more inspiration? Check out these edible billboard examples .

Out of Home Advertising: The Marketing You Never Knew You Needed

Billboard advertising might not be your typical marketing strategy. But it’s a highly effective way to promote your products and boost your brand.

So, make the most of the tips and examples above to create an unforgettable billboard for your brand. And, who knows? Someone may look out the window during their next commute and see your billboard — and become a new customer.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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What Is Billboard Advertising [2024]? Billboard Advertising Guide

Last updated on: January 5, 2024

Table of Contents

What is a Billboard?

A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure, typically found in high-traffic areas alongside busy roads. Billboards present giant advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers. Typically brands use billboards to build their brands or to push for their new products.

What is Billboard Advertising?

Billboard advertising is the practice of marketing a company, brand, product, service, or campaign by using a large-scale print advertisement (a billboard, or hoarding ). Billboards are often positioned in heavy traffic locations, such as highways and cities, to ensure that the greatest number of drivers and pedestrians notice them.

Billboard advertising is excellent for increasing brand recognition and reaching as many people as possible with your business (or product or campaign). Billboards have the maximum amount of views and impressions compared to other marketing tactics since they are located in compared to other marketing tactics since they are located in such busy regions.

Types of Billboards Ads

Bulletins are one of the most common types of billboard ads, which typically measure around 14 feet high and 48 feet wide. These billboards are often located in highly visible areas like highways, busy roads, and intersections, making them an excellent option for outdoor advertising.

Poster billboards are usually smaller in size, typically measuring around 12 feet high and 24 feet wide. These types of billboards are often used in urban areas and are designed to be seen up close.

Vinyl Billboards

Vinyl billboards are a more modern type of billboard that uses flexible vinyl material instead of traditional paper or cardboard. They are highly durable and can withstand harsh weather conditions, making them ideal for long-term outdoor advertising campaigns .

Painted Billboards

Painted billboards are a more traditional form of outdoor advertising, where the artwork is painted directly onto the billboard. These types of billboards are less common today, but they can still be found in certain areas and are popular in more rural locations.

Digital Billboards

Digital billboards are a modern and interactive form of outdoor advertising that uses electronic displays to show ads. These billboards can display multiple ads in a rotating sequence, allowing for more variety and flexibility in advertising campaigns.

Mobile Billboards

Mobile billboards are a unique type of advertising that involves placing ads on the sides of trucks or other vehicles that are driven around busy areas. These billboards are an excellent option for targeting specific audiences and can be highly effective in creating brand awareness.

Billboard Sizes of Ads

6 Sheet Billboards

1800 mm x 1200 mm

1.8 m x 1.2 m

5.905 ft x 3.937 ft

16 Sheet Billboards

3048 mm x 2032 mm

3.048 m x 2.032 m

10 ft x 6.6 ft

32 Sheet Billboards

3048 mm x 4064 mm

3.048 m x 4.064 m

10 ft x 13.3 ft

48 Sheet Billboards

3048 mm x 6096 mm

3.048 m x 6.096 m

10 ft x 20 ft

96 Sheet Billboards

3000 mm x 12000 mm

9.842 ft x 39.37 ft

Advantages of Billboard Advertising

Reach a variety of customers.

One of the most significant advantages of billboard advertising is its ability to reach diverse customers. Billboards are typically located in high-traffic areas like highways and busy roads, allowing them to get a large number of people, including those who may not have been exposed to the brand through other advertising channels.

Helps in Brand Awareness

Billboard advertising is an effective way to increase brand awareness. By placing a billboard in a high-traffic area, the brand can reach a large number of potential customers who may not have been aware of the brand before. This can help build brand recognition and increase the chances of customers choosing the brand when making purchasing decisions.

Affordable & Effective

Compared to other forms of advertising, billboard advertising is relatively affordable and can provide an excellent return on investment. Billboards have a long life span and can be seen by thousands of people every day, making them a cost-effective way to reach a large audience.

Strong Visual Effect

Billboards are designed to be visually striking, with bold colors, large fonts, and attention-grabbing images. This makes them an excellent tool for creating a strong visual effect that can leave a lasting impression on potential customers.

Boost’s Conversion

Billboard advertising can also help boost conversion rates by driving customers to take action, such as visiting the brand’s website or making a purchase. By providing clear and concise messaging, billboards can encourage customers to take action and engage with the brand.

Billboard Design Ideas

Send a clear message with your billboard design

You must ensure that your billboard design has a clear message that can be understood both literally and symbolically. The example above has a big, clear, and concise message.

Extend design beyond the billboard dimensions 

Don’t restrict the layout of your advertisements to the billboard’s physical size. Consider uncommon components to create a distinctive design. The ad for Panera in the above illustration stretches above the billboard with animated steam. This is not only excellent for catching the eye, but it also makes you think of a hot bowl of delectable soup on a chilly day.

Get Engagement With Interactive Billboards

Not every billboard is located on the side of the road. Bus stops, tube stations, malls, airports, the sides of walls, and even street lights all have outdoor advertising.

People may now watch advertisements from a wide range of locations and engage with them as well, thanks to technology. Customers may interact with your brand, which makes your advertisements more memorable and encourages them to visit your small businesses online.

Cost of billboard advertising in India

If you’re looking to advertise your products or services in India, billboards are a great option. Not only do they provide high-quality visibility for your brand, but they’re also relatively affordable.

In addition, billboard advertising can last for a long time – making it a worthwhile investment. To find out more about the costs and benefits of billboard advertising in India, read on!

One of the biggest benefits of billboard advertising in India is that it delivers high-quality visibility for your brand.

Unlike other forms of marketing, billboards are seen by many people – making them ideal for reaching a wide audience.

Additionally, billboards can be placed anywhere in India, allowing you to target specific markets.

The cost of billboard advertising in India varies depending on the location and type of ad. In general, however, billboard costs range from around Rs 50 000 to Rs 2 million per month.

How to plan your Billboard ads campaigns

Planning and Goals: The First Step in Billboard Advertising

What are your objectives, and how do you intend to achieve them? These may be some of your initial thoughts before embarking on any form of marketing strategy. Is your firm releasing a new product and hoping to grow income rapidly, or is it a non-profit looking to raise awareness and visibility for a great cause? Whatever you replied here, the finest advertising results always come from a well-thought-out advertising campaign. Whatever your business does, establishing your ultimate goals ahead of time can help you make the most of your marketing money. Plan your goals and objectives to get the most out of your advertising budget.

Design: Who is your target audience and what is your marketing reach?

Who are you trying to approach now that you have established your objectives? What kind of people are most likely to be drawn to your product, service, or message? Understanding your target demographic and marketing reach is a critical step in deciding what sort of ad space to invest in, where to place your adverts, and what your message should be and how it is shown. 

Establishing the Billboards

After you are done with planning and design, the most important and exhausting part is establishing the billboards.

When needed, we can assist you in every aspect of production, from planning to design to the final printing process and hanging/installation of the vinyl banner for your billboard. Visit us at The Media Ant.

Performance: Measuring Billboard Effectiveness

They say that what gets measured gets done in business. Tracking your sales before, during, and after an advertising campaign can really help measure its effectiveness. It’s also important to keep a record of new accounts, as well as calls and in-store & web traffic at the inception of a new advertising campaign or strategy. Things constantly change in the advertising world, especially in Windy City, so to ensure a perpetual return on your marketing investment, be sure to keep an eye on your billboard performance. 

What 3 factors do you need to consider when designing a billboard ad?

More is less

One of the most important billboard design recommendations is to make things as basic as possible. Because your audience will be on the go, they will not have time to read the specifics. Large, strong graphics and fonts make it simpler for someone driving or strolling by to understand the message.

When designing your own billboard, consider where it will be put and design it correctly for your audience, whether pedestrian or automobile traffic. A motorist on the highway, for example, will have a longer approach time to take in your billboard. The longer people have to digest your advertisement, the larger and clearer it gets.

Standing out in a crowd

Billboards are frequently clustered in certain places. This implies that there are a lot of adverts competing for your potential customer’s attention, therefore you need a design that stands out. How do you make the most of a small amount of information while yet making it memorable?

Ask these questions to yourself:

Do you have a clear message?

Are you promoting anything that has to be explained?

Can pictures outperform words in terms of effectiveness?

Design that is memorable

Consider a television commercial jingle. Effective ones get ingrained in your mind. The same is with billboards. If your billboard has anything memorable or unusual, your viewers will remember the information afterward. When you drive or walk past a billboard, you will remember the message since it sparked your interest — and you will pay greater attention the next time you drive or walk by. This is how billboards can be incredibly successful advertising mediums. In contrast to other kinds of advertising, such as digital media, the individual seeks out your advertisement rather than having it pushed in their face continually.

Examples of creative billboard advertising

“bite” by ogilvy & mather jakarta for formula toothcare.

 “Look at Me” by WCRS for Women’s Aid

Berger Paints” Natural Finish Colours”

Pacific Airlines” Sky is the Limit”

Is advertising with a billboard worth it?

Billboard advertising can be really beneficial if planned in the right way and right direction, but the question comes whether it’s worth it for your brand or not. The answer to this is that only you can decide if the expense of billboards is worthwhile in light of your company’s goals and advertising budget.

Consider whether someone requires more than a few seconds to grasp the goal of your organization. If this is the case, billboards are generally not for you. Also, if your product, service, or place has a more specialized target demographic, you should resist using billboard advertisements because you’ll be spending a lot of money on an advertisement that isn’t designed to appeal to the majority of people. Your money might be better spent on another advertising platform or another kind of print advertising.

What are the benefits of billboard advertising?

Billboards are an unavoidable element of driving and can be an excellent form of outdoor advertising. Some businesses may doubt if billboard advertising is the best answer, but here are five main advantages of adopting eye-catching billboard advertisements.

People notice it

People will frequently be looking at your enormous and eye-catching display since billboards are carefully positioned along major routes and crossroads. People can avoid looking at an Internet ad or can change the channel away from a commercial, but they can’t escape staring at a billboard while they go about their day.

A billboard is always active

Customers may be exposed to a brand or service only once or twice through other kinds of advertising, while billboards provide continuous exposure as people pass by. Although the message is shorter than it would be in other ad formats, it can stay in people’s minds longer because it is there throughout all hours of the day.

Location is personalized

Because billboards are prevalent, you typically have a say in where your message appears. Use your billboard site to target certain consumers or to attract people’s attention, such as near your shop or a major crossroads or highway exit. Because billboards are so massive and prominent, you can quickly reach a large number of people if you select the correct area.

Increases brand recognition

Billboards aren’t particularly good at generating a response, such as having consumers visit your website or phone your store, but they are extremely effective at raising brand recognition. Because most people view the same billboard several times, they remember it and frequently identify it with the brand and company. Billboard designs are catchy and memorable, and they are an excellent method for potential consumers to learn about your company and remember it until they need it.

Best Billboard Advertising Agency in India

There’s no doubt that billboard advertising is a powerful marketing tool. It can help you reach a large audience quickly and easily, and plenty of options are available for you.

If you want to place advertisements on highways and are searching for Top Billboard Advertising companies in India, you’ve come to the correct spot. The Media Ant is a marketing and advertising agency with over 10 years of expertise. We understand the value of branding and advertising and provide you with unique tailor-made solutions for Billboard Advertising in India, assisting you in presenting your best self to potential clients and gaining an advantage over your competition.

Contact The Media Ant and get started today!

FAQs Related to Billboard Advertising

Difference between static billboard vs digital billboard .

Static billboards are the most common type of billboard. They keep the exact copy for a more extended period of time. As a result, the number of marketing options available to you is limited. Furthermore, due to wear and tear, they can be costly to install and maintain. Digital billboards have been available for nearly 15 years and are now being used in new places such as airports, indoor stadiums, shelters, and kiosks. And these are only a few instances. Digital billboards are becoming more popular as a result of the flexibility of digital and current technological trends. However, digital billboards have maintenance issues… Power outages, connectivity problems, and electrical and hardware concerns should cause us to think carefully before making a purchase. While digital appears to be the apparent winner, static has its own advantages. Price and not having to share ad space are important aspects. Everything is determined by the advertiser’s requirements. While technology is fantastic for short-term advertisements, static billboards are undoubtedly superior for directional and brand recognition.

What are the types of billboards ?

Static Billboard A static billboard is likely what you may view as your normal “billboard advertisement”. They are frequently found by the side of a highway or motorway. If you drive for more than 15 minutes in any direction, you will almost certainly come across a static billboard. Many of these billboards include exterior lighting, making it simpler for anyone passing by to view them regardless of the time of day.  Digital Billboard Entirely computer-controlled, digital billboards can display images, video, and animation. They can also entirely change their message, promoting goods and services for several advertisers from the same display system. Banner Ads Banner advertising may be found everywhere. The “hanging banner” that you see in schools, airports, and shopping malls is an example of a banner ad. The concept behind them is that they are placed in areas that would normally go unused, such as walls and ceilings.  Wallscapes Painted billboards, also known as wallscapes, are one of the first styles of advertising. Businesses hire an artist to paint a mural or ad on the side of a building. Mobile Billboards There are various forms of mobile billboards, including bus, truck, bike, and taxi advertisements. The idea behind these adverts is that consumers would see the same ad again and again if the vehicle follows the same path. Interactive Billboards An interactive billboard is a very successful advertising approach that encourages customers to interact with the message displayed and builds a connection between the target audience and the company.

What is good billboard advertising?

A good billboard advertisement is visually compelling, concise, and delivers a clear message. It uses bold imagery, concise text, and easy-to-read fonts to capture attention quickly. Effective billboard ads consider the target audience, location, and purpose, ensuring the message resonates with viewers in a matter of seconds.

What is the term billboard advertising?

Billboard advertising refers to the use of large outdoor boards or structures to display promotional messages, typically along highways, busy streets, or in high-traffic areas. These advertisements aim to reach a broad audience and create brand awareness through impactful visuals and concise messaging.

What is the main purpose of billboard advertising?

The main purpose of billboard advertising is to create brand awareness, convey a specific message, and capture the attention of a large audience. Billboards are strategically placed in high-visibility locations to maximize exposure and leave a lasting impression on passersby, contributing to a brand’s overall marketing strategy.

How do you advertise on a billboard?

To advertise on a billboard, follow these steps:

Choose a Location: Select high-traffic areas relevant to your target audience. Design a Compelling Ad : Create a visually appealing and concise design with a clear message. Contact Billboard Companies : Reach out to outdoor advertising companies to secure space. Negotiate and Book: Discuss rates, negotiate terms, and book the billboard space for the desired duration. Monitor and Optimize : Track the performance of the ad and make adjustments as needed.

How successful is billboard advertising?

The success of billboard advertising depends on various factors, including location, design, message clarity, and target audience. When strategically executed, billboard advertising can be highly effective in creating brand awareness and reaching a diverse audience. Success metrics often include increased brand recall, website visits, or foot traffic to a business.

Where are billboards used?

Billboards are used in various locations, including: 1) Along highways and major roads. 2) In urban centers and busy intersections. 3) Near shopping districts and commercial areas. 4) Around sports arenas, stadiums, and entertainment venues. 5) At public transportation hubs, such as bus stops and train stations.

What is a billboard an example of?

A billboard is an example of out-of-home advertising (OOH). OOH advertising includes any promotional messaging that reaches the consumer while they are outside their home. Billboards are a prominent and traditional form of OOH advertising, offering broad exposure and visual impact.

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Megha Singh

One reply to “what is billboard advertising [2024] billboard advertising guide”.

I own a beach resort, and I was planning to host a huge summer party this August, so I need a billboard to promote the event across the city. It’s great that you mentioned how billboards give a strong visual effect because of their bold colors, large fonts, and attention-grabbing pictures, so they work well when it comes to leaving a lasting impression on potential customers. I’ll take note of this while I look for a reliable service to hire for billboard marketing.

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Advertising on a Billboard 101: The Complete Guide for 2023

Outdoor media leads the way as one of the most effective and efficient forms of advertising. While many different mediums encompass the outdoor advertising landscape, Billboards are the most recognizable of them. Here are some of the top reasons for Billboard advertising popularity and effectiveness:

• Brand recall: OOH including Billboards have up to an 86% recall rate, higher than all other forms of advertising, according to a 2023 study by Solomon Partners.
• Cost-effectiveness: Billboards have one of the lowest cost per thousand impressions with average CPMs of $2 to $7, making them much more efficient than other high impact forms of advertising such as television and print.
• Reach: 89% of US adults notice OOH and Billboard advertising, according to a 2022 poll by OAAA .
• Brand recognition: Billboards increase brand recognition and awareness and can encourage your audiences to take action. A 2022 poll by OAAA found that 80% of those who noticed OOH advertising are inspired to take action based on the advertisement. 

To ensure the effectiveness of your Billboard advertising you need to consider multiple factors including location, audience, message, design and exposure frequency.  

Billboard Location and Demographics are Key

Similar to real estate, the mantra “location, location, location” is essential for Billboard success. Billboards that are strategically placed on busy roads and highways or in high-traffic pedestrian areas are able to reach a larger number of audiences. The demographics of the area surrounding the Billboard and the composition of the traffic passing through (these are not always the same) are the first factors to consider.

Billboard Design is Critical for Success

Both the message and design of the Billboard are critical for success. You have just seconds to make an impact with your audience. A Billboard with a clear and concise message as well as a visually appealing and easy to read design will increase recall and desired actions.

Consider Frequency in Your Planning

The importance of frequency cannot be overlooked. Audiences are more likely to remember your message if they see it at least 3 times, unless the location is extremely specific. Consider how highly trafficked a route is by the same audience on a daily basis. Is it seen every morning by the same person or only on a Friday night? Both are valuable applications with their own pros and cons. Billboards are one of the strongest advertising mediums and by considering the factors above you will optimize the effectiveness of your campaign.

Billboard Advertising Costs & Value

• Location: One of the most important factors is the Billboard’s location, with Billboards in high-traffic areas commanding higher prices. High-density urban areas and busy highways generally have more expensive costs. However just because a certain Billboard is expensive that doesn’t mean it’s right for your brand.
• Size: In many cases, larger units tend to cost more. To get the most value out of your outdoor media consider viewing distance. While the larger the unit the better you want to think about how close an individual will need to be to optimally see the unit. A 10’x30’ that has a strong viewing angle is going to be more effective than a 14’x48’ with a suboptimal read. 
• Unit type: Newer unit builds, such as high pixel density digital screens, will sometimes incur higher costs. Digital units on a time-per-view basis will often be more expensive per impression than static counterparts. Still, that cost comes with the benefits of more flexible media schedules and longer view distances in inclement weather.
• Competition: Areas with strong demand will have higher costs such as fashion-heavy neighborhoods like West Hollywood in LA and SoHo in New York as well as bottlenecked highways and bridges where frequency is high and view-times are long.
• Scarcity: Units that have exclusive access to an area will command higher prices. This is especially relevant in markets where OOH is heavily permitted and difficult to access.

While more expensive units tend to have the best locations and the largest sizes, there are multiple options that will present the best value opportunity for your brand. More expensive does not always mean better. It is best to plan for a mix of unit types and frequency levels to ensure the most impactful outdoor strategy. At Billups, we help brands globally to create the most effective outdoor strategy integrated into their overall media mix that will also deliver optimal value.

Types of Billboard Advertising and When to Use Them

• Mobile: These “Billboards” are typically large format digital screens on trucks and buses. These are highly effective for dominating specific locations or events for short periods of time. They are also excellent for getting a message out in areas with limited traditional Billboard inventory.

• Wallscapes: While not necessarily a "Billboard" per se, Wallscapes are large-scale displays that can cover entire building walls or other structures. They are typically located in high-traffic urban areas and are often used to make a big impact in densely populated areas.

• Digital: The latest innovations in Billboard media are around digital Billboard formats. Digital Billboards can allow for innovative 3D projections , and targeting based on when your target audience is most likely to respond to your advertisement. It is also much easier to switch out messaging and creative on a digital Billboard.

Each type of Billboard has its own pros and cons. The best format for a particular advertising campaign will depend on the campaign's goals and target audience. Here are a few considerations to help you choose a Billboard format:

• Target audience: Think about the demographics and daily patterns of your target audience and where they are located. For example, if your audience is a daily mass transit commuter but lives in the suburbs, you’ll want to consider utilizing transit units while diversifying with Billboards along routes where this audience will run errands on nights and weekends such as local roads. Most audiences are best reached with a combination of different Billboard formats in conjunction with other outdoor units as part of a larger campaign. For example, a Billboard campaign with supporting transit OOH units could include platform posters, transit shelters interior car cards or train or bus wraps. 
• Campaign goals: Consider the goals of your media campaign. If your goal is to generate awareness and make a big impact, you may want to consider utilizing a combination of large format Bulletins and Spectaculars in high-density locations. If your goal is to generate attention with an audience that is less familiar with your brand in the space, you’ll want to choose formats that are strategically placed in areas that disrupt other brands.
• Budget: Consider your budget for the Billboard advertising campaign. Different Billboard formats have different costs and those costs are higher or lower based on the factors we talked about above.
• Creative: Consider the message. Different Billboard formats have strengths and limitations regarding what information is conveyed. Digital Billboards are often capable of displaying dynamic and interactive messages based on real-time factors such as weather, sports scores and news. Creative on digital Billboards can also be swapped quickly and inexpensively whereas with static Billboards, reprinting and installing the message can be more time-consuming and expensive.

Billboard Placement

• Target audience: Identify your target audience and determine where they are most likely to be during the day and parts of the week. This will help you determine the ideal mapping for your Billboard strategy. Consider a holistic audience approach to Billboard placements, using information on how your audience travels throughout the day.
• Traffic flow: Consider the flow of traffic and choose a location that will receive high visibility from your target audience. This might be on a busy road, near a highway or in a high-traffic pedestrian area.
• Competition: Look for a location that is not surrounded by competing Billboards. A location with less competition will help your Billboard stand out and receive more attention from your target audience. Though there are exceptions, generally in high-profile locations in major cities such as New York or Los Angeles.
• Billboard size and viewing distance: Consider the size and format of your Billboard and select locations that will ensure excellent viewing distances and angles which lead to longer view times.
• Regulations: Research local regulations and restrictions to ensure that your Billboard placement complies with all applicable laws and regulations.

Measuring Billboard Effectiveness & ROI

Audience impressions, reach and frequency continue to be some of the most widely used metrics for evaluating the performance of a Billboard campaign. However, some of the most exciting innovations in Billboard advertising are in media measurement and attribution. In the past measuring the true impact of a Billboard was very much an educated guess. Brands knew Billboards were effective. We did pre and post-campaign analysis of important KPIs and knew that Billboard exposure had an extremely positive impact on campaign performance, but we didn’t truly know how impactful individual Boards were. No longer do we need to report on campaigns solely based on audience impressions.  At Billups, we’re leading the way in measurable outdoor media through our validated OOH attribution technology and data science, giving brands true performance insight into their Billboard placements.

Billups Leads The Way

For 20 years we’ve been helping the world’s largest and most impactful companies execute award-winning, performance-focused OOH campaigns that move the needle forward. We continue to be an industry leader in OOH strategy, execution and measurement, with innovation as our driving principle.  Reach out to us today and let’s have a conversation about making your OOH media more effective than ever before.

Get In Touch

Further reading:.

• How to Tell if Your Billboard Advertising is Working 
• Who Owns Billboards and How to Buy Billboard Space
• What is 3D DOOH?
• DOOH Explained
• 10 Types of OOH Advertising that Get Results
• Five Best Practices in Planning Your OOH Design  

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Free Billboard Advertising Impact Essay Sample

Advertising is a process by which information is passed on to a target audience primarily to persuade them to buy the idea of the advertiser which may be directed at promoting a product (good or service). There are various types of advertisements ranging from commercial to non-commercial. Commercial advertisements are product focused and aim at increasing consumer demand for a product through branding methods that create some unique message in the minds of the consumers so that they can then identify or associate with the product. On the other hand, non-commercial advertisements do not aim at profit making. They include activities of politicians, religious and other interest groups. This paper evaluates commercial advertising focusing on billboards.

Billboards are an example of visual design based advertising that is widely used in contemporary society by many business firms to communicate information to the target consumers in a specific desired way with intention to increase demand for the particular product. Every visual design has its fundamental principles and elements which when adhered to, makes the design to produce desired results. The common design elements which produce basic visual image units include; form, space, line, color, shape, texture, and value/tone. Billboards have the advantage of communicating message to a broad population and also due to the inherent high frequency levels. Although costly and relatively demographically non-sensitive, when billboards are located in strategic places with heavy traffic, they can communicate at high frequency levels reaching virtually all population segments.

In this paper, the product chosen is Nokia mobile phone. The billboard for Nokia mobile phone is shown above with the messages; "Nokia connecting people" and "Music almighty". Since every commercial advertisement is aimed at increasing demand, it requires creative design to sell it to the minds of the target audience. The intended message should quickly register in order to enhance product identification. The message need be brisk and provocative to the audience. The message should be brief and clear so that it can be read from a distance. The layout should have campaign elements packaged as a single unit. The design should utilize bold colors so as to be distinct from the surrounding thus attract attention. More so, the background need be kept simple such that it won't interfere with the intended message. The designer may add humor where necessary to capture attention.

In the Nokia billboard above, the design brings out the essential elements discussed in the foregoing section. For instance, the message has been designed in a brief but simple manner for the audience to register quickly and identify the product which is Nokia phone. With only two words "Music Almighty", and headphones connected to the handset, the audience is persuaded well enough to buy the phone because it has "great music features". This would work well especially with the young generation who have a sentimental attachment to music, but also, to the general public including the employed who listen to music to help them break monotony thus relax their minds.   

The words "Nokia connecting people" which also display the company slogan are in themselves designed to persuade the audience since almost everyone would like to stay connected with other people. Put differently, Nokia is for all groups of individuals and occupations including, business people, politicians, employees, relatives and friends among others who need be connected with each other in the course of their family or work relations. The Nokia billboard has also been carefully designed such that the background is simple, and the colors used are bold to help the audience clearly and quickly capture the intended message.

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Strategies for Creating Billboard Ads: The Ultimate Guide to Billboard Advertising Success

Amidst the architectural marvels and dynamic pulse of major cities, there lies an advertising mainstay that has persistently captured the attention of onlookers for decades: the billboard.

One can witness billboard ads ‘ sheer power and influence by traversing the urban landscape of places like New York, Los Angeles, and countless other metropolises. These towering structures, some with static messages and others boasting vibrant digital displays, have become an integral part of the cityscape.

Billboard advertising has undergone a significant transformation over the years. What began as simple, static displays have evolved into dynamic digital billboards capable of changing messages in real-time, tracking flights overhead, and even responding to current events.

The success of a billboard ad isn’t just about its size or placement; it’s about the story it tells and how it resonates with its audience. Brands have leveraged this medium to craft award-winning campaigns that promote their products or services, evoke emotions, spark conversations, and leave a lasting impression.

From thought-provoking social messages to ingenious use of the environment around them, these billboards stand as a testament to creativity and innovation in advertising.

With the exponential growth of online marketing strategies and the ubiquity of digital ads, one might wonder about the relevance of billboards in today’s market. The truth is, while online ads target specific audiences with precision, billboard advertising offers something unique: an unmissable, larger-than-life canvas that has the power to reach a diverse audience, from daily commuters to tourists, all at once.

This ability to create a shared experience, a collective moment of engagement, keeps billboard advertising relevant and influential.

As brands and advertisers navigate the intricate maze of modern marketing, understanding the enduring power and potential of billboard advertising is paramount. By leveraging strategic planning, innovative designs, and understanding the audience’s pulse, billboard ads can continue to make a significant mark in the advertising world.

Table of Contents

Understanding the Basics

What is a billboard ad?

An outdoor billboard is an ample advertising space designed to catch the attention of both drivers and pedestrians. These ads come in various sizes, the most iconic being the immense billboard structures we often see in high-traffic areas. The critical components of billboard advertising include the design, message, and location.

Whether it’s creative billboards that play with negative space or a sobering billboard advertising campaign that raises awareness about pressing issues like air pollution or plastic waste, the primary goal is to make a lasting impression quickly.

How Do a Billboard Ad Fit Into Broader Advertising?

Billboard ads are a cornerstone of outdoor advertising. While digital ads focus on targeted audiences online, these ads cater to a broader demographic, making them ideal for brands looking to increase brand awareness on a larger scale.

Moreover, billboard advertising is a testament to a brand’s presence and commitment. Investing in billboard locations, especially prime spots, signifies a brand’s confidence in its message and product.

Whether it’s a digital billboard showcasing user-generated content or traditional billboards with eye-catching designs, they constantly remind the masses of a brand’s logo and identity.

Is Billboard Advertising an Example of Marketing?

Absolutely. Billboard advertising is a crucial component of a comprehensive marketing strategy .

Billboards are essential to the advertising puzzle, creating a visual connection between the brand and the audience. For instance, the use of interactive elements in billboards in subway stations, showcases how billboard advertising can be more than just static ads. It can be a dynamic and interactive advertising medium, bridging the gap between traditional and digital marketing .

In advertising, where brands constantly battle to attract attention, billboards are a testament to visual storytelling’s power . From the best ads that play with negative space to campaigns that leverage the power of digital billboard designs, this form of advertising continues to innovate and inspire.

The Cost Factor for Billboard Ads

How much does it cost to advertise on a billboard?

When it comes to billboard advertising, understanding the associated costs is crucial for any brand or business. The price of a billboard ad can vary significantly based on several key factors:

Design Costs :

The billboard design is the face of your campaign. While some brands opt for in-house designs, others might hire professional designers to craft the perfect visual message. Costs may vary based on the billboard’s complexity, with creative designs requiring a higher budget.

Billboard Location :

Billboard locations play a pivotal role in determining costs. Prime spots in bustling areas like New York City can command premium prices. For instance, digital billboards in Times Square, one of the most iconic advertising spaces worldwide, can be substantially pricier than traditional billboards in less trafficked areas.

Duration of Ads :

Another significant cost factor is how long you wish to rent the billboard space. While some campaigns might only need a few weeks, others, especially those by big brands, might opt for longer durations to solidify their brand identity and message in the minds of their targeted audience.

Is Advertising With the Billboard Worth it?

Whether they’re minimal directional billboards or the best billboard ads that challenge conventional design norms, they have one primary goal – to raise awareness and communicate an important message. But is the investment worth it?

One must look at the return on investment (ROI) to determine this. Digital billboards, for instance, offer dynamic advertising space where ads can be changed frequently, targeting different audiences at different times of the day. This flexibility can lead to a higher engagement rate, potentially increasing the ROI for digital billboard ads than traditional ones.

When it comes to advertising, a well-crafted billboard campaign can be a powerful tool.

It’s essential to strike a balance that ensures impact without overwhelming the viewer. Creating a design that conveys your message effectively is necessary for maximum visibility and reach. Remember to underestimate the power of a well-planned billboard campaign – it can make all the difference. Creative billboards that resonate with the audience can lead to increased brand recall.

Think of the buzz generated by two billboards engaged in a “billboard war” or a submerged billboard raising awareness about environmental issues. Such campaigns create conversations and position the brand in a positive light.

However, like any ad campaign, it’s essential to measure the effectiveness of billboard ads. By analyzing metrics like brand recall, direct traffic increases to physical stores or websites, or even social media mentions, brands can gauge the success of their billboard designs and campaigns.

While billboard advertising requires a significant upfront investment, especially in prime billboard locations, the potential for vast outreach and lasting brand impressions can make it a worthwhile venture for many brands.

Designing the Most Creative Billboard Ads for Impact

What makes a successful billboard?

In advertising, a billboard stands tall, quite literally, as a testament to a brand’s message. But what distinguishes a regular billboard from the best billboards we remember and discuss? The success of a billboard ad boils down to a few key elements:

Relevance :

The most impactful and best billboard ads resonate with their audience because they are relevant. Whether it’s a campaign in New York City addressing urban issues or a global campaign raising awareness about environmental concerns, the message should be pertinent to its viewers.

Simplicity :

“Less is often more” when it comes to billboard design. With only a few seconds to grab a passerby’s attention, the design and message should be clear and concise. An overcrowded ad might need to be clarified rather than conveyed.

Uniqueness :

A creative billboard stands out. Unique can set a billboard campaign apart through innovative use of negative space, interactive elements, or simply a fresh take on a common theme.

How do you make a catchy billboard?

Capturing attention in the bustling outdoor ad space is a big challenge. Here are some tips and tricks to ensure your billboard ad doesn’t just blend into the background:

Bold Visuals :

Striking visuals can make a passerby take a second look. The visual element, whether a high-resolution image or a creative ad that plays with optical illusions, is crucial.

Strong Call to Action :

A billboard that prompts action or thought can be more effective than one that merely displays information. Whether it’s a direct prompt like “Visit Now” or a thought-provoking question, an excellent call to action can make a difference.

Emotionally Resonant Content :

Advertisements that elicit an emotional response, such as humor, nostalgia, or empathy, are often more easily remembered. Think of the best billboard ads that leave an impact; they tug at heartstrings or tickle the funny bone.

What should go on the billboard?

Crafting the perfect billboard content is a mix of art and strategy . Here are some guidelines to consider:

Focused Message :

It’s crucial to have a clear and concise message when promoting a product, raising awareness, or launching a campaign.

Brand Identity :

In creative billboard designs, brand identity should remain prominent through logos, brand colors, and signature styles.

Contact Information :

If the goal is to drive action, such as a store visit or website traffic, ensure that contact information or directions are clear and visible.

What colors show up best on a billboard?

Colors play a pivotal role in outdoor advertising. The right color palette can enhance visibility and convey the intended emotion.

Here are some tips on color psychology and visibility for billboard design:

Contrast is Key :

High contrasting colors ensure the text and visuals are legible even from a distance. Think of the classic black and white or blue and yellow combinations.

Bright and Bold :

Bright colors like red, yellow, and orange tend to grab attention. However, ensuring they align with the brand and message is essential.

Emotional Connections :

Colors evoke emotions. For example, blue is often associated with trust and calm, while green can signify growth and nature. Choosing colors that align with the message can amplify the billboard’s impact.

In outdoor ads, where each billboard vies for attention, these guidelines can be the difference between an ad that’s glanced over and one that leaves a lasting impression.

Persuasion and Billboard Advertising

Is billboards a persuasive way to attract?

Billboard advertising is undeniably persuasive.

Every ad, whether a billboard ad in the heart of a bustling city or a sobering billboard advertising campaign in a suburban area, aims to influence viewers’ perceptions, choices, and actions.

With their towering presence, billboards act as silent persuaders, leveraging visuals, words, and design to drive a message home.

Consider the billboard ads we see worldwide; from promoting a brand’s latest offering to raising awareness about pressing societal issues, these ads aim to persuade, inform, and inspire the masses.

What is a persuasive technique in advertising?

Persuasion in advertising isn’t just about presenting information; it’s about framing it in a way that resonates with the audience and compels action. Here are some persuasive techniques commonly used in billboard advertising:

Repetition :

By consistently showcasing the same message or brand, billboard ads create familiarity, making it more likely for the audience to remember and choose the advertised product or service.

Testimonials and Endorsements :

Leveraging the credibility of a known figure or presenting customer testimonials can enhance trustworthiness and appeal.

Emotional Appeal :

Tapping into the audience’s emotions, joy, nostalgia, fear, or humor, can make an ad more impactful. A great example of this is the best billboard ads that tell a story or evoke a strong emotional response.

Bandwagon Effect :

Suggesting that “everyone is doing it” can make viewers more inclined to follow suit.

Statistics and Facts :

Presenting data and facts can appeal to the rational side of viewers, making the ad’s claim more credible.

How do you make an eye-catching billboard?

In competitive outdoor advertising, where ads vie for the viewer’s attention, standing out is crucial. Here are some strategies to ensure your billboard ad doesn’t just blend into the background:

Bold Imagery :

Striking visuals can stop viewers in their tracks. The visual element is paramount, whether it’s an evocative photograph or a creative ad that plays with optical illusions.

Concise Messaging :

With limited space and time, getting to the point is essential. A clear and focused message, presented compellingly, can make a billboard design more effective.

Innovative Design Elements :

From 3D extensions to negative space, innovative design techniques can add an element of surprise and make a billboard uniquely show its message.

A strategically placed outdoor billboard can enhance visibility. High-traffic areas or locations where viewers are more likely to be receptive to the message can amplify the ad’s impact.

Interactivity :

Billboards can be more than static displays. Integrating digital elements, QR codes, or even augmented reality can make the billboard experience more engaging.

In billboard advertising, persuasion is the name of the game. By understanding persuasion techniques and leveraging design and messaging strategies, brands can create billboard ads that leave a lasting impression.

Evaluating Effectiveness

Do advertising billboards work?

The towering presence of billboards in strategic locations, from bustling streets in New York City to highways, is a testament to their enduring appeal in advertising.

But do these billboard ads genuinely work?

Research and statistics provide insights into their effectiveness. A study showed that for every dollar spent on billboard advertising, there’s a significant return in brand recall and sales.

Billboards ads, especially the best billboards with compelling designs, have been found to drive online traffic, indicating a synergy between offline and online advertising channels.

There have also been instances where campaigns highlighting environmental issues, showcasing the amount of plastic waste collected, or brands owning up to their waste has garnered significant media attention, further amplifying the ad’s reach.

Are billboard ads still effective?

In advertising, where digital platforms offer targeted and real-time engagement, one might wonder about the relevance of traditional billboard ads. The very nature of a billboard – its size, permanence, and public visibility – gives it a unique advantage.

Billboard ads in prime locations provide a constant visual reminder, unlike digital ads that scroll past or are blocked. The challenge lies in adapting billboard design to modern sensibilities and integrating them with digital campaigns for a cohesive brand message.

A billboard ad in a strategic location can pique curiosity and drive online searches, making it an essential tool in an omnichannel marketing strategy .

Who Looks at Billboards? Do Millennials look at billboards?

Understanding the audience is crucial in any advertising strategy.

Millennials, known for their tech-savviness and discerning consumption patterns, present both a challenge and opportunity for billboard advertising. While they are heavy consumers of digital content, they are also out and about, traveling, attending festivals, or exploring cities, which means they encounter billboard ads.

The big challenge is to make these ads resonate with them. Millennials value authenticity, social responsibility, and creativity. A billboard design that tells a story champions a cause, or showcases creativity can capture their attention.

Additionally, integrating interactive elements or tying the billboard campaign to a digital platform where they can engage further can amplify its impact on this demographic.

Famous Billboards and Their Impact

What is the most famous billboard?

Over the years, numerous billboard ads have left an indelible mark on popular culture, becoming iconic in their own right. One of the most famous billboard ads that comes to mind is the Hollywood sign.

Initially created as an ad campaign for a housing development called “Hollywoodland,” it has since become synonymous with the entertainment industry and Los Angeles. Beyond its initial advertising purpose, it has taken on a life of its own, representing dreams, aspirations, and the allure of Hollywood.

Another long-standing billboard in a prominent city’s bustling square has been a constant for more than a hundred years. It has seen the world change around it, from significant historical events to technological advancements. Over the years, its design has evolved, transitioning from bright neon lights to modern LED displays, solidifying its place as an emblem of the city’s vibrant heart.

Apart from promoting a product or a place, these billboard ads have become landmarks and symbols that convey an important message about the places and the cultures they represent.

What are the famous billboards in Los Angeles?

Los Angeles, often called the City of Angels, boasts a rich tapestry of billboard advertising stemming from its deep connections to the world of entertainment.

A notable billboard once showcased the lead actor from a popular action movie, depicted in a tense and precarious situation. This billboard was crafted with such realism that it led to numerous calls from worried passersby, convinced someone was in danger.

The iconic Sunset Strip in LA has been a canvas for countless unforgettable billboards. These larger-than-life displays have played a significant role in molding popular culture, be it advertisements for renowned brands or promotions for chart-topping music albums.

For instance, one such billboard on the Sunset Strip highlighted an iconic album cover of a legendary rock band. The design took a creative spin on the original image, leaving out a detail that sparked curiosity and discussions among fans and onlookers alike.

Moreover, LA has also seen billboards addressing pressing societal issues. A particular billboard, for example, drew attention to the city’s environmental concerns. It depicted the city’s skyline, heavily shrouded in smog, accompanied by a poignant message hinting at the city’s environmental challenges.

These billboards, irrespective of whether they’re advertising a commercial product, a cinematic masterpiece, or conveying a societal message, have undeniably contributed to defining LA’s cultural and architectural ethos.

They remain a testament to the enduring influence of outdoor advertising and its unparalleled capacity to engage and inspire the public.

Integrating Technology with Creative Billboard Ads

How are digital advancements enhancing billboard ads?

Billboard advertising is transforming, melding the traditional with the technological. No longer are billboard ads restricted to static images or text.

With digital advancements, these ads have taken on dynamic, interactive, and responsive forms. Digital screens have replaced traditional billboards in many prime locations, allowing for animated graphics, real-time updates, and vibrant displays that can change throughout the day.

For instance, a billboard ad might showcase a coffee advertisement in the morning, switch to a lunch special around noon, and promote a nighttime event as the evening approaches.

Exploring the intersection of technology and traditional billboard advertising

At the heart of this evolution is the fusion of classic advertising principles with cutting-edge technology. While the essence of billboard advertising remains the same – capturing attention and conveying a message – the methods have evolved.

Now, billboard advertisements can incorporate live data, respond to environmental triggers like weather changes, or even track flights overhead to display relevant information. For example, an ad for an airline might showcase real-time flight details, making the advertisement not just attractive but also informative.

The rise of interactive billboards: Engaging the audience in real-time

The real game-changer in billboard advertising is interactivity. Interactive billboards engage viewers directly, turning passive observers into active participants. For instance, a creative billboard ad might prompt passersby to interact with it using their smartphones, leading to an immersive augmented reality experience.

Such interactions capture attention and create memorable experiences, making the brand more memorable.

Benefits of integrating Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into billboard campaigns

Integrating AR and AI into billboard advertisements offers brands unparalleled opportunities to create unique and engaging experiences. AR can bring static billboard designs to life, overlaying digital information in the real world. Imagine walking past a billboard ad for a new movie and seeing the characters come to life, interacting with the environment around them, all through the lens of your smartphone.

On the other hand, AI can analyze real-time data to deliver personalized ad experiences. For instance, a billboard might change its content based on the crowd’s demographics before it, ensuring maximum relevance and engagement.

As technology advances rapidly, the possibilities for billboard advertising are endless. Brands that effectively leverage these technologies can craft billboard campaigns that are eye-catching and deeply engaging, setting new standards in outdoor advertising.

Ads Billboard: Conclusion

As we journey through the bustling streets and highways, billboards stand as silent yet powerful communicators, relaying messages that can influence, inform, and inspire. Their towering presence, from the heart of vibrant cities to the serene outskirts, highlights the enduring significance of billboard advertising in today’s dynamic marketing landscape.

Strategic planning is the linchpin of successful billboard advertising. While the canvas is large, the real challenge lies in conveying a compelling message concisely, ensuring it resonates with the target audience.

Some of the best billboards have not only promoted products or services but have also left an indelible mark on popular culture, becoming iconic symbols in their own right.

Furthermore, as advertising mediums proliferate, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Yet, the strategic placement of a billboard ad, its design, and its story can make it stand out, capturing attention in ways few other mediums can. From tracking flights overhead to leveraging the latest digital technology, the billboard shows adaptability and relevance in the modern age.

For brands and marketers eyeing success, it’s crucial to harness the power of billboard advertising . By leveraging the strategies and insights provided, one can craft billboards that don’t just catch the eye but also leave a lasting impact. Whether you’re a seasoned advertiser or just starting, remember that in billboard advertising, creativity, strategy, and understanding your audience are the keys to unlocking optimal success.

Billboard advertising has always had a special place in marketing strategy. The billboard advertising cost is not as high as mainstream media commercials, they aren’t ignored or ad-blocked like online ads, and roadside billboards are often a source of entertainment on a long road trip or a regular commute. While remote work has reduced daily commutes, take a drive and you will see hundreds of people still performing necessary transport tasks, running errands, and taking private pleasure drives. 

How successful is billboard advertising in 2022? About 71 percent of consumers often look at billboard ads, and 78% of consumers are commuting at least part-time in 2022. In addition,  people are actually spending more recreational time outside, traveling in private groups to beaches, parks, and vacation rentals to avoid cabin fever at home. Billboard ads are seen by the drivers of business fleets and the thousands of people already commuting again in on-site and hybrid jobs.

The most important element of effective billboard advertising today is to be memorable. When a potential customer remembers your brand, purpose, or tunes in for another look on their next trip, you have their attention. There are many advantages of outdoor advertising such as billboards. Once you learn how to effectively create a billboard, you can gain brand awareness and customers. Let’s dive into the 15 best tips for successful billboard campaigns in 2002.

First Strategy, Then Design

• Start with the Strategy

A billboard campaign is not just an image or a message, it’s an experience. You must consider the literal “buyer journey” as a potential customer drives up with the billboard ad in view, notices the billboard, and seeks to understand it in a few minutes – without taking their eyes off the road.

Your billboard ad is part of the terrain and set with a backdrop against the sky, trees, or nearby cityscape. Based on the road and location, there is an approach time, a viewing angle, and even the sun’s path to consider. To make an effective billboard advertising campaign, first, you build a strategy. Then your billboard strategy will shape the design.

Billboard Message and Visibility

The next stage is working on the billboard design , specifically messaging and visibility. Consider the message you want to send and how to make it clear in a quick glance. Consider how long drivers have to see your billboard and what you can convey in that time.

2. Designing an 8-Second Message

Drivers have an average of 8 seconds to view a billboard on their way by. This means that your billboard advertisement must take no longer than 8 seconds to understand. Pictures, symbols, colors, and words; it all needs to make sense in a short drive up and phasing through the driver’s view. Simple is better, both in design and concept. If you must use words, keep the word count to a minimum.

You can find the exact range of seconds that drivers will see your billboard by timing your own drivers passing that spot in the flow of traffic.

3. A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

Show, don’t tell. One or two large words can make a difference, but there’s no room for explanation. “Luxury. Beach. Brand Resorts” or easy phrases like “Your Baby Deserves the Best” are about as much written message as you can fit on a billboard – for both visibility and reading time. But an image can convey much more. Use clear outlines, high contrast, and minimal reliance on shading, which can fade or lose detail in the weather.

4. Keep It Simple and Clear

Clarify your message. What are you trying to convey? Show your viewers in the simplest way possible. Choose one or two focal images and one or two words of text as your baseline. Whether your style is funny, serious, or mouthwatering, give your viewers a clear idea of what the billboard is telling them – and what they might do if they like the billboard design.

5 – Bonus Tech Tip: Test Distance & Angle Visibility in a Virtual Space

How do you know if your billboard design is visible driving up, at an angle, or with the sun behind it? Virtual rendering is a great way to create a simple 3D environment and test distance & angle visibility of your design. Render your billboard design on a vertical plane, then move your perspective to view it from different angles. This is a great way to design cool visuals, pop-outs that look good from all angles, and plan for roads that are not 100% aligned with your billboard campaign.

Billboard Location and Design

The location of your billboards is one of the most important decisions you will make. We mentioned that your billboard becomes a part of the terrain, and this means location shapes both how viewers approach and how your design stands out in the surroundings.

6. Calculate the Best Locations

Consider the best locations for viewers. For example, if you’re looking for Sacramento billboards , t he commuter and transport main routes are a good choice, especially to catch rush-hour traffic, however if you need a Hollywood billboard , your brand may benefit more from focused marketing on tourist routes. Some billboard locations are closer to the road and some of them are raised higher into the air. Some are on an interesting landmark feature like halfway up a hill or on the side of an old brick building, and some billboards are poorly placed.

Always consider the location carefully when choosing a billboard and your billboard size . The location is important not just for the traffic flow, but also for your ability to strategize the location to its greatest potential.

7. Consider Color vs the Surroundings

Will your billboard stand out in the surrounding color palette? A billboard of a sunny beach stands out against a canopy of trees along a forested highway, but not against the amber glow of the Arizona desert. A red brick background to your billboard will be striking against the open sky, but blend into a brick building location. Your billboard’s surroundings can and will influence how it is seen – so you might as well build these colors and details into your billboard design strategy.

8. Incorporate the Landscape and Local Conditions

What about the landscape itself? If your billboard is halfway up a hill and jutting out of the rock, the silhouette of mountain climbers might be the perfect eye-catching design. If your billboard appears as drivers come around a corner, draw a peering creature to “creep out” and say hello. This is a fantastic way to surprise and delight your viewers while also showing a level of awareness and strategy rarely seen in public marketing. Locals, especially, will love when you work with local terrain, weather, plant life, and other conditions that define the roadways.

9. Work with the Weather

What is the weather like around your billboard? On a road where there are always clouds or rain, consider featuring figures under an umbrella with sun on the underside. On a sun-drenched highway, the image of shade and cooler colors may be more appealing. You might even design a sign on a windy highway that looks especially good or interesting when waving in the wind.

10. Sequential Billboard Design

One of the most attention-grabbing ways to use the terrain is a sequence of billboards. Each of them has its own 8-second viewing timer, and you can say more in a cumulative message. Some create optical illusions with three billboards that become one and separate when passed. Many middle-of-nowhere truck stops use a row of enthusiastic billboards to wake up sleepy truckers and invite them to hot coffee with breakfast.

If you have a large, open stretch of highway, a sequential billboard design can be fun, engaging, and surprising conversations with consumers on their drives.

A Lasting Impression

Finally, the most important thing about successful billboard advertising is memorability. After a driver has seen your billboard, what do they remember? Do they remember your brand, colors and symbol? Do they remember that there’s a hotel and restaurant at the next exit? Do they remember that baby vaccinations are available at local Memorial hospitals? Did their passenger snap a picture? Here are a few strategies to boost your billboard memorability and leave a lasting impression.

11. Eye-Catching without Distraction

Find ways to catch the eye without causing a road distraction. This is a delicate balance best exemplified by the Chick Fil A cows. Yes, those were “cows” “painting” signs. Yes, some of those cows were plastic molds, and standing on each other’s backs. It was interesting, but it was also easily understood and didn’t cause cars to veer toward the billboard. Bold colors, an interesting image, and contrasting with the background are good eye-catchers, while magic-eye illusions probably are not.

12. Pop-Outs and Cut-Outs

Speaking of the chick-fil-a cows, one of the best ways to make a driver look twice and remember your billboard later is to change the billboard format. Cut-outs so that sky can be seen behind and pop-outs like the chick-fil-a cows cause a “what is that?” response as the eye sees parallax where it expects a solid rectangle. If the driver doesn’t understand in their 8 seconds the first time, they’ll often remember to look again on their way back through – and to watch for other similar signs to see if they also have cut-outs or pop-outs.

13. Direct vs Indirect Calls to Action

What do you want your viewers to do when they remember the sign? A call to action can be direct or indirect. Mentioning baby vaccinations is all it takes to remind young parents to book their next infant appointment, but you might invite drivers to take the next exit to your restaurant. Just one-word associations like “massage” or “taxes” can help viewers take action later based on your billboard.

14. QR Codes for Passengers

A rising trend in billboard design is a QR code that can be recaptured from dash caps or snapped by phone-wielding passengers. This QR code OOH strategy interesting idea and often best implemented on slower or stop-and-go roads where high-speed phone use is not a risky side-effect. QR codes can quickly turn a visual asset, like a billboard, into a linked app or landing page and the online conversion funnel.

15 – Bonus Tech Tip: Multi-Touchpoint OOH Marketing

For our last and most advanced tip, consider chaining your billboard marketing design with other outdoor advertising methods like shopping center kiosk banners, signs on walking paths, and the signs used in your brick-and-mortar locations. Consider a driver who heads to the mall and sees your billboard for hiking shoes along the way. They reach the mall and see another hiking shoes advertisement and realize your store is in their mall. They wander until they see a similar design outside a store and go buy hiking boots. Multi-touchpoint marketing can even reach into the digital marketing world by creating an identifiable campaign that users can follow like a rabbit trail to deals, products, or services they became aware of on the road.

Successful Billboard Advertising Campaigns Start with Strategy

Successful billboard advertising is all about knowing your location, audience, and how to deliver your message in 8 seconds or less. If you are looking to advance your OOH and billboard marketing strategies, contact us today.

• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/400506

3. https://penji.co/billboard-advertising-guide/   4. https://www.vcoutdoor.com/blog/billboard-trends-for-2022

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Is billboard advertising effective in 2023? And can you measure it?

Out-of-home advertising (OOH) is a tried-and-tested method of spreading the word about your business. In fact, while 2022 data hasn’t yet been confirmed, Statista predicts that OOH advertising will have experienced a 31.5% increase in spending from the previous year. 1

This is a sign that billboard advertising isn’t going anywhere, but a lot of marketing managers might not be sure it’s worth the risk. This could be for a number of reasons, including concerns around cost, reach, and effectiveness.

The truth is that billboards work, and are a really effective way of reaching your ideal audience. When done right, billboards could be the golden ticket your business needs to broaden its reach and engage with more people.

In this blog, we’re going to outline a few of the reasons why billboard advertising still has a place in 2023, and is an incredibly effective method of getting your message out to the right audience.

You can target specific locations

Billboards are one of the most effective forms of advertising when used alongside digital marketing, but this goes both ways — digital ads are more powerful with the help of billboards..

Although they’re still widely used, targeting very specific audiences through the use of tracking cookies has become much harder. This is thanks to new policies, such as Apple requiring apps to get consumer permission to track their activity. 2 This has had a negative impact on a lot of businesses’ ability to reach their target audience, and made digital advertising more difficult.

A billboard is guaranteed to be seen and, when you target the right location, you ensure the relevant people are seeing (and resonating with) your ad. For example, an advertisement for a budgeting app would do well on a bus shelter in a corporate district, as it’s guaranteed to be seen by young professionals.

Targeting specific locations also helps with improving brand awareness in a local area, something Alight Media prioritises. We offer OOH opportunities across 153 towns, many of which are now referred to as ‘ 15-minute cities ’. These are the communities where people live in close proximity to where they shop — and they’re seeing increased footfall.

Targeting these smaller areas can help increase local fame and ensure you’re becoming a household name. Importantly, this boost can be measured. For example, if you see a surge in purchases coming from Telford soon after placing a billboard there, you’ll know there’s a correlation and that your ads are convincing people to engage with you.

You’re guaranteed an audience

As we said earlier, the biggest plus of digital advertising is its ability to reach very specific audiences. However, people have become better and better at avoiding digital advertising altogether, by:

• Swiping ads away.
• Marking ads as something they’re not interested in.
• Adjusting their privacy settings
• Using an ad blocker.

This makes it harder to reach the right people, and can result in you spending a lot of money on campaigns that don’t yield any benefits. That’s not the case with billboard marketing: according to a study by Nielsen, reaching a 1,000-person audience could cost up to £15 online. To reach the same audience, you could be spending as little as half that amount with OOH. 3

Whether people are seeing a digital billboard from their cars, or reading a bus shelter ad while they wait to get home, you’re guaranteed an audience with OOH advertising. By making your messaging part of the landscape, people will notice and (even subconsciously) remember your name.

OOH is a really effective means of not only getting you an audience — but getting you the right audience. Although there are plenty of reporting tools available to help track, isolate, and compare performance for OOH campaigns, the easiest way to measure its impact is by keeping an eye out for increased website traffic and brand recognition.

Suggested reading: Did you know that Alight’s digital billboards are now the market leader for audience reach? Read our blog about it here.

You benefit from impulse action

When digital advertising is used as an alternative to OOH advertising, it has the potential to encourage impulse purchases as it makes use of how often people are on their phones. However, the oversaturation of ads on social media has meant people increasingly gloss over them and don’t engage.

Using OOH can help boost offline-to-online responses, as the people noticing your ads can then take immediate action on their phones. Recent studies have shown that 58% of people who spend more time out-of-home perform more online searches, and these searches cover more diverse categories. 4 Running billboards alongside your digital ads, therefore, is a really clever way of driving your audience to actually engage with your business.

There are a number of ways that you can communicate with people and encourage impulse action through billboards, including:

• QR codes on advertisements.
• Advertisements outside a retailer, e.g. a billboard for vegan products outside of a supermarket that stocks them.
• Advertisements placed on roads known to have traffic jams, to target those scrolling on their phones while waiting.

Doing so will reach more people and make your OOH ads even more successful. You can also easily track how effective they are by measuring how many site visits were through your QR code, or if there was an uptick in sales of your product from a shop where you had a billboard placed.

You can cultivate your brand status

Billboards tell passersby that you are so proud of and confident in your services or products, and that you’re willing to showcase them on a bus shelter, on the motorway, or even on the side of an iconic building. This helps build your brand status, as your ad is seen by a wide range of audiences. Additionally, it can begin to feel like part of the landscape or the architecture of a city or town.

Having billboards turns you into more of a household name as you can be discovered even by people who don’t use social media. This sets you apart from the competition, as a lot of your rivals will be sticking exclusively to digital ads and as a result ignoring a wider audience.

A common pattern we at Alight see is smaller businesses appearing reluctant to invest in OOH advertising because they worry they don’t have the status or reach to warrant advertising on such a large scale. In fact, the total opposite is true: investing in billboards builds that status, and showcases you to more people and a range of demographics. Marketing yourself as a small business, especially in your local area, will actually encourage more people to support you and help you flourish.

It’s easier to build brand status and awareness with an OOH provider such as Alight Media. We can help get your message out to the right people, in the right places, and at the right time.

Billboard ads: an effective way to reach the right people

In spite of it being harder to measure the effectiveness of billboard ads than their online alternative, they’re still a proven way of reaching the right people in an efficient, cost-effective, eye-catching way. Many businesses measure the reach of their campaign by using anonymised data from smartphones. This allows them to tell how many people are walking past their ad, and what demographic they belong to.

You can also measure ads through surges of engagement from specific areas where you’ve placed an ad, or whether you’re becoming more of a household name the longer your OOH ads stay up.

Importantly, billboards don’t have to (and rather, shouldn’t) be used alone. When used alongside search, social media, radio, or TV ads, you can create a powerful marketing strategy that reaches far more people.

If you’d like to take your marketing out-of-home and enjoy the benefits of billboard advertising, book a discovery call today.

1 Out-of-home (OOH) advertising expenditure in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2011 to 2021 | Statista

2 Apple and Google Are Killing the (Ad) Cookie. Here’s Why | Bloomberg UK

3 Nielsen: OOH Most Effective in Driving Online Activity | OAAA

4 JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Global and Posterscope launch collaborative research study 'The Point of Search'

History of Billboard Advertising

The first billboards were invented in the 1830s. They became a popular form of advertising in the 1860s. Then, as the 19th century came to a close, the proper format of a billboard was defined and their popularity skyrocketed.

In the 1830s, a man named Jared Bell created some of the very first billboards . These billboards advertised circus acts like Barnum And Bailey . The billboards were often large posters, displaying colorful pictures. They emphasized unique features and promotional elements for each of their upcoming shows. 

The 1860s saw a major shift in billboard advertising. Businesses were able to purchase outdoor space to utilize for billboard display. Soon enough, advertisers began taking advantage of the new laws and regulations, setting up different billboards and experimenting with their own forms and creatives. They were often hand-drawn or hand-painted and labor-intensive. 

Two things happened in the last four decades of the 19th century:

• Billboards became more popular, which led to the founding of various billboard associations. Some of the most famous from this period was The International Bill Posters Association and the Associated Bill Posters’ Association. They helped launch billboard advertising, as a concept, nationwide.
• As these associations became more prominent, standards for billboard advertising began to subtly change. In 1889, the Paris Expo revealed the first-ever twenty-four sheet billboard. That twenty-four sheet format became the standard format for billboards everywhere.  
• Jared Bell created some of the first billboards for famous circus acts in the 1830s
• Nw legislation allowed advertisers to purchase outdoor space for advertising purposes in the 1860s
• The International Bill Posters Association and Associated Bill Posters’ Association  introduced billboards to other advertisers
• The first twenty-four sheet billboard was shown at the Paris Expo, and then the World’s Columbian Exposition.
• This twenty-four sheet format became the standard billboard

When Billboards Took Over Advertising

The Model T was one of the first affordable cars . It changed the United States , and ushered in an era of cheap, low-cost manufacturing . As more people became reliant on cars, roads and highways were soon built to support them. Soon enough, advertisers realized that setting up billboards on roads and highways was an excellent advertising strategy.

After the introduction of the Model T, cars quickly became the main form of transportation. Older methods of transportation — railroads and horses , mainly — became a secondary option. 

Due to this influx of cars, cities were forced to adapt their infrastructure to accommodate the growing automobile market. This lead to the creation of better roads and highways. Shortly after, advertisers realized that this would become prime advertising real estate.

While billboards were always a popular form of advertising throughout the 20th century, it wasn’t until the creation of the Interstate Highway System that billboards became extraordinarily successful . The Interstate Highway System — a system that connects the different states together through safe and efficient roads, spanning 49,000 miles — was a goldmine of display opportunities. 

Hundreds of businesses used this method of advertising to their advantage. Most of these businesses set up conventional billboards. But, there were other businesses — for example, Burma Shave , Coca-Cola, and Palmolive — that realized that by designing humorous and captivating signs, you could entertain bored drivers.

• The popularity of the first cars, Model T, lead to the development of better roads and highways
• Advertisers realized that these roads and highways could be used to set up billboards
• The Interstate Highway System lead to billboards becoming one of the most popular forms of advertising
• Businesses started using billboards to create advertisements that entertained drivers

The Highway Beautification Act

The placement of billboards on the Interstate Highway System was largely unregulated. There were very few restrictions regarding the size, spacing, placement, and design. This lack of regulation changed in 1965.

The Interstate Highway System brought a great deal of prosperity to the billboard industry. Billboards were extremely popular, and the businesses and products they were advertising even more.

In 1965, the Highway Beautification Act was passed. The Highway Beautification Act set limitations on the number of billboards that could be placed along highways, as well as regulations on factors such as size, spacing, and lighting.

While some in the industry thought that this would put an end to billboards, it didn’t . Instead, billboard designs complied with the newly formed regulations. 

• The Interstate Highway System and the placement of billboards was largely unregulated
• This changed in 1965 when the Highway Beautification Act was passed
• Advertisers were forced to comply with various regulations regarding spacing, size, and lighting
• Billboards remained popular, but they had to change and develop in order to comply with these new regulations

The Future of Billboard Advertising

Today, billboards still comprise a large percentage of the advertising market. Instead of going with traditional billboards, though, advertisers are using digital methods. Digital billboards bring less work and fewer overhead costs while delivering a more vivid and engaging form of advertising.

To some, billboards are seen as a “relic of the past”. For advertisers, though, this is far from the truth. As of today, billboards comprise 66% of the “out of home” advertising market . Many of these billboards are digital.

Digital billboards require less work than traditional billboards . They also offer more possibilities for creativity and experimentation.

Instead of shipping an advertisement to a billboard company weeks in advance, all that’s needed is a file. If you want to experiment with different creatives and ideas including, colors, fonts, styles and sound effects for your advertisement, you can do so easily. If something doesn’t work out, simply press a few buttons to make desired changes.

Along with that, digital billboards and other outdoor media are starting to integrate sensors and cameras. These allow for more dynamic and engaging advertisements that directly interface with whoever is viewing the ad.

While the billboard advertising form will continue to shift and change, one thing is certain: billboards are here to stay. 

• Billboards still comprise a significant portion of the advertising market
• The traditional billboard was replaced with their digital counterparts
• Digital billboards require less maintenance than traditional billboards
• Sensors and cameras are being used to create interactive ads

Billboard Advertising in Puerto Rico

bMedia is a Puerto Rico local outdoor media company specializing in billboard advertising . While we’ve come a long way since hand-painted signage and extremely labor-intensive displays, we are happy to continue servicing one of the oldest forms of advertising. This advertising strategy has been proven and methodically implemented for companies across the nation. We offer our support and creativity for businesses exclusive to Puerto Rico. Contact us for pricing and additional information.

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Billboard Advertising of Health Services

Generally, businesses, individuals, governments, and non-government organizations aim to reach their respective audiences through advertising to pass intended information about the service, event, or product they offer. In most cases, they opt to use billboards to display the content of information they are communicating to the people. During the process of making the billing board, they ensure the ads are clear, informative, and persuasive for effective marketing. The structures are located at strategic places such as along busy roads to enable access by a massive population. Billboard is an effective way of advertising since its strategic location and nature of the commercials make it possible for the targeted customers to view the info.

Currently, the governments advocate for vaccination against the COVID-19 virus to minimize its spread and effect in the country. Health organizations such as the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and prominent personnel encourage people through billboard campaigns to receive vaccine shot to enhance body immunity (Elrod & Fortenberry, 2017). They persuade individuals and inform them about the importance of being vaccinated against the pandemic. The approach is used to freely convince people to make a decision for themselves and their families.

Gary Tauchen, a Republican representative, has structured a billboard to encourage people to be vaccinated. In the advertising, the information is “I got the vaccine so I can protect myself and all people I care about.” In this case, Gary Tauchen is responsible for the ads displayed on the billing board. his intention was to eradicate the political perception surrounding vaccination to enable civilians to receive their shots (Mentzer, 2021). The texts are visible, and including his picture makes it very attractive. The appearance of the structure based on its size, location, and color makes it capable of capturing the attention of the public.

The focus is to inform and persuade individuals to receive the vaccine. Based on the layout of the structure and simple language used to communicate, it is suitable to pass the information to the people through it. Furthermore, it is not crowded with many words that can confuse the ready, making it appropriate. Therefore, the choice of wording and the overall display makes the banner match the content it contains.

The goal of using billboard advertising is to connect with the intended persons. Strategic placement is helpful in making the information being communicated reach the targeted individuals. This enhances faster access of the message by the group of people (Gebreselassie & Bougie, 2019). Furthermore, it ensures visibility of the structure so that individuals can read the content displayed. Similarly, setting it on specific locations such as most traveled roads would enable it to pay attention, thus delivering the message to respective consumers.

The given billboard is situated in an open place where the targeted population can easily view and read the details of its content without distraction from tall trees, buildings, or other objects. Furthermore, it is located in a place with fewer banners; hence it can be seen most frequently because of limited confusion from other boards. This makes its placement strategy effective thus enabling it to reach the target consumers efficiently.

In conclusion, hoardings are an effective way of communicating important information to a large audience. It is significant to establish a strategic point to locate the structure to enhance its visibility in order to attract maximum attention. Moreover, the texts should be precise and clear so that viewers can be able to see them correctly. In addition, the use of simple language increases its efficacy in reaching audiences.

Elrod, J. K., & Fortenberry, J. L. (2017). Billboard advertising: An avenue for communicating healthcare information and opportunities to disadvantaged populations. BMC Health Services Research , 17 (4), 23-27. Web.

Gebreselassie, A., & Bougie, R. (2019). The meaning and effectiveness of billboard advertising in least developed countries: The case of Ethiopia . Journal of Promotion Management , 25 (6), 827-860. Web.

Mentzer, R. (2021). Republican lawmaker’s pro-vaccine messages are part of an effort to ‘get the politics out of the vaccination process’: A new campaign in mostly unvaccinated Shawano County seeks to persuade residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Wisconsin Public Radio. Web.

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Effectiveness of Billboard Advertising Essay Example

• Pages: 7 (1790 words)
• Published: March 24, 2017
• Type: Essay

In the United States of America, every citizen, on average, will encounter over one million advertisements every year (Godin, 1999). This means that the average American is seeing or hearing an advertisement every three seconds, every year. It would appear that this rate has been quickly increasing over the past two decades. Since 1993, the amount of revenue from outdoor advertising was $2.

8 billion. This figure has nearly tripled in the last seventeen years (Outdoor Advertising Association of America [OAAA], 2010). This rapid increase has occurred in spite of a ban on cigarette advertisements and a decrease in advertisements for alcoholic beverages. To further show its prominence, outdoor advertising is the fifth largest advertising medium in the world (Zenith Optimedia, 2005). Outdoor advertising can cover a myriad of categories, so I will be specifically discussing billboards,

as they are the most common and most used form of outdoor advertisements in the United States.

At face value, the investment in at least one billboard for a business makes logical sense. According to Kelley and Jugenheimer (2004), Taylor (1997), and Woodside (1990), there are eight key benefits in using billboard advertising: (1) potential placement of the advertisement close to the point of sale, (2) high exposure to regular commuters, (3) high reach, (4) 24-hour presence, (5) geographic flexibility, (6) economic efficiency, (7) visual impact from advertisement size and message creativity, and (8) brand awareness. From these benefits, it is no wonder so many businesses do not question the value in a billboard or multiple billboards. However, with this much money and effort put into billboards, the question must be asked, are billboards actually effective as an advertising medium

Yes, advertisements are popular, can get the attention of a consumer, and be easily noticed, but none of that matters if billboards are not effective in achieving the goal of a company in using a billboard. With the popularity and wide use of billboards and outdoor advertisements, it is shocking how little research has been done in this area. In light of the increase in revenues from outdoor advertising in the last 20 years, very little to no extensive research has been done.

In fact, it is still “one of the least researched in any mass medium” (Katz, 2003, p. 92). Is it wrong for companies to assume that a billboard will be effective and successful if invested in? Or is it a correct assumption that if a billboard meets certain practical criteria to appeal to a customer that it will bear positive results for a business or company? In regards to the effectiveness of a billboard, there are essentially four broad categories that are at play: tangible response, local presence, visibility and media efficiency (Taylor, Franke, & Hae-Kyong, 2006).The tangible response is how good the billboard is at bringing in customers, both returning and new, to increase traffic, and to build sales. Local presence is the proximity in which a billboard is to the place of business. From other research, it has been discovered that there is a very close link between a billboards ability to bring in customers, and its distance from the business location (Taylor & Franke, 2003).

Visibility is the ability of a billboard to make a visual impression on the consumer. Lastly, media efficiency is the broad and frequent exposure to the

target market. Taylor et al., (2006) summarized the importance of these four factors by stating, “for a billboard to be effective, it must communicate a relevant message in a clear, interesting, and readable manner to the appropriate audience. It must also be at an appropriate location in order to be seen by the target audience” (p. 24).

An original study was conducted by Taylor et al. (2006) to find out which of these factors businesses viewed as most important, and how successful billboards had been so far for those businesses. Some aspects of a billboard’s success are obviously intangible. However, the study still did a tremendous job of finding out from a good sample of businesses how successful their personal billboards have been in light of what the goal was in using a billboard advertisement in the first place. The test was done by sending a questionnaire to 1,315 companies through random selection of 5,000 who were known to have used or currently use billboards.

Usable responses were received from 348 companies, 16 of which were not advertising via billboards at the time. Those 16 were kept in the analysis to have broader perspectives of billboard usage.This means that there was an effective response rate of 30. 4%. This may seem low, but in the area of business literature, it is a normal percentage.

There was investigation into the unresponsive companies to see if it was a reason that could skew the results and make them unreliable. However, the reasons for the non-responses did “not appear to be related to factors that would likely cause bias in the results” (Taylor et al., 2006). The questionnaire sent to the

businesses contained items that would statistically show reasons for the use of the billboards and the overall effectiveness of them. There were different sets of questions for each of those two categories, and each used a 7 seven-point response scale.

All questions had been reviewed and tested with many advertising firms to make sure they would be usable, provide accurate information, and be reliable. All the information received then went through a complex series of analyses. The explanation of these analyses can be found on p. 25 of Taylor et al.(2006). First of all, the results of the research show why companies, generally speaking, decide to use billboards. The order of influence from highest to lowest is “visibility, media efficiency, local presence, and tangible response” (Taylor et al., 2006, p. 26-27).

Not surprisingly, visibility is at the top. Companies choose to use billboards because they are highly visible to a broad audience, are easily seen, and are visible twenty-four hours a day. The second factor is more surprising and shows that a lot of it has to do with simple economics. Companies use billboards for their economic efficiency. That is, they can reach a wide audience for a very low cost per exposure. The final two factors, local presence and tangible response are surprisingly not as important to businesses.

Companies admittedly care more about simply getting their product or brand noticed rather than making sure that a billboard investment converts into a sale or higher traffic for the business. The second key part of the study that pertains to this paper comes from the second and third research questions asked at the beginning of the article (Taylor et

al., 2006). Because a billboard’s effectiveness or success can only be measured based on the company’s goals with the billboard, it is mportant to figure out how company’s measure advertisement success in general.

According to research done in this study and others (Cannon, 1994), a company’s main measure of success logically ties in directly with their main reason for getting a billboard out there: brand identification. That is, most companies consider a billboard a success if it is able to provide brand identification. Now, of course not all companies feel this way, but if the sample size can be reliably applied to the population, then it can be inferred that nearly 90% of businesses measure billboard effectiveness in this manner. Because of that, it is quite a reasonable conclusion that billboards are indeed successful and effective. The majority of the businesses that made up the other 10% were owners of billboards who were looking to provide the right product at the right time.

For example, restaurant chains that are looking to spot a hungry motorist’s eye (Taylor et al. 2006) are not looking for brand recognition; they are looking to make a sale. Even still, those companies reported a high success rate in light of their expectations and reasons to have the billboards.Now, just because a billboard is big and can be seen by thousands of people does not guarantee success. It is very possible that a billboard could fail miserably. More than likely, this would be due to poor design, too much to read, doesn’t have anything memorable, or is just an all around bad representation of the company or product.

This is where a company’s marketing

department must shine and be able to come up with an advertisement that is able to both get the consumer’s attention amidst all the other advertisements around it (Godin, 1999), and retain that attention (Assael, 1981).If a billboard is not able to meet both of those requirements, then no matter what the goals or objectives are of a company, the billboard will more than likely fail to meet those expectations. The original question posed in this paper was that in spite of the popularity of billboards and outdoor advertising in general, are billboards truly effective and successful? The few tests that have been done on this subject seem to come to the same conclusion: due to the expectations and measures of success that most businesses have on their billboards, outdoor advertising with billboards is extremely successful and effective. The sample data is very clear, and biases were confirmed to be non-existent.

As previously stated, simply having a billboard will not guarantee positive results. As long as some logic and simple guidelines are followed, it would not be foolish for a company to expect some good ramifications to result from their investment. Are there a lot of unknowns on this subject that should be researched? Yes. However, has sufficient research been done to reliably know if billboards are effective? Absolutely.

Assael, H. 1981). Consumer behavior and marketing action. Boston: Kent.

Cannon, H., & Riordan, E. (1994). Effective reach and frequency: Does it really make sense? Journal of Advertising Research, 34 (2), 19–29.

Godin, S. (1999). Permission marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Katz, H. (2003). The media handbook: A complete guide to advertising

media selection, planning, research, and buying.

New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Kelley, L., & Jugenheimer, D. (2004), Advertising media planning: A brand management approach. New York: M. E.

Sharpe. Marx, E. (2010). When is a billboard just a billboard? Widener Law Journal, 19(2), 711-731.

OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association of America) (2010). The history of outdoor advertising. Retrieved from http://www. oaaa. org/about/historyofoutdoor. aspx.

Taylor, C. (1997). A technology whose time has come or the same old litter on a stick? An analysis of changeable message billboards. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 16 (2), 179–186.

Taylor, C. & Franke, G. (2003). Business perceptions of the role of billboards in the U. S.economy. Journal of Advertising Research, 43(2), 150-161.

Taylor, C., Franke, G., & Hae-Kyong, B. (2006). Use and effectiveness of billboards. Journal of Advertising, 35(4), 21-34.

Woodside, A. (1990). Outdoor advertising as experiments. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 18 (3), 229–237.

Zenith Optimedia (2005). Ad growth stable with healthy hotspots. Retrieved from http://www. zenithoptimedia. com/gff/pdf/Adspend%20December%2005. pdf.

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Media and Advertising Essay Titles

IELTS Essay Questions for the Topic of Media and Advertising. All essay questions below are reported by IELTS candidates and seem to have been repeated over the years. Regardless of the years the questions were reported, you could get any question below in your test. You should, therefore, prepare ideas for all questions given below. The topics below could appear in both GT and Academic IELTS Writing Task 2.

Media & Advertising Essay Questions for IELTS Writing Task 2

Some companies sponsor sports as a way to advertise themselves. Some people think it is good, while others think there are disadvantages to this. Discuss both sides and give your opinion. (Reported 2017, Academic Test)

Violence in the media promotes violence in society. To what extent do you agree? (repeated topic)

Most people think that the truth should be objective rather than subjective when it comes to the news. Do you think all news is true? What is the function of a newspaper? (2020, 2021, 2022)

More and more newspapers and news channels are using photographs to support their news articles and stories. Some people think that photographs are not a reliable source of news, while others consider photographs to be irrefutable. Discuss both sides and give your opinion. (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021)

The majority of news being reported is bad news such as wars, famines, accidents and crime. Why do you think that is? Do you think the news should be a balance of both good and bad news? (quite common topic)

In the last few decades, there have been more and more cases of famous people being hounded by the press. Some people think that famous people in the media should have no right to privacy. To what extent do you agree?  (repeated topic – this is frequently a current world issue)

With the development of online media, there is no future for the radio.

To what extent do you agree? (2016, 2017, 2018, 2020)

Some people believe that what children watch on television influences their behaviour. Others say that amount of time spent watching television influences their behaviour. Discuss both views and give own opinion  (Reported in 2017, 2020)

Some people think that cinemas will one day close due to the popularity of online streaming services for films and series. Do you agree or disagree? (2023)

Companies spend millions each year on advertising online, in magazines and on billboards. These adverts can encourage people to buy goods that they do not really need. What are the positive and negative affects of consumerism?

One of the prime times for advertising on TV is when children get back from school. Some people think that advertisements aimed at children should not be allowed. What is your opinion? (common question regarding advertising and the affect it has on children)

Some people prefer to watch foreign films rather than locally produced films. Why is this? Do you think the government should spend more money supporting the local film industry? (2015, 2017, 2020, 2022)

Some people think that foreign films have a negative impact on local culture. To what extent do you agree or disagree? (2020

Films that are based on historical events ought to be completely accurate. Do you agree? (2019, 2021, 2023)

Many people buy products that they do not really need and replace old products with new ones unnecessarily. Why do people buy things they do not really need? Do you think this is a good thing? (repeated topic)

Many people think that fast food companies should not be allowed to advertise, while others believe that all companies should have the right to advertise. What is your opinion?

Reported essay questions are from students who have taken their IELTS test. That means questions may have appeared more frequently than have been reported. These questions may vary slightly in wording and focus from the original question. Also note that these questions could also appear in IELTS speaking part 3 which is another good reason to prepare all questions thoroughly.

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Billboards Research Paper

Works cited.

Billboards also commonly referred as hoardings are large structures used for outdoor advertising/ marketing (Katz 12). In most cases, billboards are found on streets and busy roads especially highways (Illegal Tender). Billboards are placed in high points where they can be easily viewed by passing pedestrians or drivers.

To attract people, billboards are designed in large sizes and contain creative messages, which are very unique or distinctive (Katz 12). In most major cities, it is common to spot billboards due to high population. This paper will discuss usage, effective, and application of billboards in different sectors.

History of billboards. Billboards date as early as 18 th century. Early billboards were made of large posters, which were placed on top of tall buildings to catch people’s attention (Katz 12). However during that time, billboards contained limited commercial value and were not very popular.

With industrialization and improvement of infrastructures especially roads and railways, billboards become more popular in the business fields.

The first ever billboard was invented in the year 1794 (Meth 25). In the 19 th century, billboards went internationally and a number of companies started using them. Today, billboards have become accepted internationally and have undergone a lot of changes. In 2010, the first ever-scented billboard was produced in the US (Katz 23).

Types of billboards. There are many types of billboards to fit different needs and situations. Bulleting or painted board is one of the most common forms of billboards; it is small and is mostly located in highways, busy streets, and on sides of buildings (Meth 67).

Posters are other types of billboards that are commonly of medium sizes. Mostly posters are located in “primary and secondary roadways” (Meth 54). Due to their unique feature, posters are used to target a specific region.

The third type of billboard is Wallscapes, which are very large and commonly used for outdoor advertising (Meth 54). They are large to enhance visibility since they are located in large cities or metropolitan areas. Most companies prefer them because of their size and effectiveness in outside marketing. Digital billboard is another type of billboard (Katz 72). Digital ones are large in size and are very flexible.

Due to their flexibility, digital billboards are mostly used for media advertisement (Illegal Tender). Others include multi-purpose billboards, which are used for multiple functions apart from advertisement. This form of billboards is integrated with other things. The most common is street lighting poles, which also incorporate billboards hence serving more than one function..

Billboards and usage. Billboards are mostly used for advertisement purposes (Lu Hsu and Roxy 68). This is because they are very effective in providing information to pedestrians and drivers on streets and highways.

However, for a billboard to be effective in advertisement, it should be big enough and visible from a distance of about 50 meters. Otherwise, if it does not meet these requirements, it cannot be effective in advertisement and neither can it be classified as a billboard.

In early days, before inventions of vehicles, billboards were used to inform or warn people travelling by horse or walking by foot (Lu Hsu and Roxy 68). Such billboards were used to describe, explain, or list different services.

Today, with the emergence of technology and globalization, the need to do advertisement has increased substantially and many businesses rely on marketing, which is a success ingredient especially in this era of globalization.

Different billboards attend different needs and serve diverse function depending on their location. Most billboards located on highways advertise hotels, restaurants, and shops located miles ahead. This helps in informing drivers and other travelers about different services they can find on their way to different destinations.

Some of the billboards on the highway may carry a message such as Highway Restaurant and Bar, just 100 meters away . They also play a vital role in providing directions to vital services such gas station and so on. In addition, billboards located on the highway are also used for beautification purposes (Lu Hsu and Roxy 71).

Other billboards found on stations target travelers who are waiting for trains or buses. These types of billboards help in “maintaining a safe, vibrant, and neat environment” (Lu Hsu and Roxy 69).

There are also other kinds of billboards that are used as big name advertisers. Such billboards are found in densely populated regions especially in urban areas. Mostly, they advertise crucial and “big” services such as banks, phones, computers, cars, movies and other essential services.

Some billboards are used to advertise tobacco and alcohol among other drinks. Such billboards are not common, as many governments have banned alcohol and tobacco advertisement as a way of curbing excess use of drugs. In the US, tobacco can be advertised on billboards but not in the media (Wallace 185).

There is also another category meant for education. Billboards in this category target learners and parents in the education sector. Such billboards are found on school buses, near schools, on school gates, and even inside school compounds.

Such billboards promote school logos, encourage learners, and advertise college/universities (Wallace 187). Example in this group include At St. John’s School, we meet your needs, Education is the key to success, Strive and you will get the best, We lead, others follow and many others.

Lastly, billboards are used to inform and educate citizens. There are many non-commercial advertisements done by governments and non-profit organizations (Toxel, Inc). Some billboards are placed on highways, streets, and densely populated areas to educate and inform the public about different topics.

Billboards in this category carry educative messages such as Drive slowly and you will get there, HIV Aids is real, Do not Drink and Drive , and others (Meth 27). This category of billboards are meant to inform and educate the public. Others in this category include religious messages such as God wants you to come to his kingdom: Take a stand today .

Environmental and road safety concern. Environmental experts have argued that billboards lead to destruction and clearing of trees causing a major environmental concern (Wallace 187). Because of this concern, many people have campaigned for eradication of billboards especially on highways. On the other hand, there is also the road safety concern.

Many people argue that billboards distract drivers and cause accidents (Wallace 189). Traffic researchers did an extensive research and studied the relationship between accidents and billboards however, findings revealed that billboards are not significant distracters on the road (Wallace 190). Because of these concerns, different governments have come up with policies and rules regarding billboards usage.

Effectiveness and advantages of using billboards. Billboards are still the most effective means of advertisement today (Lu Hsu and Roxy 72). Despite of emergence of media advertisements, billboards still have a great impact in the business and marketing.

Effectiveness of billboards in advertisement varies with the type of billboard. Billboards are more reliable since they are cost effective (Lu Hsu and Roxy 68). Bulletin billboards are painted to fit the weather and are most effective in certain conditions.

One of biggest advantage associated with use of billboards is that they are able to catch attention of the target clients or consumers (Katz 45). Secondly, billboards offer cheap means of advertisement compared to other forms of advertisement and it is therefore cost effective (Katz 55).

Depending on location, public notices can be able to reach many audiences. Billboards placed on highways and streets are very effective since they target and reach many people. Lastly, billboard marketing helps potential clients to get where your business is located (Katz 48).

In conclusion, billboards have existed for more than two centuries and are still becoming more popular with each passing day due to their effectiveness in carrying out advertisement. Apart from advertisement, billboards are very useful in highways and streets beautification, lighting, and educating the public about diverse topics.

There are varieties of billboards designed to meet different marketing needs for everyone depending on the type of advertisement. The most common billboards include bulleting, digital, Wallscapes, and posters (Toxel, Inc).

For a billboard to be effective, it has to be big in size and creative enough to catch the attention of target client. Due to globalization, business has become a very competitive industry but with billboards, companies have a solution at hand. This is because billboards are most convenient and offer solution to your advertisement needs.

Illegal Tender . Franc Reyes. Perf. John Singloon, Dwingle Williams, Prescol Kololes. Universal Pictures, 2011. DVD.

Katz, Hellen. The Media Handbook: A Complete Guide to Advertising Media Selection . Oxford: Taylor & Francis, 2010. Print.

Lu Hsu, Jane, and Roxy Hsien-Chen Mo. Consumer Responses to Incomplete Information in Print Apparel Advertising. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 13: 1 (2009): 66 – 78. Print.

Meth, Cliford. Billboards . San Diego: Idea & Design Works, LLC, 2009. Print.

Toxel, Inc. Clever and Creative Billboards . 2008. Web. http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/01/05/clever-and-creative-billboard-advertising/

Wallace, Brendan. Driver Distraction by Advertising: Genuine Risk or Urban Myth? Municipal Engineer, 156.1 (2003): 185-190. Print.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 12). Billboards. https://ivypanda.com/essays/billboards/

"Billboards." IvyPanda , 12 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/billboards/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Billboards'. 12 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Billboards." December 12, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/billboards/.

1. IvyPanda . "Billboards." December 12, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/billboards/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Billboards." December 12, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/billboards/.

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How much do billboards cost?

Ever wondered “how much do billboards cost?” Use this our billboard cost calculator to discover billboard advertising costs as well as other outdoor advertising prices in certain parts of the country. Get real-time pricing data by DMA, city, or zip code.

Outdoor Advertising Cost

• Average cost
• Lowest price
• Median Impressions
• Advertising Ads
• Outdoor Advertising companies on AdQuick

Billboard Advertising Cost

• 265,960,903,305.0
• Billboard Ads
• Billboard companies on AdQuick

Digital Billboard Cost

• 83,231,904,636.0
• Digital Billboards
• Digital Billboard companies on AdQuick

Street Furniture Advertising Cost

• 33,385,318.0
• Street Furniture Ads
• Street Furniture Advertising companies on AdQuick

Wallscape Advertising Cost

• 10,792,033,329.0
• Wallscape companies on AdQuick

Wildposting Advertising Cost

• 56,814,639,736.0
• Wildposting Ads
• Wildposting companies on AdQuick

Transit Advertising Cost

• 549,936,394,686.0
• Transit Ads
• Transit Advertising companies on AdQuick

We analyzed 442K+ pieces of out-of-home advertising and share rates across the top 10 markets to understand the ins and outs of billboard and other OOH advertising costs.

In a world that's quickly becoming dominated by digital media, you may have forgotten how vital OOH is for a brand's overall marketing mix. OOH, in all its shapes and forms, has a unique ability to amplify a brand's message and drive conversions in ways that other ad units simply can't.

And the good news: OOH can be a significantly more cost-effective solution for getting your brand and message in front of your target audience effectively. So, whatever your case may be, it's time to stop forgetting about OOH and start thinking about how it can enhance your marketing mix.

Here are a few things you should know before diving into OOH head-first.

Billboard pricing factors to keep in mind

Have you ever wondered, how much does a billboard cost?

If so, you wont be surprised to know that, as is the case with all ad units and media types, several factors determine billboard advertising costs. The first challenge is finding an advertising company that works for your budget. Big companies like Lamar or Clear Channel are expensive, but small business owners can also find advertisement space through local businesses such as newspapers or through sponsoring local events.

Contacting a nearby billboard company is the best way to find a good deal, but there are many other ideas to consider. Factors include location, format, circulation, impressions, demographics, design, and installation.

Let's take a moment to break these down quickly:

As a general rule of thumb: the larger the market, the pricier the ad space. For example, NYC billboards , Los Angeles billboards , and Chicago billboards command higher asking prices than markets in low-traffic, rural areas.

From a pricing standpoint, real estate (read: market) plays one of the biggest roles in determining the cost of billboards. But another aspect to consider involves the location of that OOH unit within a given market.

In other words: does that ad unit suffer from any blind spots or obstructed views?

You get the point.

Similar to digital ads, there are many standard billboard sizes for brands to choose from. Billboard campaigns range from small, junior posters to the enormous digital billboards that adorn New York City.

But OOH advertising is no longer just about traditional billboards. There are bus wraps, digital in-store, mobile billboards, wheat pastings, transit shelters, scooter decals, wallscapes, and the list goes on.

The truth is, practically any inanimate object these days can turn into an OOH ad unit. Generally speaking, the larger the format, the more costly it is to purchase and produce. The only exception to this rule is digital OOH ad units, which depend on platforms, production labor, and recurring campaign costs.

Circulation

Circulation is the estimated number of people who will potentially see your OOH ad – or, in other words, the traffic your ad unit can get. When it comes to outdoor advertising, you can find data on high-traffic areas from local transportation or law enforcement authorities.

This is, by no means, a guarantee that this number of people will actually see the ad. It's just an estimate as to how many eyeballs may land on a billboard rental at a given time.

Impressions

"Impressions" are a direct offshoot and measure of location, format, and circulation – and the easiest way to quantify (read: justify) billboard advertising cost.

Whereas circulation takes into account overall potential viewership, impressions determine the likely viewership — both reach and frequency — of your OOH ad unit.

Impressions are primarily affected by the location and size of your OOH ad unit, but we can't forget that strategic advertisement placements influence impressions. For instance, a small billboard placed near a stoplight will likely cost more than a large billboard placed on a busy street with faster speeds.

Impression analytics are measured via CPM (cost per mile) and they're often compiled by companies like Geopath

The projected ad cost will be $5 CPM, and the billboard will earn a total of 100,000 impressions.

Now, let’s do the math: [100,000/1,000] x $5 = $500.

It's really just as easy as that! Just remember that if you're hoping to own a billboard on the Sunset Strip, the price is much higher.

Demographics

It's one thing to get your ad message in front of a lot of eyeballs. It's another thing to get it in front of the right viewers. This is where demographics come into play.

Thanks to enhanced OOH analytics and the rise of programmatic for digital OOH, advertisers today have more opportunities to ensure that their ad buys reach their target demographics: gender, age, income, education level, and so on.

And as you may have guessed, placing an OOH ad in a more affluent neighborhood — one where consumers potentially have higher disposable income — will raise the overall billboard advertising cost.

After all, there's a direct correlation between getting your brand in front of consumers who can buy what you're selling and getting them to act on a call-to-action.

While demographics directly relate to the media placement, design costs ultimately come down to your brand awareness, how well you communicate your vision coming to life and the quality of graphic designers.

For larger billboards, complicated street furniture placements, or immersive digital OOH ads, you may need to hire designers that specialize in those formats. Specialty designs always cost more, but with the right experience, graphic designers are worth every dollar.

Production costs are one of the many reasons why big brands either hire agencies or build in-house agencies of their own. Creative projects can require costly revisions and if youre working with a graphic that youd like to update, finding a new designer with the same software or templates is very difficult.

Installation

Installation cost also depends on the type of advertising space purchased and how you bring the ad to life. In other words, installing a standard vinyl billboard wont cost the same as a mobile billboard or running a digital OOH campaign on Google or social media.

Vinyl billboards tend to charge per square foot, while social media campaigns depend on ads and influencer talents. Google advertisements are probably the most accessible format to attain, but neither Google or Instagram can grab the type of OOH marketing you want.

The moral of the story: Understand the total cost of your OOH media — including design, production, installation — before committing to your ad buy. Otherwise, you could run into some surprises in the 11th hour (and no one ever likes those, especially of the budgetary sort!)

A better way to estimate billboard advertising cost

Now that you've got a clear understanding of billboard pricing factors, you're probably wondering how to calculate the cost of OOH media in various markets.

Until recently, this hasn't been an easy thing to do. Most advertisers have to reach out to the media companies themselves for this information — which can sometimes feel like pulling teeth — or work with media agencies to do the heavy lifting of understanding these details.

AdQuick has changed that dynamic entirely. We've created a unique Billboard Pricing Tool that leverages our proprietary data to get a clear and accurate snapshot of what the most common OOH media types cost in virtually any given metro area, city, or even zip code.

This is a one-of-a-kind tool that no one else in the OOH industry offers. So, consider it our special gift to you because it will save you time and energy finding the pricing information you need to make informed decisions about what OOH media you buy and where you buy it.

Not to mention, it will give you comparative data to understand the real value of OOH media versus the costs of purchasing and producing traditional (TV, print, radio) and digital (display, social, mobile, video) ad units.

Don't be surprised if you find that it's a steal!

So, to give you a clear idea of just how powerful this tool is, we've used it (proactively) to price out current median media costs across the top 50 OOH media markets:

Search for Billboards by City

Recommended outdoor advertising budget by market.

Recommended spend levels are based on Share of Voice (SOV).

It's not too late to consider OOH advertising once again

The moral of this story should be reasonably clear:

There's a tremendous amount of value you can gain by weaving OOH advertising into your overall marketing mix.

When thinking about OOH, it's easy to get stuck in the trap of believing that the OOH units that matter most are those within broader, expensive media markets.

And while those markets are undoubtedly important, many of your target consumers don't necessarily live in those markets.

So, consider branching out, and if you're still somewhat skeptical about the impact that OOH media can make on your business, test the waters by launching OOH campaigns in smaller, less saturated, and less expensive media markets.

It's an excellent way for you to test creative, pinpoint specific target audiences, trial various OOH ad formats, and a lot more before spending your valuable ad budgets in broader, more expensive media markets.

Of course, as the team that's working hard to democratize OOH advertising, we are here to help you along this OOH journey.

Because as relevant as understanding billboard advertising cost might be, what's really at stake here is getting your brand and message in front of consumers who will act on it.

Ready to see AdQuick in action?

• Industry Leading Technology
• 99% of Billboard Ads
• Best Billboard Prices Guaranteed
• White Glove Service

Get Started ->

Launch hyper-targeted OOH campaigns in minutes

How Much Does Billboard Advertising Cost?

• How Much Does a Billboard Ad Cost?
• Billboard Impressions – The Basis for Cost
• Billboard Ad Location
• Billboard Advertising Sizes
• Billboard Ad Lighting
• Billboard Ad Visibility
• Billboard Advertising Competition
• Production of Billboard Ad

How Much Does A Billboard Ad Cost? 2024 Pricing

Billboard Advertising Costs in New York ranges from $4,000 to $20,000/month, and in Los Angeles Billboard Prices   range from $3,000 to $25,000/month. In Chicago , Billboards will cost from $3,000 to $15,000; San Francisco billboards’ cost ranges from $3,000 to $12,000; and in Philadelphia billboards cost from $1,500 to $11,000/month.  If you are looking for “Billboard Advertising near Me”, DASH TWO can find that pricing for you.

Billboard Advertising Cost

How much does it cost to rent a billboard.

Billboard rentals are almost always quoted on a 4-week as opposed to a 1-month period. If an out of home advertising company quotes you $1,500 for a year contract, it means 13 4-week periods for $1,500/period.

In addition to the monthly billboard rental cost, a billboard advertising client must pay a production fee for the vinyl. A good rule of thumb is that the production fee will be 50 cents per square foot for the vinyl. The production fee will be $450 for a 14′ by 48′ billboard, $250 for a 10.5’ by 36′ billboard, and $64 for an 8′ by 16′ poster.

Impressions – The Basis for Billboard Advertising Cost

Geopath is a not-for-profit organization that uses data, technology and media research to compute the weekly impressions received by billboard ads. Out of home advertising companies pay Geopath for the ratings. Geopath impressions derive from a complete formula that factors in:

• The position of the billboard in relation to the road
• Traffic volumes
• The number of people in each car

Not every out of home advertising company is a Geopath subscriber, but most large out of home advertising companies are.

The typical billboard sells for a CPM, or cost per thousand impressions, of $5.21, according to PJ SOLOMON . A freeway billboard that gets 400,000 impressions in a 4-week period will be priced at $2,000/period. A billboard on a country road with only 30,000 impressions a month will rent for only $600/period. You can usually get impressions data from your billboard company to verify what sort of CPM you are paying.

Get a Quote on a Billboard Advertising Now.

Billboard location.

The area of a city for the Billboard location can also affect the pricing as well. For instance, a billboard located on Sunset Blvd. will range from $15,000 to $35,000, and billboard at the heart of the Sunset Strip will range from $25,000 to as high as $55,000. In Los Angeles , when aiming for the trendy fashion market, billboards on Melrose and Fairfax can range from $9,000 to $15,000. And the famous Hollywood Blvd. will have billboard costs from $7,000 to $13,000.

For New York City, digital billboards in Times Square typically will have a smaller duration of about 2 weeks but range from $10,000 to $22,000, and billboards in the popular SoHo District of Manhattan can cost about $18,000 to $30,000 Freeway billboards cost more to rent than state highway billboards, because more traffic equals more impressions.

State highway digital billboard cost more to rent than secondary road billboards. More traffic equals more impressions .

How Much Does a Billboard Ad Cost

Billboard sizes.

A bigger billboard size is easier to see than a small billboard size. A 14′ by 48′ billboard has 77% more square feet than a 10.5′ by 36′ billboard. As an example, the Thirty Seconds to Mars 14′ by 48′ billboard shown here is 77% larger than the Elohim 10.5′ by 36′ billboard also shown

A larger surface area logically means that a billboard is more likely to be seen and can be rented for more, but the relationship isn’t linear. It does not mean that a 77% larger billboard will exactly be 77% more expensive.

And consider a double-stacked 10.6′ by 36′ billboard a couple miles away where each face rents for $400/month. The larger board is worth more than the smaller double-stacked boards. It should come as no surprise that the double-stacked 10.6′ by 36′ billboards get about 28% fewer impressions per period than the single 14′ by 48′ billboard.

A small 8′ by 16′ poster will rent for even less. These posters in rural Indiana rent for approximately $500/month.

Billboard Lighting

Billboard visibility.

A setback billboard that is more than 600′ from the freeway will rent for much less than a billboard that is right against the freeway because it gets fewer impressions.

Most billboards are within 45′ of the grade of the road, which makes them easy to see. A billboard that is extremely tall – 80′ or 100′ feet above the road – will be cheaper because it will get fewer impressions. People won’t crane their necks just to see what’s on a sign.

Trees can ruin visibility. This billboard has a public service ad that is probably free because the trees next to the road have blocked the view to the billboard.

Billboard Competition

A billboard in an area with lots of other nearby billboards will sell at a steep discount. About 1,500 feet is the average setback between billboards in many cities. Some cities have no minimum setback or only a 500-foot setback between billboards. An area with lots of billboards very close together will have lower rates than an area with few billboards.

There are numerous other billboards in the vicinity, many of which are vacant or running public service ads . The availability of plenty of competition has driven down the price.

Look at these billboards packed together along a rural stretch of freeway in Nevada.

They rent for $300/month. If there weren’t so many, you could expect rents for be $750-$1,500.

Production of Billboard

Billboards don’t just cost money to rent; they also cost money to produce.

The production of the billboard can range from $250-$750 depending on what type of material is being printed along with what size the billboard is.

A 14’ by 48′ 7-oz vinyl billboard can cost around $400.

Now that you know the variables that go into the pricing of a billboard, you can feel confident in setting your budget. You can also further discuss the details with DASH TWO by  contacting us today.

Rodolfo Queiroz is an expert in the Out-of-Home world and is based out of Los Angeles, CA currently working at DASH TWO. Rodolfo has worked closely with clients primarily in the lifestyle apparel and music space, such as American Apparel, CoverFx and Interscope Records. Part of an agency, Rodolfo works with clients to help develop outdoor campaigns that reaches audiences through brand awareness and support their respective business objectives. He is responsible for the expansion and organization of client brands’ OOH strategy.

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10 Replies Added

Thank you for explaining all this in so much detail. I’m a small business owner and I’ve been thinking about investing in billboard advertising. Obviously, I have a limited budget and I’m not looking at anything too expensive, so it’s nice to know that there are affordable options for smaller businesses. I can’t imagine paying tens of thousands of dollars a month for a billboard.

Choosing the right location for your billboard is key. It’s not only the matter of paying more. You also have to think about your target audience and timing, what other advertisements are in the vicinity of your billboard. You don’t want to risk becoming an Internet meme if the ad placement turns out to be unfortunate.

It’s pretty cool how you can actually calculate impressions received by a billboard. I had no idea they can do that. But it makes sense. Those billboard prices can’t come out of thin air. Personally, I’m more familiar with Internet advertising. And I’ve never heard the term CPM used outside of that context. The more you know.

Great article Rodolfo, I am a billboard owner (14 x 48) And I am having trouble marketing my billboard at 4624 Jimmy Carter Blvd. in Norcross GA 30093. More than 30,000 cars passed by every day. I know it should be taller for one thing, it compromises my Western facing sign, however the Eastern facing side is less than 300 feet from a traffic light at the intersection of JCB and Britt Rd. I have offered it for less than $1000 per month with no takers. If you’re an avid computer user you might have Google Earth, you can fly there and see the billboard clearly. I have considered putting a new vinyl on that advertises …… Yes, we speak Spanish / Sí, hablamos español.I don’t want to put my advertising shoe in my mouth and insult the mostly Latino population in the area. There is also a presence of Korean and other Asian homes and businesses in the area; not to mention that I don’t speak Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese or any other language however, I know people who can translate for me in just about all of the languages I just mentioned.

Thank you, Matt Dewhurst Dewhurst Enterprises 2382 Mount Vernon Rd. Atlanta, GA 30338

Enjoyed reading the article above, really explains everything in detail,the article is extremely interesting and effective.

King regards,

Thank you for your article. I am a new owner of a billboard. Ive been researching for about 6 months on how to get it up and running. This is the best article yet. Thank you Maureen Smith Hawley Pa

This article provides a good overview of the factors that can impact the cost of renting a billboard, including the rental fee, production cost, and impressions. It’s important to note that prices can vary greatly depending on location, size, and demand

I would like to know if you have a chart that is more generic with overall LED billboard costs 14×48 from many suppliers over the past 10 years & projected forward for the next 5 years?

I enjoyed reading this. Thank you. Digital billboards offer the advantage of flexible pricing based on factors like location, size, and visibility. Their dynamic nature allows advertisers to maximize impressions and target specific audiences effectively. With the ability to display eye-catching visuals and adapt to different conditions, digital billboards offer a cost-effective and impactful solution for billboard advertising campaigns.

Appreciation to my father who stated to me about this website, this weblog is actually amazing.

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Billboard Advertising Essay

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The consume of putting up a billboard ranges anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 a month depending on the guild, the public-way the billboard is on, the exchange, and the dispense. If this sounds enjoy a hazard of specie to you, deem repeatedly – owing a passning a full-page newspaper not attributable attributable attributable attributable attributableice control a uncompounded day in any superior newspaper succeed consume you the selfselfsame whole – and it is not attributable attributable attributable attributable attributable attributable almost as powerful.

1. Billboard advertising grabs the watchfulness of potential customers enjoy no other make of advertising can. 2. Undivided of the most consume-powerful averages of advertising 3. Brand awareness and vigorous designate remembrance 4. Colorful, supposititious and eye-catching ads bear more application 5. Reaches extinguished to thousands of mob on a daily plea 6. Targets a inequitable assembly according to dregs 7. Ads are not attributable attributable attributable attributable attributable attributable past in the amalgamate of competitors and editorials 8. Not attributable attributable attributable attributable attributableices are delivered uninterruptedly and frequently 9. Directs potential clients and customers to your attribute of occupation.

These are excluding a lacking of the numerous advantages that billboard advertising has. With so numerous benefits, it’s no surprise that so numerous occupation owners are using billboard advertising today. From putting them up at airports to sticking them on car or barter wraps to equable showcasing them at movie theatres, billboard advertising makes it potential control you to circulate your products and services anywhere.

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In Photos: Grouplove Rocks The Roadrunner

Grouplove electrified Boston’s Roadrunner with their March 29 concert — the penultimate stop on their “Rock and Roll Won’t Save Me” tour. There, Crimson photographer Tracy Jiang captured their energetic and immersive show.

The night kicked off with a captivating performance by Bully, the solo project of German-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist Alicia Bognanno. With a stripped-down acoustic set, Bognanno’s opening act set the tone for the evening.

Grouplove took to the stage with a rendition of “Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten,” led by vocalist Hannah Hooper and guitarist Christian Zucconi.

Fans erupted with excitement and sung along as Hooper stepped to the front of the stage.

Zucconi swayed to the beat of the music, bathed in vibrant red, yellow, and orange hues.

Grouplove soared to fame with their 2011 single “Tongue Tied.” This captivating track clinched the number one spot on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in 2012, marking a milestone as the band’s first chart-topping single.

In the middle of the set, Hooper took a moment to encourage the crowd to make art, emphasizing how important it is to get to know yourself better and be a better person.

“You’re the only person who can make your art,” Hooper said.

The American alternative rock band is comprised of seven members and has released six studio albums to date.

Drummer Benjamin Homola, who joined the group in 2017, kept the energy up through the 22-song set.

An enthusiastic concert attendee raised their drink in celebration to the music while they sang and danced along.

Grouplove closed out the night with an encore of “Itchin’ on a Photograph,” “Raspberry,” and “Colors.” With summer festivals on the horizon, they will be heading back on tour with P!NK in the fall.

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Impress Your Audience in Moscow with Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising is currently the main channel of communication with customers for any Types of business. This is an affordable, effective and very flexible tool for promoting a service or product.

How to use outdoor advertising for the promotion campaigns most effective?

Launching an advertising campaign is always based on what key message you want to say to your target audience and what advertising format is suitable for this. Outdoor advertising in Moscow is a great opportunity to “send your message” to the audience. Selection of the address program is based on performance evaluation indicators such as GRP and OTS.

If you need to conduct an advertising campaign across the city, then, depending on your budget, you can consider several options:

1. Target program of 3x6 billboards with coverage of all areas of Moscow: on main highways, 3rd transport ring and MKAD. We offer only working and well-visible surfaces, so we ensure a good quality of the address program;

2. Target program of 3x6 billboards and supersites (large format constructions);

3. Target program of 3x6 billboards, supersites, city formats (small format constructions), advertising on transport and in the metro.

4. Any other combination of available formats: city format, 3x6 billboards, supersites, digital screens, on transport, in the metro.

Each variant of placement suggests the possibility of selecting sides, as well as the amount of sides. Installation of a large number of sides guarantees you not only a high efficiency, but also a volume discounts. If you need to install an advertising campaign with a specific geo-referencing to one or several areas, we will pick up for you the best sides in that areas or districts. It can be either an administrative district or a separate avenue or street. In this case, you do not need to buy additional volumes of advertising in other areas that are not of your interest.

In addition to the standard formats of outdoor advertising (such as billboard 3x6, supersites), we propose to use advertising on transport, stop pavilions, trains and advertising on road signs.

Do not hesitate to call RMAA  Group to order outdoor promotion.

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Humboldt County supervisors to take up sign…

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Subscriber only, humboldt county supervisors to take up sign ordinance.

On Tuesday, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will discuss approving a sign ordinance meant to more strictly regulate the county’s outdoor billboards.

The ordinance, targeting the size and number of signs in the county, largely addresses signs attached to businesses but also contains provisions for billboards located in and out of the coastal zone.

“Appurtenant signage regulations in the existing ordinance are deficient in achieving community compatibility. The proposed ordinance uses a tiered set of regulations to allow signage as principally permitted which would be universally acceptable and then allows for signage with increased discretion due to size or other design factor,” the staff report said.

Regarding billboards, the ordinance bans new ones but allows a 15-year term limit for existing billboards that need maintenance after being damaged by the environment, though not in environmentally sensitive areas.

“The goal intends to prioritize the protection of high-value scenic forest, agriculture, river, and coastal areas that contribute to the enjoyment of Humboldt County’s beauty and abundant natural resources. Billboards are often located in these areas that the General Plan seeks to protect. This has led to policies and standards that help protect these natural resources and limit the impacts of billboards,” the report said.

However, code enforcement will be based on complaints, not simply a lack of compliance, Humboldt County Planning and Building Director John Ford noted at a planning commission meeting.

The staff report acknowledges a wonky technicality within sign laws that might complicate matters if and when a billboard falls.

“The Catch-22 is that the Coastal Commission does not acknowledge the ODA (Outdoor Advertising Act) and requires a Coastal Development Permit for maintenance of billboards and many of the existing billboards are within the retained Coastal Commission jurisdiction,” the staff report said. “Contrary to the ODA and the proposed county ordinance, when a billboard falls, the Coastal Commission issues an exemption to reconstruct it. This results in a situation where the proposed ordinance is designed to follow ODA and allow maintenance of billboards, but the Coastal Commission will require a CDP for that work. Under existing circumstances, the sign could be rebuilt with an exemption from the Coastal Commission, but the proposed ordinance will not allow reconstruction of the sign. The sign owner conceivably should be able to obtain a CDP for maintenance of the signs, but this is added time and cost.”

A story on the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s discussion of the ordinance can be found at times-standard.com/2024/02/27/planning-commission-oks-sign-ordinance/ .

The entire agenda for Tuesday’s meeting can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3TM0CtV .

Jackson Guilfoil can be reached at 707-441-0506.

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Billboard’s 2024 Top Music Lawyers Revealed

These attorneys are on the front lines of the music industry's legal battles and deals — led by Lawyer of the Year Christine Lepera, the go-to litigator for Katy Perry, Drake, Jay-Z and others.

Nominated by their firms and peers, and chosen by our editors, Billboard ‘s 2024 Top Music Lawyers list comprises the attorneys guiding superstars and industry-driving companies — led by lawyer of the year Christine Lepera.

Christine Lepera: Billboard’s 2024 Lawyer of the Year

Negotiating recording deals, global tours and catalog sales, their legal savvy drives the music business. And this year, they have much advice to offer on the rise of generative artificial intelligence.

Lawyer of the Year

Christine Lepera might be one of the country’s top music litigators, but decades ago, she wasn’t even sure she still wanted to be a lawyer at all.

Trending on Billboard

“I never intended to be a music lawyer, and after four years at a corporate firm on Wall Street, I was basically ready to quit the law entirely,” she recalls with a laugh.

Today, that’s hard to imagine. Lepera — who is chair of the music litigation group at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp (MSK) — for years has been one of the music industry’s go-to trial lawyers.

To read the full profile on Lawyer of the Year Christine Lepera, click here .

Music Groups

Jeff Harleston General counsel/executive vp of business and legal affairs, Universal Music Group Saheli Datta Executive vp/chief compliance officer and employment, Universal Music Group Rob Femia Executive vp of business and legal affairs, Universal Music Nashville Steve Gawley Executive vp of business and legal affairs and East Coast label business development, Universal Music Group Nicola Levy Executive vp of digital business affairs, Universal Music Group Alasdair McMullan Executive vp of business and legal affairs/head of litigation, Universal Music Group Michael Seltzer Executive vp/head of commercial transactions for business and legal affairs, Universal Music Group Magda Vives Executive vp of business and legal affairs for Latin America and Iberian Peninsula, Universal Music Latin America

In the current music industry climate, UMG’s legal team stays focused on efforts “to defend and protect the rights of our artists, songwriters and music publishing company” from generative artificial intelligence (AI) companies like Anthropic, which it sued in November over “unlawful ingestion, appropriation and infringement of legally protected works as well as the appropriation of the culture and unique identity of our songwriters,” Harleston says. “[AI] is remarkable technology and can potentially enhance the creative process. However, it should only be deployed with the consent and in the service of the artist.”

Most pressing issue: “Eliminating fraudulent tracks and nonmusic sounds from the music streaming platforms,” Harleston says, “allowing for a more ‘artist-­centric’ experience for creators and fans.”

Paul Robinson Executive vp/general counsel, Warner Music Group Brad Cohen Senior vp/head of litigation/associate general counsel, Warner Music Group Jon Glass Senior vp/head of digital legal affairs, Warner Music Group Michael Kushner Senior vp/deputy general counsel, business and legal affairs, Warner Music Group Maryrose Maness Senior vp/deputy general counsel, Warner Music Group Trent Tappe Senior vp/deputy general counsel/chief compliance officer, Warner Music Group Dana Sheahan Vp/head of mergers and acquisitions of corporate legal, Warner Music Group

WMG, along with attorneys from Pryor Cashman, prevailed on behalf of Ed Sheeran in the copyright lawsuit over whether Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015, copied Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On.” Robinson says the case is an example of the importance of the company’s dedication to “defend[ing] the rights of our artists and songwriters.” But the music group is also focused on boosting the value of those rights and music in general: “In a world where more than 100,000 new tracks are being uploaded to streaming services every day,” he says, “the most pressing issue is enhancing the value of the music of artists and songwriters such as ours that drives engagement on these services.”

Julie Swidler Executive vp of business affairs/general counsel, Sony Music Entertainment Stu Bondell Executive vp of business and legal affairs for international, Sony Music Entertainment Wade Leak Executive vp/deputy general counsel/chief compliance, ethics and privacy officer, Sony Music Entertainment Susan Meisel Executive vp/corporate deputy general counsel, Sony Music Entertainment Jeff Walker Executive vp/head of business and legal affairs for global digital business, Sony Music Entertainment Jennifer Womack Senior vp of business and legal affairs for film, television and podcasts, Sony Music Entertainment

As streaming growth in the world’s biggest markets begins to slow, SME’s legal team is working to keep expanding the company’s opportunities around the world and in new sectors, particularly gaming and social media. “Our team works globally across Sony Music to offer legal support systems that help our labels and divisions reach their creative and commercial goals,” Swidler says. “We are focused on working to ensure that there are proper rights environments and deal frameworks that can support commercial activity and greater partnership expansion opportunities across platforms where music content is core to their customer experience.”

Advice on AI: “When AI companies want to use our artists’ voices and music,” Swidler says, “they must seek permission and make sure that there is a proper business plan to pay all those in the music ecosystem that contributed to this music.”

Eve Konstan General counsel, Spotify Kevan Choset Vp/associate general counsel/head of legal strategy, Spotify Darren Schmidt Associate general counsel/global head of record label licensing, Spotify Sofia Sheppard Associate general counsel/global head of licensing and business development, Spotify

Spotify has 602 million active monthly users but has posted inconsistent profits. That could change after Konstan and her team helped build an audiobooks business, fought Apple for better in-app payment terms and secured rights to podcasts such as Trevor Noah’s What Now? Spotify’s health is crucial, considering it’s the single largest source of music royalties — $9 billion in 2023 alone. That responsibility isn’t lost on Konstan. “The most pressing issue facing the music industry today,” she says, “is growing the total pie of listeners and revenue to ensure more artists are able to live off their work.”

Advice on AI: “Whatever we think about the state of AI and its legal treatment,” Konstan says, “it’s important to stay nimble and try to think several steps out because things may change fast.”

Jon Kurland Executive vp of business affairs and chief entertainment counsel, iHeartMedia

Over the past year, music fans have tuned in to some of their favorite artists’ live performances in part because of Kurland’s work to expand iHeartMedia’s platform partnerships. In addition to the iHeartRadio Music Festival shifting its distribution partner to Hulu, enabling a livestream after years of cable broadcasts, Kurland helped iHeart partner with Meta for its expanded Horizon Worlds virtual reality concert experiences, as well as showcasing an immersive Ed Sheeran performance in Fortnite. “Fans are spending increasing amounts of time in virtual and interactive spaces, a factor which was only accelerated by the pandemic,” Kurland says. “At iHeart, we are committed to reaching listeners wherever they are.”

Most pressing issue: “As the music industry achieves unprecedented growth, it will continue to be important for stakeholders to work in concert to achieve meaningful service profitability while also adequately compensating artists and other rights holders.”

Antonious Porch General counsel/chief diversity officer, SoundCloud Ama Walton Senior vp of music licensing/deputy general counsel, SoundCloud

SoundCloud finalized a global licensing deal with Merlin in 2023 that lets Merlin members and their artists participate in SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties model, “a trailblazing alternative to the traditional pro rata model to pay artists equitably,” Walton says. “The Merlin deal seamlessly integrates with the SoundCloud initiative First Fans, leveraging SoundCloud’s robust recommendation algorithms to amplify exposure for new uploads, ensuring both artists and listeners alike discover and engage with fresh content.” Importantly, Walton adds, the integration also brings fans and creators together at scale and helps artists find their audience, which is something she says is “close to my heart.”

Most pressing issue: “The economic model behind streaming needs fixing. Most artists don’t make an adequate living income despite the consistent demand for streaming,” Walton says. “Fair remuneration and transparency are crucial to … the future of music.”

Robert Windom Chief counsel, content and services, Apple Elizabeth Miles Senior legal director, Apple Music

The legal team at Apple Music helped support the company’s big expansion into classical music, which last year included the launch of the Classical app in March and then the acquisition of Swedish classical label BIS in September. “In addition to the product counseling, deals and [mergers and acquisitions] support our team performed for the acquisition and new product launch, we had a chance to learn about the customs and practices of the classical music business, which can be quite different than in other genres and may date back to long before Apple existed,” Windom says. “It’s really thrilling to bring the full power of streaming to this important category of our music culture.”

If I quit law, I would: “Be a musician, of course,” Windom says.

Stephen Worth Head of legal/associate general counsel, Amazon Music Cyrus Afshar Nicolas Gauss Associate general counsels/directors, Amazon Music Jon Cohen Senior corporate counsel, Amazon Music

During the past year, Worth has seen Amazon Music collaborate with artists, labels and managers to cultivate a “next-generation” approach to tour merchandise. Through partnerships with artists such as Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Doja Cat and Rauw Alejandro, Amazon Music has expanded the concept of purchasing tour merch to encompass fans buying merch in venues to be shipped to their homes. The returns were immediate, with the exclusive, online Renaissance -themed Beyoncé merch capsule breaking the Amazon Music record for first-day sales from an artist collaboration. Successes like these have only made Worth even more “excited about what [Amazon Music] has planned for 2024.”

If I quit law, I would: “Volunteer as a mountain guide,” Worth says, “giving skiers tours of a ski area in the winter and helping backpackers explore the backcountry during the summer.”

Michael Rowles General counsel, Live Nation

Rowles spent much of the past year working on ticketing legislation following the major disruptions that affected Ticketmaster during Taylor Swift’s problem-plagued ticket sale in 2022. “Live Nation led the industry by moving to all-in pricing at our owned and operated venues and festivals so that fans see the total cost of the ticket upfront,” Rowles says. “All-in pricing is one of many ticketing reforms we and a broad industry coalition are calling for as part of our FAIR Ticketing platform.” The company, according to Rowles, is also seeking reforms to protect fans and empower artists, including a ban on speculative ticketing, stronger enforcement of the Better Online Ticketing Sales Act and giving artists control over resales. “You’ll see us and a broad industry coalition advocating for ticketing reforms that protect the artist-fan connection,” Rowles says.

Shawn Trell Executive vp/COO/general counsel, AEG Presents

The last year has yielded more major milestones for AEG’s top attorney as the company’s global touring division keeps expanding its footprint. “It has been among the most significant experiences of my career to have been involved in the single most successful tour in music history — Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour,” Trell says. The trek, which will reach Europe this spring, is poised to become the highest-grossing global tour of all time by the time it wraps in December. “So many people across AEG Presents all around the globe have contributed to the execution and success of that tour,” Trell says. “That effort has truly highlighted the strength of this company and the collaborative work environment that exists here among our touring teams in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia.”

Peter Brodsky Executive vp of business and legal affairs/general counsel, Sony Music Publishing Michael Abitbol Senior vp/head of U.S. digital, Sony Music Publishing Nicole Giacco Jonas Kant Senior vps of business and legal affairs, Sony Music Publishing

The legal minds at SMP are ensuring it remains the industry’s largest publisher by inking new writers and extending the contracts of established talent. Kant says the team is especially proud of contract renewals for Usher, Tyler, The Creator, Sara Bareilles, System of a Down, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Warren “Pete” Moore. In addition, the legal team worked closely with top studio clients like Apple TV+, Sony Pictures and Shaftesbury Films. And it is leading SMP into the AI age, spearheading its strategy for the emerging technology and how the company can protect its copyrights. “We must embrace the creative opportunities AI affords,” Kant says, “but we must also ensure that it does not come at the expense of respecting songwriters and their copyrights.”

Most pressing issue: “Educating, mentoring and making our business more approachable and transparent,” Kant says.

Michael Petersen Senior vp of business and legal affairs, Universal Music Publishing Group Don Glista Vp of business and legal affairs and creative affairs, Universal Music Publishing Group Kerrigan Hennings Ira Hoffman Vps of business and legal affairs, Universal Music Publishing Group Angelica Merida Vp of business and legal affairs, international and digital development, Universal Music Publishing Group

The business and legal affairs team at UMPG is fighting for the value of music. Earlier this year, Universal Music Group — including UMPG — let its contract with TikTok lapse, effectively pulling millions of musical works and sound recordings from the platform in an effort to gain better remuneration for music. Hennings says, “Reforming royalty payment structures in the social media space to properly recognize the value that music brings to those platforms” is the most pressing issue facing the business, and his team is boldly leading the charge. UMPG’s attorneys have also kept busy signing a number of new stars to the roster, including Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey, Wallows and Maggie Rogers. “Everyone we sign brings a unique value to our roster,” Hennings says, “and strengthens our reputation as the premier songwriters-first publishing company.”

Peter Rosenthal Executive vp/global head of legal and business affairs, Warner Chappell Music Steve Butler Head of legal and business affairs for North America, Warner Chappell Music Chris Head Tim Meade Senior vps of legal and business affairs, Warner Chappell Music

The attorneys at Warner Chappell Music have had a lot to celebrate this year. “We’ve continued our tireless advocacy for songwriters across multiple fronts,” Rosenthal says, “from our involvement with the Copyright Royalty Board ­Phonorecords IV settlement — which secured the world’s highest streaming rates to date — to proposed rulemaking by the U.S. Copyright Office on the Mechanical Licensing Collective’s distribution of royalties.” Rosenthal and his team are also proud to have drawn up the contracts for its roster’s new signees, from legends like Mick Jones, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg and Burton Cummings to current stars like Morgan Wallen, 21 Savage, Zach Bryan, Coco Jones, Maria Becerra, Laufey and Yng Lvcas.

Most pressing issue: “Continuing to enhance the engagement and value of music,” Rosenthal says, “amid the ever-­increasing competition for people’s time, attention and entertainment budgets.”

Christos Badavas Executive vp/general counsel, SESAC Music Group

In March 2023, the acquisition of the analytics, content management and distribution platform AudioSalad solidified SESAC as “a comprehensive music services platform that can administer rights and distribute music on behalf of independent publishers and labels worldwide,” Badavas says. Regarding the rise of AI, he says the technology “will not replace human expression and artistry that speaks to people. Focus on how your music connects uniquely with people as AI is adopted and leverage [its power] to drive efficiencies in licensing and rights management for your works.”

Most pressing issue: “The barriers to entry for the creation and distribution of music have lowered dramatically. While this has democratized who can write, record and release music, it has also led to oversaturation. As a result, breaking through the noise is a huge challenge.”

Tim Dadson General counsel, SoundExchange

Dadson cites SoundExchange’s $150 million suit against SiriusXM over unpaid royalties as “one of the best examples” of how the organization — the designated administrator of the compulsory license outlined in Section 114 of the U.S. Copyright Act — “enforces the terms that govern licensees’ use of creators’ work.” SoundExchange accused the satellite giant of using “contrived” methods to underpay royalties owed to artists. (SiriusXM has denied the allegations, stating they were based on a “flawed and biased examination.”) “While we’d prefer to find business solutions,” Dadson says, “we will use all means at our disposal to ensure that creators are paid every cent they are owed.”

Advice on AI: “Engage with your representatives locally and nationally to ensure that creators’ rights are at the center of any proposed rulemaking or legislation around artificial intelligence.”

Kristen Johns Chief legal officer, Mechanical Licensing Collective

The final mechanical royalty rate determination for interactive streaming for the period of Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2022, published by the Copyright Royalty Board in August 2023, was “a significant development for not only the MLC as the sole entity tasked with administering blanket mechanical licenses for eligible streaming and download services in the United States, but also for the music industry as a whole,” Johns says. The MLC will begin distributing matched historical royalties from this period this spring to songwriters, music publishers and other rightsholders, contributing to The MLC’s total royalties distributed of over $2 billion. 

Most pressing issue: “The necessity for accurate data reporting. Accurate and transparent data practices ensure that copyright owners and creators are paid for their work.”

Clara Kim Executive vp/chief legal and business affairs officer, ASCAP

Addressing the issues raised by AI has been a priority for more than a year, Kim says. “In November, we submitted an extensive set of comments to the U.S. Copyright Office in response to their notice of inquiry on AI to help policymakers understand the stakes for music creators.” In June, Kim adds, the ASCAP board of directors adopted six guiding principles regarding AI: human creators first, transparency, consent, compensation, credit and global consistency. The transparency principle is another priority while moving forward: “ASCAP’s distribution rules, governing documents and awards show rules are all publicly posted … and ASCAP members have 24/7 access to their performance royalty information,” she says, adding that ASCAP and BMI’s Songview provides performing rights data for their combined repertories. “We believe the entire industry has to provide more transparency to songwriters for the system to work fairly and efficiently.”

Stuart Rosen Senior vp/chief legal officer, BMI

BMI, which closed its sale to New Mountain Capital in February, had two high-profile legal victories in 2023. “BMI prevailed against AEG, Live Nation and the North American Concert Promoters Association,” Rosen says. “As a result, BMI affiliates will receive a rate 138% higher than the historical rate and an expanded revenue base.” The decision is on appeal. BMI also fended off what Rosen called the Radio Music Licensing Committee’s “unprecedented and improper” joint rate proceeding against BMI and ASCAP.

Most pressing issue: “Ensuring that businesses that use music understand and recognize the full value of what music creators bring to their industries. While it’s a never-ending challenge, BMI is always ready to advocate for our songwriters, composers and music publishers so they’re fairly compensated and valued for their essential contributions to the many industries that benefit from their creations.”

Emio Zizza General counsel, Global Music Rights

The powerhouse sibling duo of Billie Eilish and FINNEAS won the Academy Award for best original song on March 10 for “What Was I Made For?” from the film Barbie , a month after the composition earned them two Grammys — and they previously sought performing rights royalties to match their creative stature by signing with Global Music Rights. “For over a decade, it has been GMR’s express mission to ensure that superstar creatives are paid superstar rates,” Zizza says. “However, the industry at large needs to go much further in order to properly recognize the outsize value brought by the most popular artists to every sector of music.” GMR, a division of The Azoff Company, has also recently signed YoungBoy Never Broke Again, the estate of George Michael, The Black Keys and Bel-Air composer Jacob Yoffee.

Associations

Danielle Aguirre Executive vp/general counsel, National Music Publishers’ Association

Social media companies have shed their reputation as licensing backwaters and engaged with music rights holders — with one notable exception: the platform formally known as Twitter, now known as X. That impasse could change after the $250 million copyright infringement lawsuit that 17 music publishers brought against the company in a Tennessee federal court in June 2023. “Twitter was one of the last, largest digital companies that refused to license music despite benefiting from a substantial amount of music on its platform,” Aguirre says. “It was time to hold Twitter to account, and NMPA spent over a year developing evidence to demonstrate Twitter’s massive copyright infringement.”

Advice on AI: “Educate yourself about how generative AI works. Understand how your copyrights are being used by generative AI companies, and don’t be afraid to protect your copyrights where necessary.”

Ken Doroshow Chief legal officer, RIAA

In April 2023, “Heart on My Sleeve,” a song written and produced by TikTok user ghostwriter977 and performed by AI-generated replicas of the voices of Drake and The Weeknd, set off alarms in the music industry. By the following month, Doroshow was speaking at one of the first formal proceedings — a U.S. Copyright Office “listening session” — dedicated to the issue of protecting artists from nefarious uses of generative AI. “My team has done dozens of filings, meetings and briefings across the executive and legislative branches as well as in state capitols,” Doroshow says. “[We’re] laying down an intellectual architecture for the ethical development of AI in ways that promote human creativity and maximize the benefits of responsible AI for all.”

If I quit law, I would: “Play my guitar all day and night.”

Ryan McWhinnie Vp of business and legal affairs, Merlin

A key to McWhinnie’s work at digital licensing firm Merlin is finding new approaches to the pro rata royalty model with his streaming partners that will drive more value to music creators while ensuring appropriate protections. Whether it’s Deezer’s “artist-centric” royalty distribution system, Spotify’s new “track monetization” approach or SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties model, McWhinnie says his role is to “ensure that these initiatives accrue to the benefit of our members, their artists and the incredible music they create while ensuring that these moves do not disintermediate independents.”

Most pressing issue: “Tackling artificial streaming and fraudulent content is an incredibly important issue facing our industry. At Merlin, we are laser-focused and deploying significant resources on doing all we can to combat these corrosive issues, which penalize legitimate actors and pull monies away from artists and the rights holders who invest in their careers.”

Talent & Litigation

Kenneth J. Abdo Paul N. Bowles III Cynthia L. Katz Tim Mandelbaum Michael L. Reinert Leron E. Rogers Alex Threadgold Heidy Vaquerano Partners, Fox Rothschild

Among the firm’s deep roster of clients are 10K Projects, Berry Gordy, Cash Money Records, Coco Jones, the estates of Bill Withers and Muddy Waters, HarbourView Equity Partners, Mötley Crüe, Primary Wave, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, Trace Adkins and Kool & The Gang. Abdo negotiated the 2021 release of Perfect Union , the last Kool & The Gang album to involve, at that time, the surviving four of the original five members. Abdo also represented Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe on the sale of his publishing catalog to BMG and closed the deal for his first solo album, The Other Side of Mars (Megaforce Records). He led the closing team for BMG Rights on 12 catalog acquisitions.

Gary Adelman Sarah M. Matz Partners, Adelman Matz

Adelman Matz specializes in the fashion and beauty brands for some of pop’s biggest names, including Justin Bieber’s Drew House line and Ariana Grande’s R.E.M. Beauty. In the past year, the company helped facilitate Drew House’s collaboration with the NHL on the jerseys for the 2024 All-Star Game held in Toronto and represented R.E.M. Beauty in its global intellectual property (IP) ownership and protection strategy. In 2022, alongside the law firm of Moore Pequignot, Adelman and Matz represented Cardi B in her successful defamation action against a gossip blogger. As a firm, Matz advises clients to “lean in” when it comes to AI, counseling that “the people and companies who do their best to embrace the technology in a manner that helps them … will be in the best position in the long run.”

Lisa Alter Katie Baron Partners, Alter Kendrick & Baron

Alter and Baron — whose clients include Primary Wave Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Iconic Artists Group and Reservoir Media Management — worked on multiple major transactions in recent months. The firm represented Primary Wave in acquiring a stake in recording, publishing and other rights for The Doors, BMG in the acquisition of The Hollies’ sound-recording rights and Influence Media Partners in its acquisition of the catalog of Enrique Iglesias in a reported nine-figure deal. Regarding AI, Alter says the firm is “pushing clients to explore the ways in which you can enhance the exploitation of your music assets in partnership with ethical AI ventures — including the creation of new or rerecorded material and the development of branding opportunities including holograms and other audiovisual productions or otherwise.” They’re also watching the declining share of English-language music worldwide, highlighting the need for international strategies for music publishers and rights holders.

Jonathan Altschul Managing attorney, The Altschul Firm

In an increasingly global industry, Altschul has negotiated a partnership between Korea’s SM Entertainment and RCA Records tied to K-pop group RIIZE, announced in September, after doing the same for SM Entertainment with Warner Records for aespa in 2022. The latter was Warner Music Group’s first collaboration with a K-pop act, with the girl group earning three No. 1s on Billboard ’s World Albums chart to date. He also worked on deals for the creators of as1one, the first boy band comprising Israeli and Palestinian musicians.

Advice on AI: “Fighting against the implementation of new technology that consumers want has always been a losing battle for the entertainment industry. The better approach is figuring out the best ways to monetize the new technology and provide fans with connections and experiences that AI cannot easily replace.”

Ken Anderson Jill Berliner Ray Garcia Celeste Moy Partners, Rimon

“With a practice that represents some of the music industry’s most iconic recording artists and songwriters” — including Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, Beck, The Chicks and Soundgarden — “as well as certain leading independent record companies and publishers, we have been able to empower established artists with the reversion of their sound recording and publishing copyrights and propelled new, talented artists on their career paths,” Garcia says. Last year, the firm represented Nirvana when an appeals court affirmed the dismissal of a copyright lawsuit regarding the band’s use of the 1949 illustration Upper Hell. The court deemed the lawsuit, brought by the heir of illustrator C.W. Scott-Giles, must be resolved in the United Kingdom.

If I quit law, I would: “Return to my former life as a rock journalist,” Garcia says.

Peter Anderson Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine

Anderson, whose clients include Mariah Carey, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Normani and Sam Smith, scored a major victory for Smith and Normani and their co-writers in September when they prevailed in a copyright lawsuit against their 2019 hit, “Dancing With a Stranger”; the California judge dismissed the case. Three songwriters had alleged that the tune, which reached No. 7 on the Hot 100, copied their 2015 song of the same name. Anderson, who has over four decades of experience in copyright and entertainment litigation, also represents major labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.

Most pressing issue: “The continued filing of copyright infringement cases based on the mere presence of commonplace musical building blocks, such as a few pitches, chords and commonplace lyrics.”

Marvin Arrington Jr. Vincent Phillips Founding partners, Arrington & Phillips Aurielle Brooks Junior partner, Arrington & Phillips

Whether it’s newcomers such as Sexyy Red and Rob49 (one of Billboard ’s R&B/Hip-Hop Artists To Watch in 2024) or seasoned artists like Keri Hilson and Bow Wow, Arrington & Phillips has advised them. Securing a major global touring deal for YoungBoy Never Broke Again with Live Nation for eight figures was no small feat. “This is monumental because this will be his first tour,” Phillips says. Other notable clients include Stevie J, Kevin Gates, That Chick Angel and Wolf Pack Global Music, home to Lil Baby.

Advice on AI: “Protect your IP,” Phillips says. “Make sure all of your label agreements, side-artist agreements, appearance waivers, etc., have language in them to protect yourself. Also, be diligent by further expanding your protections for your brand, name, image and likeness.”

Craig Averill Jeff Worob Partners, Serling Rooks Hunter McKoy Worob & Averill

The firm, which represents Maroon 5, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, Leon Bridges and Maggie Rogers, among others, recently navigated a corporate restructuring for Rostrum Records that included the acquisition of Fat Beats Distribution. Its work also resulted in the separation of Rostrum’s catalog business from its front-line business, as well as the creation of a new division working with other stand-alone legacy catalogs. Maroon 5’s Las Vegas residency continues at the Dolby Live, and Bridges further expanded his acting career as the lead in The Young Wife , an independent film that premiered at South by Southwest.

Advice on AI: “It will be hard to develop and retain a loyal fan base without the ‘humanity’ of a real-life recording artist,” Averill says. “Think Taylor Swift fans standing outside of a sold-out stadium to listen to her music from a parking lot. I don’t see that happening around an AI artist.”

Ed Baden Powell Nick Eziefula Paddy Gardiner Ben Gisbey Tom Iverson Euan Lawson Ed Weidman Partners, Simkins

London-based Simkins represents clients ranging from Universal Music Group and rights organization PRS for Music to acts such as Iron Maiden, Becky Hill, Eliza Rose and the estate of David Bowie. The firm is also representing Experience Hendrix and Sony Music against posthumous royalty claims by the estates of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. Lawson says the firm, which has been operating since 1962, also tries to help clients navigate shifting marketplace dynamics to develop “a sustainable and long-term career.” “The industry needs to continue to find ways to grow, but in a sustainable manner,” Lawson says, “ensuring that new talent is not overlooked in favor of catalog artists.”

If I quit law, I would: “Become a musician, of course,” Lawson says. “Although my talents — or lack of them — mean that giving up the day job is unlikely.”

Hector Baldonado Founder, The Baldonado Group

Baldonado reports closing the sales of catalogs for eight-figure prices, renegotiating recording contracts for established artists and signing several new acts to major recording deals over the past year. His clients include the estate of Juice WRLD, which has had two posthumously released albums, Legends Never Die in 2020 and Fighting Demons in 2021, reach No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the Billboard 200 . He also represents Lil Durk, Rod Wave, Coi Leray, Trippie Redd and Moneybagg Yo, among others. One year ago, before AI became a hot topic, Baldonado flagged his “serious concern because of deepfakes and the possibility of copyright infringements.”

Most pressing issue: “Greater diversity at the high executive level. I would also like more financial literacy for recording artists.”

Andrew “Andy” Bart Co-chair of content media and entertainment practice, Jenner & Block

In late 2022, Bart led a team that secured a $46.7 million verdict on behalf of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. At issue was the failure of defendant Grande Communications Network, a Texas-based internet service provider, to address the massive pirating of copyrighted recordings by its users. The jury found in favor of the plaintiffs and ruled that Grande willfully contributed to the copyright violations by failing to act against subscribers who were repeat infringers. Bart calls the trial result “a resounding win for the music industry.”

Advice on AI: “I don’t believe that anyone knows where AI is going to take the industry five years from now. Having said that, the battle over whether content owners should be compensated for the use of their assets to train AI models is an existential one.”

Richard Baskind Alasdair George Partners, Simons Muirhead Burton

Working on a wide array of issues that concern artists, labels, publishers and more, London-based Simons Muirhead Burton provides its clients with a global perspective. Among the greatest challenges now, according to Baskind, is “the proliferation of channels and the sheer volume of new releases daily: How do you get your music to rise above the noise and be noticed? To answer this question, direct fan engagement is critical. Social media and the use of available and emerging technology are key to achieving and sustaining that base of support.” Among the firm’s major transactions during the past year have been the acquisition of Lil Peep’s recordings catalog for the late rapper’s estate and the sale of Arctic Rights Management — one of the largest independent publishers in Scandinavia — to peermusic.

David Beame Brian Mencher Founding partners, Beame & Mencher

Beame & Mencher are legal advisers to the music-driven international advocacy nonprofit Global Citizen, where Mencher is general counsel and Beame holds the position of vp of global events and experiences. In November, in partnership with Kendrick Lamar’s creative imprint, pgLang, Global Citizen announced Move Afrika, an international music touring circuit in Africa. The first music event, Move Afrika: Rwanda, was headlined by the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist in December. Mencher oversaw the legal and business affairs of launching Move Afrika, whose aim is to create jobs and other business opportunities on the continent. As part of his efforts, Mencher says he is also “building the broader blueprint for establishing a continentwide tour throughout Africa while helping upskill the local communities to host first-rate international touring artists for years to come.”

Jeffrey Becker Chair of entertainment and media law practice group, Swansons Martin & Bell

“We are honored to work with a diverse array of talent,” says Becker, whose firm’s clients include Toosii, Natalie Jane, Shaquille O’Neal for his music projects as DJ Diesel, late rapper King Von and the estate of Frankie Knuckles. The firm also represents producers such as Dru DeCaro, whose production credits include “Money on the Dash” by Whethan and Elley Duhé, as well as Nick Henriques, who produced Crash Adams’ hit “Give Me a Kiss” and “If Only I” by Bebe Rexha, Loud Luxury and Two Friends. High points of the past year for the firm, Becker says, included signing deals for WesGhost with Columbia Records, Natalie Jane with Warner Chappell Music and C3 Presents, CIL with Warner Records and Ax and the Hatchetmen with Arista Records.

Audrey Benoualid Eric Greenspan Josh Karp Jeffrey Light Craig Marshall Tamara Milagros-Butler Robert Minzner Francois Mobasser Aaron Rosenberg Partners, Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light

The firm boasts an all-star roster of clients including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Disturbed, Common, Yeti Beats, RuPaul, Tate McRae, Deftones, Erykah Badu, Reach Records, Silversun Pickups, Brett McLaughlin, Jennifer Lopez — and Ariana Grande, whose first album since 2020, Eternal Sunshine , debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “In addition to some interesting catalog sales over the last 18 months,” Milagros-Butler says, “we’ve also had the pleasure of handling the agreement for Dead & Company to appear at the Sphere in Las Vegas, as well as [Jennifer Lopez’s] new recording and publishing deals with BMG. Handling the heavy legal lifting to get ready for the much-anticipated 2024 Khruangbin tour has also been a ball.”

Advice on AI: “Keep calm and create on,” Milagros-Butler says. “Don’t be afraid to explore AI as a tool, but maintain human connection. And stay vigilant about protecting your IP and original work.”

David Bercuson Founder/president, David Bercuson

Bercuson worked on the inclusion of music for the recently released biopic Bob Marley: One Love and defended composers and producers who had worked with the artist Canserbero from litigation and “specious claims,” he says. The underground Venezuelan rapper has been in the spotlight after his death was reinvestigated last year and found to be a homicide instead of suicide. In addition, Bercuson, who also works with Farruko and InnerCat Music Group, among other notable clients, defended longtime client Harry Wayne Casey of KC & The Sunshine Band from protracted copyright claims.

Most pressing issue: “With respect to new and independent artists, the need to understand, exploit and utilize the digital ecosystem to promote, market and distribute their music and videos.”

Josh Binder Jeremy Mohr Paul Rothenberg Founding partners, Rothenberg Mohr & Binder

The Beverly Hills, Calif., firm that represents such stars as Charlie Puth, Marshmello, Gunna, Logic and Chloe x Halle also continues work with longterm client TDE to release SZA’s RCA blockbuster  SOS  and Doechii’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “What It Is (Block Boy)”. Binder says “free-flowing, unchecked misinformation” and the coming AI onslaught are concerning: “Artists are bombarded with misinformation” all the time, he says, “and are often left wondering what’s actually true, making it nearly impossible to determine the best direction. And watch out: AI is going to make things much more complicated.”

Most pressing issue: “The biggest dilemma facing recording artists is deciding which record partner to work with when faced with so many options,” Binder says. “Between self-releasing, pure distribution, label services and indie and major record labels, the value proposition of each partner is hard to determine.”

Jason Boyarski David Fritz Partners, Boyarski Fritz

Boyarski’s clients include the estates of Donny Hathaway and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, established superstars such as Marc Anthony and rising talents like JVKE and Maddie Zahm. For White’s estate, Boyarski negotiated a new administration deal with Sony Music Publishing and an agreement for a documentary about Earth, Wind & Fire and White’s life. He also guided Tainy’s signing to Republic Records and counseled JVKE on deals with AWAL and Kobalt, as well as brand partnerships with Bose, Walmart and Microsoft. For the producer duo Stargate, he cut a new joint-venture partnership with Pulse Music. And for NEON16, the company run by Tommy Mottola and Lex Borrero, he negotiated new publishing and distribution deals with Sony and a financing agreement with Firebird.

Most pressing issue: “Assuring that music creators are fairly compensated for music and that the tech platforms do not undervalue the power of the song,” Boyarski says.

Benjamin Brafman President, Brafman & Associates

Brafman has been the go-to defense attorney for the rich and famous for about three decades, and while many of his peers have hung their jerseys in the rafters, the New York native shows no signs of slowing down, boasting a client roster that features hip-hop icons — Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Sean “Diddy” Combs — and nightlife royalty (Peter Gatien). The 75-year-old legal legend is making sure to stay on top of all the new threats that could possibly ensnare some of his clients — with the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases heading his list. (Legislation to prohibit the practice, the Restoring Artistic Protection Act, was reintroduced to Congress in April 2023.)

If I quit law, I would: “Be a writer or an entertainer — an actor or a comedian.”

John Branca David Lande David Byrnes Partners, Ziffren Brittenham

Ziffren Brittenham handles all business transactions for a formidable array of superstars, from Beyoncé — for whom the firm negotiates business transactions including her Super Bowl ad for Verizon in which she teased the release of her latest album, Cowboy Carter — to Justin Timberlake, who just released a new album and announced a tour. In addition, the firm works with the Michael Jackson estate, which is developing a biopic of the legendary singer, and the Bee Gees, who also have a biopic in the works — Ridley Scott is reportedly in talks to direct. Other superstars for whom the firm handles all business arrangements include SZA, Olivia Rodrigo and Rosalía. Branca says, “Ziffren Brittenham has been at the forefront of the most important entertainment deals that have shaped pop culture today.”

William Briggs Joshua M. Rosenberg Partners, Venable

With a roster of clients that includes Ariana Grande, The-Dream and Love Renaissance, Rosenberg points to Venable’s work defending pop singer Jason Derulo in a copyright dispute over his 2020 Jawsh 685 collaboration, “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),” as an example of the firm’s commitment to clients. As for the future of music law, Rosenberg says, “New social media platforms that tacitly permit hackers to unlawfully obtain an artist’s music prior to release” present a new challenge. Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedowns “are necessary,” he says, “but you need to investigate the source of the leak to finally stop it.”

Advice on AI: “You can be proactive and take the fight to them,” Rosenberg says. “Or you can protect your rights as best as you can while the law develops and sheds light on your available remedies.”

Jordan Bromley Partner/leader of Manatt Entertainment, Manatt Phelps & Phillips Robert Jacobs Partner/leader of entertainment litigation, Manatt Phelps & Phillips Gary Gilbert L. Lee Phillips Senior partners, Manatt Phelps & Phillips W. Joseph Anderson Eric Custer Beau Stapleton Monika Tashman Partners, Manatt Phelps & Phillips

“Manatt Entertainment is dedicated to helping creators make the most of their brand value, so we launched our own unique U.S. Streaming Royalty Calculator in October of 2023,” says Bromley, whose firm represents the Eagles, ODESZA, Alicia Keys, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young, BMG Rights Management and Downtown Music Holdings. “Our aim for this calculator was to pull back the curtain so artists can have a reliable way to understand how much they get paid from streams on Spotify and Apple Music.” In addition, Bromley says the firm closed over $1 billion in asset purchases and sales, “including some of the most iconic catalogs sold in 2023. One such deal was representing The Zombies in acquiring their rights to their 1960s recording catalog, which is a rare achievement for creators in the music industry.”

Vernon Brown Founder/CEO, V. Brown & Company

A lot has changed since Brown launched his eponymous business and financial management company in 1992. Rap was a relatively new phenomenon, social media didn’t exist, and the only handheld computer Apple made was something called the Newton. Now, after having worked with a wide range of stars from Erykah Badu to Public Enemy, Brown is focused on ensuring that all artists, not just the ones he represents, receive their fair share in the digital economy. One big focus is getting platforms like TikTok and Instagram to properly pay rights holders for the use of their music. “My job is to guide and navigate people through a lot of decisions,” Brown has said. And this past year, he has done just that, helping negotiate deals for up-and-coming R&B sensation October London and rising multiplatinum producer Hendrix Smoke.

Scott Burroughs Partner, Doniger/Burroughs

“I am most proud of the work we are doing on behalf of trailblazing Jamaican musicians Cleveland Browne and Wycliffe Johnson, through his estate,” Burroughs says. His firm brought the 2021 lawsuit on behalf of the musicians, who performed as Steely & Clevie, that claimed all musicians using the dembow rhythm at the roots of reggaetón are violating their copyright on the 1989 song “Fish Market.” The firm is also working to recapture 2 Live Crew’s copyrights from a label that acquired them. “As we have seen, labels will fight tooth and nail to deny an artist this right, so litigation will build in this area,” Burroughs adds, noting the firm’s work on the “copyright reversion right” allowing artists to “recover ownership of their work for their own projects or enter into new, more equitable deals.”

Richard S. Busch Partner in the litigation section/head of the entertainment and intellectual property sections, King & Ballow

With the rise of AI on everyone’s mind, Busch says there are “many avenues where the law is unclear and developing. There may be viable claims where name and likeness are used separate and apart from claims for copyright infringement.” Busch specializes in copyright claims, having represented Marvin Gaye’s family in the “Blurred Lines” case and, in 2019, challenging the constitutionality of the Music Modernization Act by representing one of Eminem’s publishers in a lawsuit against Spotify. Busch says these are the “Wild West” days, and the rules “are really yet to be written.”

If I quit law, I would: “Be involved in a business involving new technology, providing whatever assistance I could. Between things like bitcoin and AI, we are indeed living in interesting times.”

Matthew Buser Founding partner, Buser Legal

One of Buser’s clients, country singer Dylan Gossett, was hotly pursued by major labels in 2023 before signing a joint deal with Mercury Records and Big Loud. In addition to working with artists, Buser has a number of producers on his roster. He is determined that the music industry develops “more efficient clearance processes” for producers so they can get paid for their work in a more timely fashion.

Advice on AI: “Be cautious how much you use AI in creating your work because of the Copyright Office’s position on protectability. Also, don’t sleep on AI, because it’s not going anywhere.”

Joe Carlone Peter Paterno Michael Rexford Jacqueline Sabec Laurie Soriano Partners, King Holmes Paterno & Soriano

King Holmes Paterno & Soriano worked with clients Ava Max, Kim Petras and Dominic Fike, who released new albums in 2023, landed movie music and brand deals and resumed regular touring. “It’s a relief that artists are able to promote their music again now, as in pre-pandemic days,” says Soriano, whose firm also represents Dr. Dre, Metallica, Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Skrillex, Sia, Victoria Monét, Snow Tha Product, Xavi and Poo Bear, among others. While the return to touring normalcy is welcomed, Soriano is concerned about the “loss of boundaries to artists’ privacy and personhood” primarily caused by social media. “It was alarming to see artists, including my client Ava Max, assaulted onstage by members of the public,” she says, referencing a June incident where a man attending Ava Max’s Los Angeles show appeared to slap her while she performed onstage.

Rosemary Carroll Michael Guido Elliot Groffman Rob Cohen Gillian Bar Renee Karalian Ira Friedman Partners, Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Bar & Karalian

Carroll, Groffman and Friedman (assisted by firm associate Jared Leon) are the attorneys for Grammy-winning trio boygenius, with Carroll serving as counsel for Phoebe Bridgers (who also won a 2024 Grammy as a solo act) and Groffman the adviser for Lucy Dacus since her original 2016 deal with Matador. Along with Christiane Kinney, the attorney for Julien Baker, the firm helped negotiate the group’s deal with Interscope Records, its tour with AEG and various merchandising and media deals in support of the record , which won the Grammy for best alternative music album. Guido’s clients include Mark Ronson, the executive soundtrack producer for Barbie . Cohen negotiated the Jonas Brothers’ residence on Broadway. Bar represented PinkPantheress for her 2023 debut album, Heaven Knows . Karalian guided deals including Baby Keem’s extension of his recording contract with Columbia Records.

Uwonda S. Carter Donald Woodard Founding partners, Carter + Woodard

Several clients of Carter’s soared in the last 12 months — none higher than burgeoning rap superstar Metro Boomin. She represented him for his work as the creator/executive producer of the critically acclaimed Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack, for which he co-produced 11 of the 13 tracks. Woodard advised Summer Walker on her contract renegotiation with Warner Chappell Music and negotiated her U.S. and international tour deal with Live Nation. Other notable clients for the firm include Muni Long, Lil Yatchy, Big Boi and Dion “No ID” Wilson.

Advice on AI: Do not “automatically agree to any term that would give the label unfettered control over ‘future media,’ ” Carter says, “and be very careful about licensing [your] images without having controls and approval.”

Chris Castle Founder, Christian L. Castle Attorneys

Castle is known as an industry renegade who questions practices that are embraced by mainstream music industry legacy players. While the U.S. labels and publishers were willing to accept a five-year extension of the 9.1 cents-per-song statutory rate for sale formats (as opposed to streaming), Castle represented Helienne Lindvall, David Lowery and Blake Morgan in public comments before the Copyright Royalty Board proceeding for the Phonorecords IV term that covered 2023-27. “We stood with many other independents in opposing the proposed ‘frozen mechanical’ settlement,” he says. “The joint opposition opened the door to a new industrywide settlement with the labels that substantially increased the applicable rate [beginning at 12 cents per song]. And I’m proud that we made that new settlement without litigation.”

Robert “Bob” A. Celestin Founding partner, The Law Offices of Robert A. Celestin Alicia Ferriabough Taylor Junior partner, The Law Offices of Robert A. Celestin

Along with representing the high-profile estates for hip-hop stars like XXXTentacion and Pop Smoke — and clients like 6ix9ine, Desiigner and others — Celestin spent much of 2023 securing a film score and soundtrack deal for composer Desmond Murray with Netflix, leading to the release of the official score of Juel Taylor’s sci-fi comedy film, They Cloned Tyrone . For his work, Murray received a 2023 Black Reel Awards nomination for outstanding score. Regarding the rise of AI in music, Celestin says he tells his clients to embrace the new tech instead of fighting it: “It’s not all bad news,” he says. “There is software now to help a producer record and mix music or even create new and unique sounds. It might even help a lyricist with writer’s block.”

Ross Charap Matt Finkelstein Partners, ArentFox Schiff

Finkelstein and Charap led a team in defending Mick Jagger and Keith Richards together with The Rolling Stones’ company Promopub in a copyright infringement suit over “Living in a Ghost Town.” The case was filed in Louisiana federal court by songwriter Sergio Garcia Fernandez, who claimed the two artists copied “recognizable and key protected elements” from two of his songs. A judge ruled in October that the state’s court lacked jurisdiction in the matter and dismissed the case; Fernandez has the option to refile in a different venue. The attorneys also represented The Pointer Sisters in the sale of their catalog rights to some of their biggest releases, including “I’m So Excited,” to BMG.

Most pressing issue: “Delivering a bigger piece of music earnings from all types of music users to songwriters and music publishers,” Charap says, “because it all begins with a song.”

Jacqueline Charlesworth Principal, Charlesworth Law

Charlesworth lists Disney, A+E, peermusic, Satisfaction Fulfilled (Malcolm McLaren) and William Champlin among her clients; for the latter two, the firm litigated two federal cases involving rights. Public case records show that peermusic and Satisfaction Fulfilled sued Sony Music Publishing over the usage of The World’s Famous Supreme Team’s 1984 R&B hit “Hey DJ,” co-written by McLaren, in Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” while in an unrelated case, songwriter-performer Champlin sued Music Sales Corp. and Wise Music Group over infringement for a song he co-authored for Earth, Wind & Fire in 1978, “After the Love Has Gone.” The cases reached settlement agreements, providing “happy endings for our clients,” Charlesworth says.

If I quit law, I would: “Finish my novel.”

Jay Cohen Litigation partner, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison

Cohen has represented ASCAP for more than 25 years and is currently engaged in rate court litigation with the terrestrial radio industry to, he says, “try to obtain fair market compensation for creators whose music drives the economics of the radio industry.” In addition to other matters, he is advising ASCAP on AI-related matters. He would advise music creators to “ensure they are paid fairly when their work is used in any way by AI,” he says, “including specifically when their work is used to train AI models.”

Most pressing issue: “The continuing effort to obtain fair market compensation for music creators who, in a variety of contexts, are required to license their work on a compulsory or functionally compulsory basis rather than in a free market.”

Jay Cooper Shareholder/founder, Los Angeles entertainment, Greenberg Traurig Jeff Biederman Steve Plinio Shareholders, entertainment and media practice, Greenberg Traurig Jess Rosen Shareholder/co-chair of Atlanta entertainment and media practice, Greenberg Traurig Bobby Rosenbloum Chairman, global entertainment and media practice, Greenberg Traurig Mathew Rosengart Shareholder, media and entertainment litigation practice, Greenberg Traurig Paul Schindler Shareholder/senior chair, New York entertainment and media practice, Greenberg Traurig Charmaine Smith Shareholder, entertainment and media practice, Greenberg Traurig

For Greenberg Traurig — which advises performers including Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Kenny Chesney, composer John Williams and organizations like Epic Games, Meta and the Recording Academy — a major focus has been working with emerging companies in AI. According to Rosenbloum, the firm has been “navigating all of the unknowns in this new and exciting area” by providing companies strategic guidance for establishing platforms and services that legally use generative AI technologies, including thinking through business and legal issues, developing business models and licensing frameworks. “When it comes to developing products, platforms and services that use AI technology to generate new musical sound recordings,” Rosenbloum says, “the safer course of action while the law is being developed in this area is to refrain from using copyright-protected works to train the AI technology.”

Roger Cramer Of counsel, Winslett Studnicky McCormick & Bomser

Cramer, who for 16 years managed acts such as Living Colour, Wayne Shorter and Lisa Loeb before turning to law full time in 2000, has a varied client list at the New York firm. He handles legal transactions for Yeat, Robert Glasper, Eem Triplin, $NOT, Lancey Foux, Guin Records, Summrs, Autumn, ­OWSLA, Tolou, Whyceg and Joeyy. “Over the last year, I had the pleasure of assisting Yeat with his worldwide tour, negotiating a label deal for Cegular Records with Santa Anna, signing Lancey Foux to Pulse and continuing to help guide the multifaceted and endlessly exciting career of five-time Grammy winner Robert Glasper,” Cramer says. The challenge facing the industry, he says, is “helping artists navigate the rapidly changing landscape of distribution, independent and major labels.”

If I quit law, I would: “Teach history to high school students.”

Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks Chair of entertainment, copyright and media practice group, Proskauer Rose Anthony Oncidi Co-chair of labor and employment law department, Proskauer Rose

Highlights in the past year for Oncidi have included “advising and defending the Grammys in several employment litigation matters [and] assisting clients throughout the industry in dealing with their [diversity, equity and inclusion] initiatives in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding college admissions.” For Crawshaw-Sparks, “one of our highlights this past year includes defending Live Nation and Madonna in a class action lawsuit alleging breach of contract, false advertising and related claims in connection with alleged late starts for the first three shows of the North America leg for Madonna’s Celebration Tour.” Proskauer Rose clients also include Viacom, NBCUniversal, CAA, Sony Music, RCA, Columbia Records — and U2. “How [do you] fill a concert venue ever again after fans have experienced U2 at Sphere in Las Vegas?” Oncidi says.

Advice on AI: “Somewhere in the multiverse, humans win!” Oncidi says.

Sy Damle Gabe Fleet Andrew Gass Alli Stillman Jonathan West Joe Wetzel Partners, Latham & Watkins

Latham & Watkins’ clients span an array of music companies including Live Nation, iHeartMedia, Pandora Media and HYBE America, which the firm has worked with on its acquisition of hip-hop label Quality Control. Recently, the firm has “positioned itself as the preeminent thought leaders and go-to counsel for technology companies operating in the generative AI space,” Fleet says. He adds that dozens of companies have turned to Latham & Watkins for legal risk analysis surrounding new product launches, understanding the evolving public policy landscape, entering complex transactions related to generative AI offerings or defending copyright infringement lawsuits. Damle, Gass, Stillman and Wetzel are representing OpenAI in pending infringement suits related to the alleged use of textual works to train ChatGPT, as well as the infringement lawsuit by several major music publishers against Anthropic related to the company’s “Claude” AI assistant.

Robert Darwell Alexis Robinson Daniel Schnapp Partners, Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton

The firm recently served as counsel for Domain Capital Group, an investment company that manages in excess of $8.4 billion in total assets, in acquiring the catalogs of rapper Iggy Azalea and Ashley Gorley, ASCAP’s 10-time country music songwriter of the year honoree. The firm — which represents some of the biggest names in entertainment including Amazon Studios, Spotify, ASCAP, Bytedance/TikTok, Vevo and Triller — also represented ASCAP “in negotiating numerous licenses with major global television network programmers, terrestrial, digital radio platforms and service providers, including a multiyear agreement with YouTube and SiriusXM,” Robinson says.

Most pressing issue: “Adapting to consumer expectations by creating immersive and engaging experiences, such as interactive content and virtual reality,” Robinson says. “Finding ways to deliver compelling experiences while navigating legal complexities is a key challenge for stakeholders.”

Doug Davis Founder, The Davis Firm

With a client list ranging from Columbia Records chairman/CEO Ron Perry to Dionne Warwick to Swizz Beatz, The Davis Firm boasted a wide range of success stories over the past year. Davis helped negotiate the partnership of Sony Music Entertainment and Barry Weiss’ RECORDS and the sale of Polo Grounds Music’s recorded-music assets to Sony, as well as six catalog sales totaling over $200 million. “On an executive side,” he adds, “I am very proud of having negotiated Ezekiel Lewis’ presidency of Epic Records.”

Most pressing issue: “Technology companies’ goal of increasing profits by way of reducing royalty payments to creators. Spotify, for example, has been investing in podcasts and audiobooks, which are taking up a larger portion of the listening hours on this platform, which in turn reduces the pie of revenue that gets shared with artists, producers and songwriters.”

Scott A. Edelman Chairman, Milbank Atara Miller Partner, Milbank

This year, Milbank represented BMI in litigation against the North American Concert Promoters Association, including members Live Nation and AEG, that reset the rates paid for the public performance of music at live shows. After a five-week trial, BMI secured an increase in the rate and an expansion of the revenue base to include revenue from box suites, VIP packages and service fees, in addition to the face value of tickets. (The case is on appeal.) Clients also include Edward Kosinski, one of three defendants initially charged in a criminal case connected with alleged efforts to sell Don Henley’s notes linked to the Eagles’ 1976 album, Hotel California . A New York judge dismissed the charges on March 6 after the judge ruled that the mid-trial release of documents was prejudicial to the defendants.

Scott Edelman Partner/co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s media, entertainment and technology practice group, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Orin Snyder Partner/co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s global trials practice group, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Edelman, Snyder and their firm have represented some of the biggest artists and labels in the business — including Led Zeppelin, Lady Gaga and Elton John, as well as Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. In 2023, Snyder helped defend Bob Dylan against sexual abuse allegations in a case that was ultimately dismissed with prejudice, while Edelman secured a dismissal of tort claims levied against WMG in a case alleging sexual abuse against a band formerly signed to the label.

Most pressing issue: “As the gap between the most streamed music and everything else continues to grow and streaming manipulation proliferates, there will continue to be a push and pull between music labels and their artists and streamers over payment models,” Snyder says. “And with the European Union Parliament getting involved in reforming streaming rates, it could be a dynamic year for the streaming economy.”

David Eisman Partner/head of Skadden’s media and entertainment group/leader of the Los Angeles M&A/corporate group, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Eisman and his firm are proud of their representation of OVO Sound — the independent label co-founded by Drake — in its recently announced investment and partnership with the Todd Moscowitz-led Santa Anna Label Group. Additional notable clients include Alamo Records, Larry Jackson’s gamma., DJ Khaled’s We the Best Music, Litmus Music, Artist Partner Group and Latin-focused Ntertain.

Most pressing issue: “Increasing fairness and transparency in the industry to ensure that creators are fairly compensated for their work, including through the use of technologies such as blockchain to manage and track music rights and royalty payments. AI will drive up the number of creators and works in the market, which will further increase the need for more efficient, equitable and scalable payment and tracking mechanisms for labels and artists.”

Lawrence Engel Head of music, Lee & Thompson Will Everitt Tim Fowler Liv Lyons Lizzie Payne-James Partners, Lee & Thompson

Engel led Lee & Thompson’s five-partner music team in advising Harry Styles on all aspects of his 2021-23 Love on Tour worldwide trek, which earned over $617 million across 169 shows and five continents, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing tour of all time. Other notable clients include Styles’ former One Direction bandmate Louis Tomlinson, Lana Del Rey, Depeche Mode, Wet Leg and British rapper Dave, whose song with Central Cee, “Sprinter,” spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart last summer. The London-based firm also guided David Dollimore’s December launch of electronic label Disorder Records, in partnership with Geffen Records.

Most pressing issue: “Same as it has always been: to discover and break new artists,” Engel says, “so we can carry on competing with movies, games and sports.”

Timothy Liam Epstein Partner, Duggan Bertsch

Epstein advises independent U.S. promoters with clients that own and/or operate venues like Le Poisson Rouge in New York; College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Conn.; and Seattle’s El Corazon, as well as entities including Psyko Steve Presents, Sofar Sounds, Kilby Block Party, Baja Beach Fest, Riot Fest and Pitchfork Festival. “Despite various market headwinds on the live side, it has been a joy and a privilege to be able to work with clients at the operational counsel level,” Epstein says. “From watching Andy Levine [with Topeka Live] expand the team and meet the fans’ desire for VIP experiences, to Chris Den Uijl and Aaron Ampudia having grown well beyond successes with Baja Beach Fest and Sueños to additional shows and partnerships, to the ever-expanding tour stops for Zach Ruben and Adam Lynn with the Breakaway brand.”

Paul Fakler Partner, Mayer Brown

Fakler — whose clients include SiriusXM, Pandora Media, Google and YouTube — is particularly proud of one case that is no laughing matter: Yellow Rose Productions et al. v. Pandora. Fakler and his firm represented Pandora Media in copyright infringement cases from nine comedians or their estates, alleging Pandora failed to obtain sufficient rights to the underlying jokes embodied in duly licensed sound recordings streamed on Pandora. The cases, he says, sought “to impose the music industry’s byzantine licensing practices on the comedy industry. The case will make new law on various topics related to sound-recording licensing and the comedy industry.”

Most pressing issue: “Finding a way to allow music streaming services to generate a profit on a sustained basis. After 25 years, that has still not happened, and it is in nobody’s long-term interest — least of all artists, songwriters or consumers — to keep making it impossible.”

Sid Fohrman Alex Weingarten Partners/chairs, Willkie Farr & Gallagher Shane Nix Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher

In the past year, Willkie Farr & Gallagher represented Primary Wave in acquiring a 50% stake in the Village People catalog, which includes hits like “Macho Man” and “In the Navy.” The firm also worked on a joint venture with Can’t Stop Productions and Galilee Publishing (the Village People’s original label and publisher, respectively). With clients including Selena Gomez, Manny Marroquin, Create Music Group, the Joe Cocker estate and Snoop Dogg, Fohrman says, “We, as an industry, need to focus on economic solutions that promote both a vibrant and sustainable creative community without stifling innovation.”

Advice on AI: “Our common goal,” Fohrman says, “should be to establish a business model that protects and fairly compensates artists, writers and rights holders; respects and preserves human artistry; but also recognizes the commitment and genius of those driving this incredible innovation.”

Karl Fowlkes Managing partner, The Fowlkes Firm

In addition to his longtime client and successful independent rapper Blxst, Fowlkes represents and provides strategic guidance and legal strategy to Hologram, a music production label and incubator founded by Grammy-nominated producer Synthetic. Hologram “has grown to 17 producers behind some of the biggest hits of the past 18 months from Ice Spice, Yeat, Lil Uzi Vert, 41, Nav, Trippie Redd and countless others,” Fowlkes says. Going forward, he believes streaming needs more transparency. “When fans stream a song, the money generated from those streams should go directly to that artist’s pocket,” he says. “We need to figure out a universal artist-centric payout system.”

Advice on AI: “Don’t fight it. Learn how AI can efficiently and effectively help your workflow and creative process, and be open. We know the negatives to AI, but not enough artists know the positives.”

John Frankenheimer Chair of music industry, Loeb & Loeb Derek Crownover Debbie White Vice chairs of music industry, Loeb & Loeb Denise Stevens Partner, Loeb & Loeb Tiffany Dunn Co-office administrative partner of Nashville, Loeb & Loeb

Loeb & Loeb oversaw more than $500 million in sales and acquisitions during 2023 with a client list that spans from artists like Carrie Underwood, Morgan Wallen, Diana Ross and Christina Aguilera to the estates of Johnny Cash and Otis Redding. Clients also include Sony Music Publishing and Warner Music Group. “Although the initial steps undertaken in 2023 to ensure that value is recognized for those who are actually creating interest and demand were much appreciated,” Frankenheimer says, “this is going to be an ongoing struggle that requires real commitment from all parties in the value chain.”

Advice on AI: “AI is here now,” Frankenheimer says. “There is strength in numbers, and the creative community aligned with their business partners — labels, publishers, agencies, managers — can form a powerful and unified message for those that shape the laws that will define what is and is not permissible in our world.”

Ken Freundlich Founder/president, Freundlich Law

Freundlich defended Bad Bunny and Rimas Entertainment in two “high stakes” copyright infringement lawsuits. “In one of those matters,” he says, he “drafted and argued a complex, high-profile motion to dismiss concerning the copyrightability of the allegedly appropriated dembow rhythm.” He also submitted briefs to the Supreme Court on behalf of LyricFind, which led to a lower court upholding the dismissal of a $50 million complaint against his client from Genius Holdings. The complaint was dismissed on copyright preemption grounds. With clients ranging from Sly Stone and members of the Family Stone to heirs of the founders of War, Freundlich says the biggest challenge facing the music industry “always has been and continues to be about protecting creativity.”

If I quit law, I would: “Spend more time expanding the repertoire and reach of The Singers in Law, the jazz vocal quartet that I co-founded a decade ago that currently performs in the Los Angeles area.”

Sasha Frid Skip Miller Partners, Miller Barondess

Last August, a federal jury ruled in favor of client William “Smokey” Robinson and against his ex-manager Eric Podwall, who claimed the Motown legend owed him for touring and concert commissions worth over $2 million. Given legal issues now stemming from the rise of AI, Frid recommends clients “be proactive to protect [their] copyrights but also use AI’s ability to analyze data in order to release music that’s more likely to resonate with the artist’s target audience.” Among the firm’s other clients: hard-rock bands Mötley Crüe and Five Finger Death Punch and companies Live Nation and Warner Music Group.

Most pressing issue: “Due to the rise of streaming and search algorithms, as well as the vast availability of older catalogs,” Frid says, “it is difficult for new and independent artists to differentiate themselves and find an audience.”

Jeffrey B. Gandel Founder, The Law Office of Jeffrey B. Gandel

Gandel’s firm negotiated deals for Medium Rare Live, which puts together such events as Shaq’s Fun House, Kelce Jam and Daymond John’s Black Entrepreneurs Day at venues including Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Las Vegas’ Wynn Hotel and Brooklyn’s Maimonides Park. The firm’s clients also include Timbaland, OjiVolta and GORDO. Regarding AI, Gandel says, “The most important thing is for each of my clients to understand what it is and how it interacts with their work. Without that knowledge, clients will not be able to have intelligent conversations with their peers, and they will not be able to determine if this new technology is something that could assist them with their work or something that takes away from their creative endeavors.”

Most pressing issue: “The balance of income allocation between the digital service providers [DSPs], labels, artists, producers, writers, etc.”

Eric German Christine Lepera Bradley Mullins David Steinberg Partners, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp

To read the full profile on Lawyer of the Year Christine Lepera, click here.

Damien Granderson Guy Blake Lynn Gonzalez Elizabeth Moody Colin Morrissey Partners, Granderson Des Rochers

Granderson Des Rochers helped usher client Quality Control Music into a reported $300 million sale to K-pop giant HYBE America in February 2023, placing rappers Offset and Quavo, Lil Yachty, City Girls and Lil Baby under the same umbrella with BTS. The company advocates for a “more equitable share of streaming revenue” for its clients, which include J. Cole, J Balvin, A$AP Rocky and Wizkid, Granderson says. “It’s more challenging than ever to have a sustainable career in the music industry unless the artist executes on a sound strategic plan,” he adds.

Advice on AI: “Always be aware of where your music is and be apprised of unauthorized versions of your songs, voice and likeness,” Granderson says. “Have the right lawyers and resources available to you to remain informed so you can protect your likeness and rights.”

Navarro W. Gray Founding partner, The Gray Law Firm

Gray’s accomplishments go beyond working with clients such as Lil’ Kim, Ronald Isley and Internet Money. His recent achievements include closing a major publishing deal for DD Osama with Sony Music Publishing and negotiating recording agreements for not only MAF Teeski and APG, but also Baby Jamo and Listen 2 the Kids/Santa Anna and Lil Nuu and Island Records. Gray also negotiated all aspects of Isley’s last album, Make Me Say It Again, Girl , which featured appearances by Beyoncé, Snoop Dogg, Earth, Wind & Fire, Trey Songz, 2 Chainz, and Quavo and Takeoff. And, offering a full array of services, Gray negotiated a liquor distribution deal for Isley’s brandy, Ron Isley Liquid Gold.

If I quit law, I would: “Create an ’80s soft-rock band in which I would be the lead singer.”

Matthew Greenberg Managing partner, Greenberg Chopurian-Valencia & Associates Stephanie Chopurian-Valencia Partner, Greenberg Chopurian-Valencia & Associates

The firm represents numerous Latin artists including Ovy on the Drums, Arcángel, Chencho Corleone, Sech, Yandel, Gerardo Ortiz, Prince Royce and De la Ghetto, as well as former Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie and the estate of Canserbero. Greenberg notes the company has been involved in defending clients in a 2021 action filed by lawyers for the Jamaican duo Steely & Clevie — Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and the estate of the late Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson — who claim that more than 150 different artists who use the dembow rhythm (the beat at the core of reggaetón) violates their copyright on their 1989 song “Fish Market.” The suit has an “impact on urban Latin artists, labels and publishers,” Greenberg says.

Most pressing issue: “Declining per-stream revenue to creators,” Greenberg says.

Gary R. Greenstein Member, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Greenstein — who works with digital media and entertainment clients and counts AI, technology transactions and financial technology as his focus areas — is representing Google and Stingray before the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board in the Web VI rate-setting proceedings, which will determine streaming royalties for 2026-30. He previously represented Google in the Phonorecords IV proceedings, which resulted in a rates settlement that interactive streaming services pay for using music as of January 2023. “We also represent numerous broadcasters and streaming services in royalty audits by record companies, the [performing rights organizations] and SoundExchange,” he says.

Most pressing issue: “Where is innovation going to come from next, and will the currently constituted music business permit new businesses and ideas to germinate and flourish? You have three major labels and a relatively small number of services responsible for most music consumption.”

Jordan Gutglass Evan Krauss Daniel Shulman Owen Sloane Partners, Eisner

Eisner’s ability to “service all aspects of” Jon Batiste’s multifaceted career highlights the firm’s capabilities, Shulman says. Over the past year, Eisner has guided Batiste’s involvement in a critically acclaimed documentary ( American Symphony ), a Grammy-nominated album ( World Music Radio ), a role in last year’s The Color Purple , major brand partnerships (Coca-Cola, Tommy Hilfiger) and a festival with Batiste’s role as co-founder of the Miami edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The firm’s clients also include PartyNextDoor, G-Eazy, Boi-1da, Hype Williams, Sofi Tukker, Ceremony of Roses and Matchbox Twenty.

Most pressing issue: “Understanding what a long-term sustainable career looks like in an age of virality,” Shulman says. “This includes funding and financial resources for artists who want to remain independent and their ability to sustain a living, safety for artists and fans in-person and online, and a focus on mental health and the well-being of artists.”

Pierre Hachar Jr. Managing partner, The Hachar Law Group Cody Pellicer General partner, The Hachar Law Group

The Hachar Law Group advises stars like Lele Pons, Chayanne, Alex Sensation and Justin Quiles. Highlights of the past year include restructuring the legal affairs for regional Mexican singer Carín León, who has established himself as a “market-leading independent artist topping the charts as a Latin Grammy winner, forming global partnerships with Universal Music Publishing and AEG for his first sold-out U.S. arena tour,” Hachar says. The industry’s challenges, he adds, include “the oversaturation of new music readily available makes it increasingly difficult for new or independent artists to stand out.”

Advice on AI: “Learn how to use it as a tool to your advantage, legally. It is not going away, and if you don’t learn, you will be left behind,” Hachar says.

Joe Halbardier Founder, Halbardier

Halbardier’s firm represents artists including regional Mexican music stars Grupo Frontera, which has amassed multiple No. 1 songs on the Billboard charts, including “Que Vuelvas” with Carín León ( Regional Mexican ), “El Amor de Su Vida” with Grupo Firme (Regional Mexican) and “un x100to” with Bad Bunny ( Latin Airplay , Global 200 ). “It has been incredibly rewarding to be able to help my clients navigate the challenges of rapid growth during the explosion of Mexican music,” Halbardier says. “Growing up in Texas, this music has always been a part of the culture, and to see its popularity grow not just in the United States but throughout Latin America and beyond has been especially exciting.”

Most pressing issue: “Artists have more leverage than ever before. At the same time, labels, distributors, publishers and promoters have better data and are best suited to market music in an increasingly complex and multifaceted environment; however, they are pulling back on risk.”

Matt Hallinan Michael G. Rhodes Partners, Cooley

“As personal counsel to Justin Bieber, I led and worked with the larger team of Matt Hallinan at Cooley, Scooter Braun and Dave Bolno at HYBE, and Hipgnosis on the sale of his music catalog for $203 million,” Rhodes says. Hipgnosis Songs Capital closed its deal in January 2023 to buy 100% of Bieber’s publishing, as well as his artist royalties from his master recordings and neighboring rights, Hipgnosis confirmed at the time. The deal was the largest rights sale for any artist of Bieber’s generation and also Hipgnosis’ biggest acquisition to date, covering all 290 titles in his catalog released prior to Dec. 31, 2021, including his most recent album, 2021’s Justice .

If I quit law, I would: “Go surf, ride my motorcycles, improve my golf index and hang with the grandkids,” Rhodes says.

Jonas Herbsman Managing partner, Herbsman Hafer Weber & Frisch Michael Frisch Dorothy Weber Partners, Herbsman Hafer Weber & Frisch

The firm — whose clients include Lenny Kravitz, Desmond Child, Patti LaBelle and Judy Collins, as well as the estates of John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Roy Orbison — represented Foreigner’s Mick Jones, another music icon on its roster, in a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music. Herbsman and partners negotiated the worldwide administration agreement for the founding member of the British American rock band who is known for his impressive catalog of hits such as “I Want To Know What Love Is,” “Urgent,” “Cold As Ice,” “Jukebox Hero” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You.”

Advice on AI: “Artists and creators must make sure that the agreements they are entering clearly address AI,” Herbsman says. “AI issues are lurking in areas you might not realize, and you don’t want to unknowingly grant those rights.”

Ken Hertz Jamie Young Ed Buggé Partners, Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk

“Terminating copyrights to leverage various types of new deals for artists and songwriters” has been the law firm’s chief focus of late, Hertz says. Also on the team’s radar: catalog sales and advising on the establishment, expansion and acquisition of industry disruptors and leading independent management companies. Representing a diverse roster of artists and businesses that includes Apple Music, Céline Dion, H.E.R., Gwen Stefani, Keith Richards and Stevie Nicks, Hertz adds that two of the most pressing issues facing the industry are “TikTok and the increasing challenge for emerging talent of rising above the din.”

If I quit law, I would: “Volunteer, play pickleball, bake, play golf, build furniture, keep advising young entrepreneurs and spend more time in Portugal,” Hertz says.

Larry Iser Managing partner, Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir Jonathan Steinsapir Partner, Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir

The firm is among the representatives of the estate of Michael Jackson, which sold half of the King of Pop’s publishing and recorded-masters catalog to Sony Music Group for a reported $600 million in February. The Kinsella Holley Iser team also represented majority heirs of Motown songwriter Ron Miller (co-writer of Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life”), who had filed copyright termination notices to regain control of Miller’s works. Minority heirs “tried to invalidate several dozen termination notices,” Iser says of the firm’s response, led by Steinsapir. “We were able to have the case dismissed … holding that the termination notices were all valid.”

Most pressing issue: “Moving artists away from sales and touring revenue,” Iser says, and “toward diversifying income streams and connecting with audiences in innovative ways and tapping into new markets.”

Erin M. Jacobson CEO/attorney, Erin M. Jacobson

Jacobson’s recent achievements include a catalogwide termination project that recaptured the copyrights of several hundred songs, including many Hot 100 top 10 hits; favorably concluding a complex case regarding foreign ­termination rights; and counseling of estate and legacy catalogs. Through her work, Jacobson has determined that the biggest issue facing the business is “a fundamental lack of respect for the use of music” regarding infringements by social media platforms, DSPs and even “other industries focused on intellectual property, like film and print.”

If I quit law, I would: “Be a watercolor artist and jewelry designer — which I already do outside of my law career as my creative practice.”

Neville L. Johnson Founding partner, Johnson & Johnson Douglas L. Johnson Managing partner, Johnson & Johnson

After resolving what Douglas Johnson calls a “contentious contract dispute in arbitration” for Janet Jackson, the firm is representing Paula Abdul in her sexual abuse lawsuit against Nigel Lythgoe (he has denied the allegations), as well as APM Music in a variety of copyright enforcement matters. “We have been spearheading numerous class actions against the major record labels for improperly lowering streaming royalties paid to legacy artists,” he says. “The cases have enormous implications for older recording artists who haven’t individually renegotiated their contracts, since the labels are arguing that they consider any streaming royalties paid to those artists to be charity.”

Most pressing issue: “Streaming platforms continue to underpay record labels, who in turn underpay artists,” Douglas says, “and the status quo is simply untenable.”

Rusty Jones Attorney, Law Office of Russell A. Jones Jr. and Associates

In May 2023, Jones’ client Garth Brooks launched his Las Vegas residency, Garth Brooks/Plus ONE , at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace; due to demand, he extended dates into 2024. In March, Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, celebrated the Nashville opening of their Friends in Low Places Bar and Honky Tonk, which takes its name from Brooks’ signature 1990 hit. Jones also represents major country music names including Yearwood, Tim McGraw and the estate of Toby Keith, who died in February. For Jones, some of the most important issues the music industry faces include “internet theft” and “corporate downsizing during a period of high profits.”

Advice on AI: “Heed the warning from 2001: A Space Odyssey : Don’t trust HAL.”

Wale Kalejaiye Partner, Sheridans

Kalejaiye helped negotiate Burna Boy’s Love, Damini tour that included ­European stadium shows and secured an Apple Music Live deal for his London stop last June. He also negotiated a publishing agreement between Sony Music Publishing France and Michael “London” Hunter, the British Nigerian producer behind Rema and Selena ­Gomez’s Hot 100 No. 3 hit, “Calm Down,” and “successfully finalized a distribution agreement” between Virgin Music and Dapper Music, the latter of which Kalejaiye describes as “the biggest street hip-hop label in Nigeria” that features Shallipopi, Seyi Vibez and others on its roster.

If I quit law, I would: Return to “my former life playing semiprofessional [soccer] for a local team, so I would love the opportunity to guide my local team, Charlton FC, back to the Premier League.”

Joshua A. Kamen Founder/owner, The Law Offices of Joshua A. Kamen

In 2023, Kamen represented music executive Dante Ross as he relaunched the label Stimulated in partnership with Roc Nation’s Equity Distribution and published the memoir Son of the City. “I interned for Dante at Stimulated 25 years ago,” says Kamen, who represents multiple high-profile clients including Doja Cat, Teddy Swims, Giveon, City Girls and 6LACK. His clients also extend beyond artists to include producers such as Oz, who worked on Drake’s “First Person Shooter” (featuring J. Cole) and Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me.”

Advice on AI: “Songwriters and producers can use AI as a tool to create better demos, and artists can use AI as a fan engagement tool or to perform virtual concerts. New technologies often create a challenge in the music business, but it’s the early adopters who typically have the edge.”

Jason Karlov Partner/chair of the Entertainment, media and sports practice group, Barnes & Thornburg Brian Schall Partner, Barnes & Thornburg

Barnes & Thornburg represent an array of clients in sectors including music and sports, such as Bob Dylan, Imagine Dragons, John Fogerty and The Killers, as well as the NFL and all of its 32 teams, 18 NBA teams and nine NHL teams. Last year, the company represented Fogerty for the repurchase of the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog. Karlov says that one of the most pressing issues facing the music industry is “capturing the income from social media licensing.”

Advice on AI: “Wait and see how it all shakes out, and, in the meantime, protect yourself as much as possible,” Karlov says. “These are valuable future rights that are currently being addressed, and we will see them play out over time.”

Lauren Kilgore Lauren Spahn Partners, Shackelford Bowen McKinley & Norton

With a focus on the live-performance industry, the attorneys’ roster — which spans music festivals, talent agencies, talent buyers and promoters — totals over 300 events and and a collective nine-figure talent buy. Key artist clients include Tanya Tucker and Heart’s Ann Wilson. Post-pandemic, Spahn renegotiated major deals with agencies for talent-buyer clients including Romeo Entertainment and Variety Attractions, restructured performance agreements for agency clients like Reliant Talent and offered guidance for Heart’s 2023 tour.

Most pressing issue: “Ticketing prices, fees and practices like resales and the ongoing Federal Trade Commission investigation with regard to the antitrust claims against Ticketmaster and Live Nation,” Spahn says. “More importantly, fans deserve to know what, and how much, they are paying for, as a lot of those fees don’t even end up in the artists’ pockets.”

Russell L. King Director, King Law Firm

King continues to guide his clients — such as Maluma, Juan Luis Guerra, Carlos Vives, Quevedo, Melendi and Laura Pausini — with “their tax structuring and IRS agreements for touring, endorsement deals and music distribution contracts.” In just the past few months, multiple branding agreements that King negotiated for Maluma, in particular, have come to fruition: In late 2023, the Colombian hit-maker began to promote a smart glasses collaboration between Meta and Ray-Ban across platforms. More recently, in February, he headlined a Las Vegas concert presented by SiriusXM and Pandora in the week leading up to Super Bowl LVIII.

Advice on AI: “Unfortunately, other than right of publicity laws that vary in effectiveness on a state-by-state basis, there is little current protection for an artist regarding the threats posed by artificial intelligence, and, therefore, governmental action is urgently needed.”

Christiane Kinney President, Kinney Law

Throughout the past year, Kinney has focused her expertise on catalog sales, touring agreements, endorsement deals and termination of transfer rights for legacy artists and their respective estates. She has assisted clients in navigating new media and technology deals and addressing their concerns with AI. Kinney also advised Grammy-winning acts during negotiations over publishing and label deals (including Julien Baker of boygenius for the group’s debut album). “Finding a balance where artists can be fairly compensated for their contributions while supporting the rise of new technology will continue to be one of the most pressing issues facing the music business,” she says.

If I quit law, I would: “Beg to play keys on tour with my clients.”

Mark Krais Simon Goodbody Partners, Bray & Krais

Krais and Goodbody handled “the necessary paperwork” for The Rolling Stones’ first album of original material in almost 20 years. Released in October, Hackney Diamonds entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3 and topped the charts in 20 countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The London-based firm’s other clients include Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Mumford & Sons and Sony Music Publishing. Of the challenges facing the industry, Krais and Goodbody say that Universal Music Group’s recent decision to pull its catalog from TikTok following a licensing dispute “calls into question the long-term commercial viability of promoting music consumption via short-form videoclips.”

Advice on AI: “For artist clients, the most urgent practical thing that they can do would be to understand what rights they are granting to third parties, like their label or publisher.”

Dina LaPolt Founder/owner, LaPolt Law Mariah Comer Kristin Wenning Partners, LaPolt Law

Four years after his detention by U.S. Customs and Immigration, rapper 21 Savage obtained his green card thanks to the work of LaPolt Law, which spearheaded the hard-fought campaign. The firm — whose clients include Cardi B, Mary J. Blige, Steven Tyler, Joan Jett and deadmau5 — also continued its efforts to pass the Restoring Artistic Protection Act in Congress to prevent the use of lyrics as evidence in court cases. On the AI front, LaPolt Law submitted comment papers to the U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of the Songwriters of North America, Music Artists Coalition and Black Music Action Coalition, advocating for the rights of creators as the technology presents new challenges across the music industry. The firm has also recently focused on lobbying for a federal right of publicity to protect against the unauthorized use of an individual’s voice, likeness and other personality traits.

To read more about Dina LaPolt, Billboard ‘s first-ever Top Music Lawyers’ Choice Award recipient, click here.

Todd Larson Partner, intellectual property and media practice, Weil Gotshal & Manges Benjamin Marks Head of intellectual property and media practice, Weil Gotshal & Manges

“We are representing SiriusXM and Pandora in Web VI,” Marks says, “the Copyright Royalty Board proceeding that will set the rates and terms for the statutory licenses for the reproduction and public performance of sound recordings by noninteractive music streaming services for the next five-year period, 2026-2030.” The firm is also representing the North American Concert Promoters Association — and its largest members, Live Nation and AEG — in a dispute with BMI over the royalty rate paid for live performances. The 138% rate increase awarded in March 2023 “is considerably closer to NACPA’s rate proposal than BMI’s,” according to Marks. But the firm is appealing the decision on behalf of its clients.

Advice on AI: “Proceed with extreme caution, don’t skimp on due diligence and investigations, and keep us on speed dial,” Marks says. “Minefields abound.”

Bernie Lawrence Watkins Founder/CEO, B. Lawrence Watkins & Associates

With a loaded roster in hip-hop including Latto, Young Nudy, Tay Keith, Doe Boy and others, B. Lawrence Watkins & Associates has landed various deals for its artists, most notably in endorsements. The firm worked alongside Latto on her endorsement deals with HALLS, Sprite (for its Hip-Hop 50 celebration), Just E.A.T. and others. It also helped structure Young Nudy’s renegotiation with RCA Records while handling the clearances for Apple’s use of Doe Boy’s name, image and likeness rights in an Apple iPhone 15 commercial.

Advice on AI: “The use of AI is growing at a rapid speed. Read the terms-of-use policy prior to agreeing to incorporate AI in your creative works, and always have an attorney review your paperwork.”

Shay Lawson Managing attorney, Law Firm of Lawson McKinley

Lawson’s firm has a noteworthy roster of clients in hip-hop and beyond including producers Sheldon Ferguson and Groove and the estate of rapper Pimp C. During the past year, Lawson took on major transactions and legal cases, including UGK’s collaboration with streetwear giant Supreme. An advocate for racial justice in the music industry, Lawson was also appointed policy chair for the Black Music Action Coalition and its advocacy efforts in the launch of the Congressional Hip Hop Task Force. The firm also worked on successful Louisiana legislation prohibiting the use of rap lyrics in criminal prosecutions and ongoing federal efforts on the Restoring Artistic Protection Act.

Most pressing issue: “The harm to artists, fans and venues by ticketing bots and the resale Wild West creating unfair ticket marketplaces.”

Bill Leibowitz Founder, William R. Leibowitz Law Group

Leibowitz, whose top clients include Hipgnosis Songs Capital, Hipgnosis Songs Fund and veteran rock bands INXS and Iron Maiden, specializes in IP acquisitions and believes “songwriters are still grossly underpaid relative to the other participants in the music food chain.” For Hipgnosis Songs Capital, Leibowitz has closed major catalog purchases regarding Justin Bieber; Tobias Jesso Jr., who in 2023 became the inaugural Grammy winner for songwriter of the year, non-classical; Erika Ender, co-writer of the 2017 global smash “Despacito”; English songwriting-production team TMS (Tom “Froe” Barnes, Benjamin Kohn and Pete “Merf” Kelleher), whose credits include Lewis Capaldi’s biggest hits; and David Foster’s writer’s performance income.

Advice on AI: “If AI isn’t heavily regulated and controlled, the only beneficiaries will be the companies that own the AI software and their shareholders.”

Robert Lieberman Michael Perlstein Partners, Fischbach Perlstein Lieberman & Almond

In addition to working with music companies like rights management firm GoDigital Media Group and its subsidiary Cinq Music, Lieberman’s firm also represents Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, The Cars and Lukas Nelson, as well as the estates of Peggy Lee and Dr. John. For his clients, Lieberman says that the past year has been defined by “numerous purchases and sales of music publishing and master catalogs involving complex copyright issues in excess of $200 million.” Viewing the overall industry landscape, Lieberman says a key concern remains “increasing artist and songwriter streaming royalty rates.”

Advice on AI: “Be patient,” Lieberman says. “Protect your rights contractually with the third parties that you are dealing with and wait to see how the marketplace will deal with it.”

Doug Mark Founding partner, Mark Music & Media Law David Ferreria Leon Morabia Harry Roberts Jared Tankel Partners, Mark Music & Media Law

With clients including Ice Spice, The Chainsmokers, Benny Blanco, Andrew Watt, Emily Warren, Laufey and writer Amy Allen, Mark Music & Media Law also advises best-selling authors, publishing catalogs, composers and labels. “Despite higher interest rates, catalog transactions continue to grow in scale and frequency,” Tankel says. “Our firm remains at the forefront of the business in [negotiating] purchases and sales.”

Most pressing issue: “The business is still and will always be driven by the creativity and talent of its artists,” Tankel says, “but there are more records, platforms and channels to promote and consume, etc., than ever, so it’s increasingly important that artist representatives understand the broad scope of the industry.”

Angela “Angie” N. Martinez Founder, Angela N. Martinez

Martinez counts notable artists in Latin pop and urban music among her clients — Feid, Ozuna, Sebastián Yatra, Luis Fonsi, Ricardo Montaner and Maria Becerra. Over the past year, she negotiated multimillion-dollar catalog sales on behalf of songwriters Nacho and Gian Marco. “Within the realm of my profession,” Martinez says, “success should not be solely measured by the accomplishments achieved but also by the complexities skillfully navigated and resolved.”

Most pressing issue: “As we just saw with the TikTok-Universal face-off, technology services have transformed the landscape of music consumption. Numerous artists contest they are paid just a fraction of a cent per stream, raising concerns about their professional livelihood.”

Gavin Maude Partner/head of music, Russells Jo Brittain Simon Esplen Chris Gossage Steven Tregear Partners, Russells

Advising Coldplay on its Music of the Spheres tour, including the band’s ground-breaking sustainability initiatives, ensured another busy 12 months for Russells. The group’s global trek, which started in March 2022 and resumed in summer 2023 with a run of European shows, was the No. 2 tour of the past year and ranks as the second-highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $807.8 million to date. The London-based firm, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, operates at “the cutting edge” of catalog/IP acquisition and sales, Maude says, handling recent deals for clients Primary Wave, Reservoir and Iconic Artists Group, as well as the sale of Guy Chambers’ and David Gray’s rights to Bella Figura Music.

If I quit music, I would: “Tie my own [fishing] flies,” Maude says.

James E. McMillan Managing partner, James E. McMillan

Last year, Houston artist Odetari ushered in a new subgenre of electronic music he dubbed Odecore, and Billboard recognized him as one of the biggest dance artists of 2023. He was No. 1 on Billboard ’s year-end Top New Dance/Electronic Artists chart and featured by the magazine alongside 6arelyhuman as one of the artists shaping the future of dance music. “After a hot bidding war, my team closed a smart and handsome deal for Odetari with Mike Caren,” founder of Artist Partner Group, says McMillan, who also still runs his independent label, ART@WAR, which boasts artists Cordae, Honey Baby and YBN Nahmir.

Most pressing issue: “As consumer attention span becomes shorter due to technology, the need to quantify fair compensation for rights holders becomes more necessary.”

L. Londell McMillan Chairman/CEO, The McMillan Firm

McMillan’s list of clients over the years has included Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes and Chaka Khan, but he’s best known for repping Prince Rogers Nelson. McMillan and Charles Spicer serve as managers for Prince Legacy, one of the two holding companies created to oversee the superstar’s $156 million estate. In a suit that became public in January, the two allege that four of Prince’s relatives have been improperly trying to force them out of the company. (Primary Wave, which owns the other half of the Prince estate, is not involved in the dispute.) Despite the legal fight, McMillan has been able to keep Prince’s art alive by producing events like the “Celebration” festival (the annual gathering of Prince fans) and the upcoming stage adaptation of the seminal 1984 film musical Purple Rain .

Ed McPherson Partner, McPherson

Representing top acts across genres — Travis Scott, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Linkin Park, Frank Ocean, Tool, Evanescence, Mick Mars and Chance Peña — McPherson takes pride in guiding his clients through legal complications in their careers. Most recently, he cites the “brutal attacks” that former Mötley Crüe guitarist Mars has experienced. “After founding the band, naming the band and performing with the band for 41 years, [he] has now been unmercifully ejected from the band and all of its corporate entities,” McPherson says.

Most pressing issue: “Without a doubt, frivolous lawsuits. Frivolous copyright lawsuits that stifle the creativity of songwriters and frivolous concert-related lawsuits that will ultimately cause ticket prices to increase so significantly that only a select few fans will be able to afford them.”

Kenny Meiselas Partner/head of music department, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks Larry Shire Partner/head of film, television, theatre department, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks David Jacobs Joe Brenner Partners, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks

Meiselas represented Usher for his Super Bowl halftime performance in February, as well as his BMW and Uber Eats commercials for the big game and his subsequent tour and release of his latest album, Coming Home . In addition, the firm represents U2, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, the David Bowie estate, Lady Gaga, J Balvin, Zach Bryan, The Weeknd and many others. For Meiselas, who also produces films and TV shows, the most pressing music business issue is “navigating the new landscape created by the consolidation of the major labels, together with the emergence of new independent labels and distribution companies.”

Advice on AI: “The biggest concern for the client,” Meiselas says, “is to make sure that they have creative approvals and get compensated for AI exploitations of their name, likeness and music, similar to the legal protections that have been adopted for samples and music interpolations.”

Mike Milom David Crow Partners, Milom Crow Kelley Beckett Shehan

The firm, which represents clients including Keith Urban, Carly Pearce, Luke Bryan, Ricky Skaggs and Kelsea Ballerini, was instrumental in Ballerini’s recent extension of her partnership with her longtime label home, Black River. The firm also remains active in catalog sales, representing both buyers and sellers, as well as joint ventures, sponsorships and endorsements. Crow notes that ongoing shifts in the industry include labels no longer performing many of the traditional artist development activities, which fall to other sectors, such as publishers. “This in turn,” Crow says, “has impacted deal structures, and newer deals often won’t support labels sticking with a new artist for multiple releases, given the economics of the deals.”

If I quit law, I would: “Play fiddle in a bluegrass band,” Crow says.

Carron Joan Mitchell Farrah A. Usmani Partners, Nixon Peabody

Mitchell and Usmani have tackled a host of issues for their extensive list of clients, which includes Brent Faiyaz, Childish Gambino, Vince Staples, Cuco, Ari Lennox, Jordan Ward, Earthgang, Dame D.O.L.L.A (aka Damian Lillard), Masego, Earl Sweatshirt, Freddie Gibbs, Fana Hues, Felix Ames, thuy, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Pussy Riot, Eddie Spear and promoter Outback Presents. Recently, Mitchell negotiated deals for Faiyaz’s sold-out worldwide tour, the release of his Larger Than Life project and his Apple Music Live deal. Usmani negotiated on behalf of Outback Presents for North American tours by comedians Bert Kreischer, Taylor Tomlinson and Nate Bargatze — three of Billboard ’s top 10 highest-grossing comedy tours of 2023.

Most pressing issue: “How all of the label restructurings will impact artists’ careers and whether it will be beneficial to developing artists,” Mitchell says.

Zia Modabber Managing partner of the Los Angeles offices/chair of the entertainment and media litigation practice, Katten

Modabber’s clients include Live Nation, Insomniac, the estate of Michael Jackson, André 3000 and Trent Reznor (who he has worked with for more than two decades). “We handle all of Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails, film scoring and entrepreneurial projects, including a number of upcoming ventures,” Modabber says. (Two-time Academy Award winners Reznor and Atticus Ross scored the upcoming film Challengers starring Zendaya.) “Trent’s a creative freak of nature,” Modabber adds. “I’m excited for what’s coming and proud to be even a small part of it alongside his entire team.” For clients concerned about AI, Modabber says, “Have fun with it, just not too much fun — there’s lots to figure out to make sure rights aren’t trampled.”

If I quit law, I would: “Figure out how to change my genetics into someone with legitimate artistic abilities. I am in awe of artists.”

Lisa Moore Andrew Pequignot Managing partners, Moore Pequignot

Moore and Pequignot count Cardi B, Offset, Mary J. Blige, YG, Cordae and BlocBoy JB among their clients. Besides guiding that impressive roster, their most notable recent achievements include successfully defending Cardi B in a suit that claimed the rapper violated a California man’s rights by photoshopping one of his tattoos onto the cover of her 2016 debut mixtape, Gangsta B-tch Music, Vol 1 . A jury rejected the claim after just one hour of deliberation. “This was a significant case regarding an artist’s First Amendment rights to free expression,” Moore says, “and an important lesson about when someone falsely tries to claim credit for a talent’s hard work and success.”

If I quit law, I would: “Spend more time reading, running and traveling,” Moore says.

Jeffrey Movit Head of litigation, ChaudhryLaw Movit joined ChaudhryLaw in September, following recognition in the last two Top Music Lawyers lists at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp. He is counsel for all of the defendants, including client Playboi Carti, in a suit that alleges violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In August, Movit obtained an order requiring the plaintiff and his counsel to pay attorneys’ fees to Movit’s clients. (Movit notes that his clients have since moved for dismissal of the action “as a matter of summary judgment.”) In addition to Carti, other clients include Polo G, G Herbo, Dr. Luke and Ronald Isley.

Advice on AI: “I urge everyone to actually use AI platforms — and not merely read about them — so that we can truly understand the problems and opportunities we face as an industry.”

Aliya Nelson Partner, Greenspoon Marder Sandra Brown Alan Clarke Jerry Juste Of counsel, Greenspoon Marder Kendall Minter Of counsel, Greenspoon Marder (posthumous honor)

Greenspoon Marder negotiated with TriStar Pictures for a project focused on Sugarhill Gang’s seminal 1979 single, “Rapper’s Delight,” and is also negotiating a theatrical rights deal to bring the story behind the song to Broadway. The firm represented Lecrae in connection with his Grammy-winning Christian album Church Clothes 4 and counseled a company that creates Web3 content and applications for T.I. and The Trap Museum, Cee Lo Green and more. Last year, the firm suffered a great loss when Minter, 71, died Dec. 6 in Atlanta. Among his last major transactions was negotiating the June sale by George Brown, the founding band member and drummer of Kool & The Gang, of his stake in the group’s catalog (“Celebration,” “Jungle Boogie,” Get Down on It”) to Primary Wave, working in association with the band’s longtime attorney, Ken Abdo.

Matt Oppenheim Managing partner, Oppenheim + Zebrak Scott Zebrak Co-founding partner, Oppenheim + Zebrak Jeff Gould Alex Kaplan Partners, Oppenheim + Zebrak

On behalf of Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO Music, Oppenheim + Zebrak filed a complaint in federal court in October against AI platform Anthropic, claiming it was unlawfully copying and disseminating copyrighted works to train AI models, including its assistant, Claude, to generate new lyrics. “Anthropic must not be allowed to flout copyright law,” the complaint states. Zebrak says the case, which has become a key legal battle over the future of AI music, has been “moved for a preliminary injunction.” The firm is also continuing to litigate against internet service providers over subscribers’ unlawful uploading and downloading of music after the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a $1 billion verdict in February.

Most pressing issue: “Protecting the rights of music copyright owners, and the value of music, in a digital environment,” Zebrak says.

Don Passman Ethan Schiffres Partners, Gang Tyre Ramer Brown & Passman Gene Salomon Managing partner, Gang Tyre Ramer Brown & Passman

The Beverly Hills, Calif., firm had a busy year, overseeing the sale of superstar Cher’s catalog to Iconic Artists Group, as well as handling P!nk’s ongoing world tour and Green Day’s Saviors stadium run, which will launch in the United States in July. The firm also handled legal matters for such clients as Taylor Swift, whose The Eras Tour continues through 2024; as well as Adele, Neil Diamond and award-winning composer Ludwig Göransson. Among the issues facing the music business that concern Salomon are “those trying to game the streaming ecosystem,” as well as “tech platforms trying to devalue music rights.”

Advice on AI: “AI can be a great tool in the hands of creators, but it can also be abused to undermine art and artists,” Salomon says. “Artists need to lead the charge to ensure their futures and the future of music.”

Adrian Perry Partner/co-chair of entertainment and media industry group/co-chair music industry group, Covington & Burling Neema Sahni Partner/co-chair of entertainment and media industry group/co-chair music industry group/co-chair of commercial litigation practice/vice chair of sports industry group, Covington & Burling Jonathan Sperling Partner/chair of music industry group, Covington & Burling Phillip Hill Special counsel, Covington & Burling

Covington & Burling counts among its clients Sony Music Entertainment, Downtown Music, Global Music Rights, SESAC, TIDAL/Block, the National Music Publishers’ Association, LiveCo and Futureverse. The lattermost, a leader in AI and metaverse technology applications, has called on the firm for assistance in navigating some of the murkier legal matters related to fully licensed music-generation models. “You’ll get ‘taxed’ on what you don’t know,” Hill says. “For each use case, you need to understand what’s going on under the hood for the AI model or deployment at issue — or find someone who does.”

Most pressing issue: “Data — from ownership to usage to royalties and reporting, data is a long-standing, global issue,” Hill says. “Ongoing progress in standardization, sharing and transparency will likely bring old issues to a head, new issues to light and innovative solutions to market.”

Daniel Petrocelli Trial practice chair/firm vice chair, O’Melveny & Myers David Marroso General litigation practice head, O’Melveny & Myers Terrence Dugan Leah Godesky Partners, O’Melveny & Myers

Since 2016, the firm has represented Kesha in a defamation lawsuit brought by producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, whom she had accused of sexual misconduct. Last June, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that Dr. Luke was a “public figure” and he would need to prove that Kesha had acted with “actual malice” when she made her accusations. The two reached a confidential settlement on June 22, “just days after we secured a series of key pre-trial appellate wins for Kesha that seismically shifted the trial’s legal landscape,” Godesky says. The two issued a joint statement in which Kesha said she “cannot recount everything that happened” while Dr. Luke maintained that he was “absolutely certain that nothing happened.” The firm is also the legal adviser for clients including Travis Scott, Global Music Rights and Liberty SiriusXM Group.

Tabetha Plummer Founder, Plummer Law Group

Plummer made a name for herself representing Grammy-winning R&B singers Ledisi and Anthony Hamilton and producer Rex Rideout, as well as making brand-expanding moves for NFL great Deion Sanders and Power star Omari Hardwick. Her biggest recent win was for longtime client Adam Blackstone. Not only did Plummer negotiate a deal for his first holiday album, A Legacy Christmas , released in November, but she also “secured his pivotal music director role in Super Bowl LVIII, featuring Andra Day, Reba McEntire and the Usher halftime show,” she says. Plummer also assisted Blackstone with his upcoming Broadway production of The Wiz and guided Alicia Keys in moving forward with her new musical, Hell’s Kitchen .

If I quit law, I would: “Travel the world taking photos.”

Michael Poster Partner-in-charge/music acquisitions and financing chair, Michelman & Robinson

Last May, Poster helped facilitate a deal between Sony Music Group and longtime client and music executive Barry Weiss for a 50/50 partnership in ­RECORDS, the label Weiss co-founded in 2015. Weiss’ former partners, Matt Pincus and Ron Perry, were bought out for a reported $100 million valuation, and Weiss will now run the label (which sources have said generated about $20 million in revenue in 2022) with chart-toppers like 24kGoldn and Noah Cyrus. Poster also represented Weiss in negotiations for Bossy Songs, his new publishing venture with Sony Music Publishing. Poster says the two deals are “a prime example of how we bring together our extensive experience in the music industry with our sophisticated transactional practice.”

Most pressing issue: “Streaming fraud, including the theft of streaming income, the manipulation of streaming data and the scamming of young artists into spending their limited budgets on shady streaming promoters.”

Edwin J. Prado Galarza Owner/CEO/attorney at law, Prado Law Offices

Prado’s client list boasts stars of reggaetón including Daddy Yankee, Anuel AA, Darell and Nío García, as well as Ricardo Arjona and Romeo Santos. He recently negotiated publishing agreements with Kobalt for emerging composer-producer Angel Sandoval (Peso Pluma, Grupo Firme) and producer-composer BASSY (Eladio Carrión’s “3MEN2 KBRN”). Prado was the lead attorney in executive Raphy Pina’s appeal of a firearms conviction and is representing both Real Hasta la Muerte (Anuel AA’s label) in a complaint against basketball team Los Capitanes de Arecibo and producer Boy Wonder in a breach-of-contract civil dispute with artist Jon Z.

Advice on AI: “It is important to note that we can coexist in an industry that respects and nourishes the creativity and individuality of each musician, producer and artist while using AI to push the boundaries of music.”

Gregor Pryor Managing partner, Europe and Middle East, Reed Smith Steve Sessa Partner/co-chair of the entertainment and media industry group, Reed Smith Josh Love Eric Marder Ed Shapiro Partners, Reed Smith

Bon Jovi, which is about to release its 16th studio album, Forever , in June, is a Reed Smith client. The firm also represents The Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, Megadeth, Kesha, Lil Uzi Vert, Linda Perry, Glen Ballard and the companies Kobalt, Lyric, Shamrock, Seeker and YG Entertainment (Blackpink). Reed Smith represented Concord in the purchase of the Round Hill Music Royalty Fund in a deal valued at $469 million.

Most pressing issue: “Fair compensation and revenue distribution for artists, particularly in the digital streaming era,” Sessa says. “With the shift from physical sales to streaming platforms, artists often struggle to earn a fair income from their music due to complex royalty structures and the dominance of streaming services. This issue has sparked debates and discussions about how to reform the system to ensure that artists receive fair compensation for their work in the digital age.”

William Ramsey Member, Neal & Harwell

Among the clients that Nashville-based Ramsey “handled matters for” recently are Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Chris Young, Kane Brown and Tanya Tucker. “I also represent several music business managers, financial managers, talent agents, publishers and labels in a variety of litigation matters,” he says. However, he is most proud of his ongoing work with the production of Voices of Mississippi, which he describes as “an immersive multimedia experience and concert event that celebrates the people and art of the Southern blues, gospel and storytelling traditions.” To take it on the road, “I helped organize the project by handling contracts and licensing,” Ramsey says. The show held two tours in the United States in 2023, with a European run scheduled for later in 2024.

If I quit law, I would: “Be a farmer.”

Rollin Ransom Partner/co-leader of global entertainment, sports and media practice; global commercial litigation and disputes practice/managing partner of the Los Angeles office, Sidley Austin Matthew Thompson Partner/co-leader of global entertainment, sports and media practice, Sidley Austin

Sidley Austin represented client Warner Music Group in a joint venture with Elliot Grainge’s 10K Projects, home to artists such as Trippie Redd and Ice Spice (before Ice Spice moved under the umbrella of Capitol Music Group). As part of the deal, 10K is now a stand-alone label “within the WMG ecosystem,” Thompson says. Launched by Grainge in 2016, 10K makes the switch from Universal Music Group to join Atlantic Records and Warner Records among WMG’s collection of record labels. The new deal with 10K follows WMG’s acquisition of 300 Entertainment — reportedly for around $400 million — and its artists including Megan Thee Stallion, Young Thug and Gunna.

Most pressing issue: “Pressure on subscriber uptake and pricing of subscription music services together with implications for the music industry as a whole and impact on value of music assets and music businesses,” Thompson says.

Berkeley Reinhold President, Reinhold Global

Reinhold has a long history with Lollapalooza, the music festival created by Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell. She first signed on as the festival’s general counsel in 2003, and in 2011 she helped the brand expand into international markets like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany and France. Lollapalooza’s annual Chicago event remains successful, according to promoter C3 Presents. She took on a new role in 2024 as a producer of the documentary Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza , which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and will be released on Paramount+ later this year. Notably for an attorney focused on the festival business, Reinhold describes the most pressing issue facing the music business in two words: “climate change.”

If I quit law, I would: “Improve my French.”

Elliot Resnik Partner of media and entertainment, Raines Feldman Littrell

While Resnik cites “joining up with [law partner] Andy Tavel and the team at Raines Feldman Littrell” as a highlight of his year, he’s most proud of his client Killer Mike, whose album Michael ­netted three Grammy Awards in February, including best rap album. “I handled the record deal with Loma Vista and the publishing deal with Reservoir, as well as handling all rights and clearances, producer and artist deals,” says Resnik — who came to Killer Mike’s aid when the rapper was detained by police after his Grammy wins. “I couldn’t be happier for Mike and the team,” says Resnik, whose clients also include the National Independent Venue Association and the All Things Go music festival.

If I quit law, I would: “Have smoking barbecue backstage at music festivals and [in] Montauk [on New York’s Long Island] in between surf or fishing sessions.”

Adam Ritholz Jeff Levy Chip Petree Partners, Ritholz Levy Fields

At Ritholz Levy Fields — whose clients include acts from Brothers Osborne to *NSYNC and Robert Plant — a highlight of the past year has been the firm’s continued relationship with “Whiskey and You” singer Chris Stapleton. “I’m very proud of the work we have done to thoughtfully extend Chris Stapleton’s brand presence, especially with his recent collaboration with Buffalo Trace Distillery for [his own] Traveller Whiskey,” Petree says. And beyond the country sensation, Petree raises a shot of Tennessee whiskey to partner Ritholz: “[He] and I have continued to expand the firm’s presence in the catalog market by handling a number of high-profile catalog and music-rights sales, [including] several acquisitions for Primary Wave.”

If I quit law, I would: “Go back to work year-round for my childhood summer camp on the North Carolina coast,” Petree says.

Carlos Rodriguez-Feliz Founder/managing partner, RodFel Law

Rodriguez-Feliz — who counts RaiNao, Rapetón Approved, Villano Antillano, Young Miko and Súbelo NEO as clients — says that leading the renegotiation of reggaetón duo Zion & Lennox’s publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing in December was a highlight for the firm. In September, Zion & Lennox — who recorded reggaetón hits including “Yo Voy,” “Bandida” and more from the genre’s first explosion in the mid-2000s — struck a deal for co-management by Walter Kolm’s WK Entertainment and producer Andres Castro’s Hits Don’t Lie.

Most pressing issue: “The compensation for rights owners from the streaming platforms as well as from social media, which have millions of users that [incorporate] music into their content. Although it is not music business-related, another issue artists face is mental health. Not many are aware and willing to seek help when needed.”

Angela M. Rogers Founder/owner, Rogers Law Group

Rogers’ client Mass Appeal played a key role in last year’s 50th-anniversary celebration of hip-hop. The multimedia firm owns the HipHop 50 trademark and, under Rogers’ guidance, partnered with MLB for a livestream concert at Yankee Stadium starring legends such as Kurtis Blow, Slick Rick, Lil’ Kim, Snoop Dogg and Run-D.M.C. Mass Appeal also produced the immersive exhibit “Hip Hop Til Infinity.” Rogers — whose roster includes Tink, Nardo Wick and Jay Electronica — says copyright infringement remains a major challenge. Noting the tug of war between Universal Music Group and TikTok, she says, “A balance between the two needs to happen soon so that creators aren’t the ones who suffer the most here.”

Advice on AI: “Be proactive in this new space. AI’s not going anywhere, so find a way to rethink your role as a creator and as an artist.”

Nick Rosenberg Partner, Nolan Helmann

At Nolan Helmann, Rosenberg — who represents rapper IDK and beatmaker Mario Luciano — has been handling deals for immersive experiences for companies like Audio Anthem. He’s in the process of clearing rights for one band that has its masters, film, trademarks and publishing with different companies. “With immersive, there’s going to be a lot more music being exploited in that arena,” he says. “Every immersive experience does have that musical component to it. It’s a hard business. There are so many different stakeholders involved and real estate issues, but it’s exciting.”

Most pressing issue: “The divide between the haves and have-nots in the music business. The way the system is set up, it’s much harder for there to be working artists who are making a good living and have some success and can sustain it for their whole lives.”

Oswaldo Rossi John R. Baldivia Partners, Rossi

Rossi and Baldivia have positioned themselves at the forefront of Latin music, representing artists such as Karol G, Rauw Alejandro, Peso Pluma, Noah Assad and Juan Luis Guerra. Baldivia’s involvement in high-profile deals, like Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito tour with Live Nation and MAG’s producer agreements with Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana are highlights of his recent work. The firm has served as outside counsel for Rancho Humilde, Double P, Rich Music and Seitrack.

Advice on AI: “For now, the best thing to do is to pay close attention to the technological developments and how AI can be used as a tool for your music creation,” Baldivia says, “because the business side of AI is still a moving target.”

Daniel Schacht Partner, Donahue Fitzgerald

Schacht’s clients include Carlos Santana, Missy Elliott, Barry Mann, Mary Bono and the estate of Malik Taylor (aka Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest). Most recently, his firm handled Santana’s legal work for the documentary Carlos , released through Sony Classics, which premiered on streaming platforms in September. The firm is also representing former congresswoman Bono, widow of the late Sonny Bono, in the Cher v. Bono litigation regarding copyright terminations. Meanwhile, Schacht is watching the live space. “The success of ABBA Voyage shows how live music can be transformed through technology while building on a very traditional artist-audience connection,” he says. “Lawyers will be there to make sure artists retain and enforce their rights and avoid exploitation in a new medium.”

If I quit law, I would: “Run a small restaurant and music venue.”

John Seay Owner, The Seay Firm

Seay, who was previously recognized on Top Music Lawyers in 2022 as a member of Carter + Woodard, has since set up his own shop that represents artists in genres spanning from hip-hop to country to rock. Clients including the estate of Russell Tyrone Jones (Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard), Rylo Rodriguez, Faye Webster and Lakeyah look to Seay for legal expertise. A recent notable success was “working to support the team around [rapper] That Mexican OT as his career began to take off in the last year, including clearance of Lonestar Luchador, which contains the RIAA-certified gold single ‘Johnny Dang,’ ” Seay says.

Most pressing issue: “The challenge for talent representatives is to help their clients develop and diversify their revenue streams to supplement income from streaming, which is minimal for the vast majority of artists.”

Michael Selverne Managing partner, Selverne Bradford

Selverne’s list of clients includes the Spin Doctors, Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos (while also serving as co-counsel to Cheap Trick) and, on the corporate level, Alibi Music. Additionally, Selverne is active in the music asset marketplace, often representing institutions in financing, due diligence and business affairs for contemplated acquisitions. Last year, he was involved in one of the biggest music asset deals, providing legal representation to client Round Hill Music Group in the sale of its publicly traded Round Hill Music Royalty Fund to Concord for $469 million. He also led Round Hill’s acquisition of producer Steve Lillywhite’s royalties and buying the copyrights and songwriter royalties of Craig Wiseman, as well as its deal to buy Canadian record company and music publisher Linus Entertainment.

Robert Sherman Co-chair of entertainment finance, DLA Piper

Sherman’s firm counts among its clients Concord, HarbourView Equity Partners, MultiMedia Music, Secretly Group, Bella Figura Music and Gold State Music, and he praises his team as a “leader in the burgeoning arena of music securitizations.” In December 2022, the firm closed a $1.8 billion music rights securitization for Concord. This was followed by an additional $500 million issuance in 2023 to finance Concord’s acquisition of Round Hill Music Royalty Fund — including songs by Alice in Chains, Bruno Mars and Louis Armstrong — in a deal valued at $469 million. Amid the rise of AI, he cautions clients to “prepare yourself to find ways to create value through AI while maintaining control of your copyrights.”

If I quit law, I would: “Be a lounge singer.”

Jodie Shihadeh Founder/owner, Shihadeh Law

Shihadeh Law’s negotiations sent its clients’ music far and wide in 2023 as the firm established a global distribution infrastructure for Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records and handled agreements for Two Friends’ 2023 headlining tour, which included stops at Coachella and Fortnite’s FNCS Global Championship halftime show in Copenhagen. Shihadeh negotiated the use of Jamaican dancehall artist Shenseea’s music on the soundtracks to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , The Color Purple and Bob Marley: One Love . Endorsement deals also topped the firm’s accomplishments, with Shihadeh securing them for Two Friends with Smirnoff, Wendy’s, Celsius fitness drinks, DraftKings and Olipop; she did the same for Shenseea with H&M and Captain Morgan.

If I quit law, I would: “Run my family’s three-generation business importing Oriental rugs from across the Middle East and India and expand it.”

Shardé Simpson Ciara Reed Co-founders, Simpson & Reed

Simpson says the firm “specializes in getting startup companies, specifically record labels and distributors, off the ground and running smoothly.” Representing a wide range of clients that includes artists Meek Mill, Jimmie Allen and Vic Mensa and labels Desi Trill Music and Dream Chaser Records (established by Mill), the firm is dedicated to helping artists and labels build their empires. “Simpson & Reed assisted with the formation of Desi Trill Music,” Simpson says, “a newly formed record label, as well as music genre, co-founded by Shabz Naqvi and Tyran ‘TyTy’ Smith, co-founder of Roc Nation. Desi Trill is a fusion of South Asian and hip-hop music from both the United States and London.” Universal Music Group distributes the label.

Simran A. Singh Founder/managing partner, Singh Singh & Trauben Michael A. Trauben Founder/partner, Singh Singh & Trauben Christopher Navarro Partner, Singh Singh & Trauben

Singh and his partners represent major stars in Latin urban music, including Ozuna, Natti Natasha, DJ Nelson and Jay Wheeler. Their A-list roster also includes reggaetón superstar Daddy Yankee, whom they advised throughout his top-grossing La Última Vuelta world tour, which raked in $197.8 million and landed at No. 27 on Billboard Boxscore’s 2023 year-end Top 40 Tours chart. Daddy Yankee’s farewell trek — which he announced in March 2022 along with the news of his retirement — culminated with La Meta, a series of four back-to-back shows at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, with his final concert scheduled for Dec. 3.

Most pressing issue: “Many artists argue that the current streaming model disproportionately benefits record labels and streaming services over the creators themselves,” Singh says. “Addressing this issue requires industrywide discussions and potential reforms to ensure that artists receive fair compensation for their work.”

Alex Spiro Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

Spiro is a nationally prominent attorney who has represented Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion and Elon Musk, among others. In late 2023, he was identified as the representative for collectibles website Gotta Have Rock and Roll in its dispute with the Michael Jackson estate over unreleased studio recordings. Last July, it was reported that Jay-Z’s Team ROC — Roc Nation’s philanthropic and social justice division — had hired Spiro to get charges dropped against a Wisconsin man who was arrested after police mistakenly believed he was involved in a hit-and-run crash. Videos posted to social media appear to show a white officer punching the Black man, Jermelle English Jr. Spiro was previously chosen for the Top Music Lawyers list after he represented Megan Thee Stallion in connection with her being shot by Tory Lanez. He has also been among the attorneys calling for a ban on the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal prosecutions.

Brian Steel Founder, The Steel Law Firm

Steel, a veteran criminal defense attorney in Georgia, is representing Young Thug in the racketeering trial in Atlanta over allegations that the rapper and others operated a violent gang called YSL for years. The music industry is closely watching the case because of prosecutors’ controversial use of Young Thug’s music as evidence against him. “The fight against the prosecution’s wrongful use of rap lyrics and music videos is so critical to our case and others like it,” Steel says. “The government targets innocent people without understanding the culture and dynamics of this multibillion-dollar industry or the artists who perform therein.”

Advice on AI: “I focus on criminal defense and the false information on public domains [that] can be wrongly used in investigations and prosecutions, and all must be prepared to unmask these falsities with proper expert analysis.”

Stanton “Larry” Stein Partner/head of media and entertainment group, Russ August & Kabat Irene Y. Lee Ashley R. Yeargan Partners, Russ August & Kabat

The firm’s clients include Drake, Post Malone, DJ Khaled, 21 Savage, the estates of Juice WRLD and Donna Summer, and organizations including Songwriters of North America. Stein says the firm has been defending Drake and his companies in multiple proceedings, including the defense of over 1,000 suits resulting from his appearance at Travis Scott’s ill-fated 2021 Astroworld concert. (A motion earlier in March argued that Drake should not be named in those suits, as he did not play a part in planning the event.) During the past 18 months, the firm has managed over 5,000 brands and related rights in its role as “protecting, enforcing and managing intellectual property portfolios for artists such as Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Cardi B, deadmau5, The Kid LAROI, Mick Fleetwood, Tyga and iann dior,” as well as label and company clients, Stein says.

Rachel Stilwell Owner, Stilwell Law

Stillwell Law’s clients include LeAnn Rimes, who in 1997 became the youngest Grammy Award winner for best new artist. With 15 studio albums under her belt, she still holds that distinction. Other clients are Grammy nominees Al B. Sure! (best known for his top 10 1988 hit, “Nite and Day”) and Noel Schajris (an Argentine Mexican singer-songwriter-pianist), songwriters Darrell Brown (who has written nearly 50 songs recorded by Rimes) and Andre Merritt, MusicFIRST Coalition, Wolff Audio and Lyte Inc. With Dan Lifschitz at Johnson & Johnson, Stilwell Law negotiated a settlement in a breach-of-contract action for nonpayment of royalties to client Tek O’Ryan.

Most pressing issue: “Congress must pass legislation in live-event ticketing that protects fans against deceptive practices from powerful primary/secondary ticket sellers and scalpers while recognizing that artists should be rewarded for having created the demand for tickets in the first place.”

Michael Sukin President, Sukin Law Group

Besides representing artists including The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys and Sir Mix-a-Lot, Sukin has gathered a list of achievements including developing a unique approach to policing unauthorized use of the names and likenesses of major artists, resulting in substantial benefit to asset value and monetization. He also negotiated unprecedented agency representation agreements for major Broadway musicals on behalf of rights holders and initiated the development of an annual live event for a legacy artist with worldwide fans to help with continued visibility and income.

Advice on AI: “AI is a developing area, both legally and functionally. It’s important to learn everything one can about this area as it applies to one’s business. Unfortunately, there are still no clear legal guidelines for guard rails. Proceed with caution, but don’t hesitate to vigorously protect your intellectual property.”

Ron Sweeney Founder, Ron Sweeney and Company

Sweeney, who prefers not to name his clients, is known to have worked with James Brown, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Swizz Beatz, Lil Wayne, Clarence Avant, Tabu Records, Young Money Records, Easy E and Ruthless Records, Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records, Irv Gotti, Murder Inc., Public Enemy, DMX, Ja Rule, Morris Day, The Time, Klymaxx and Kool & The Gang, among others. As the music industry navigates the rise of AI, Sweeney has more of a positive spin, urging creators and executives to “keep an open mind.” He says, “There will be ways to monetize AI to the benefit of the artist who owns and controls their name and likeness and the copyrights to their music.” The 45-year industry veteran believes the bigger challenge is “how to break new acts” when it comes to cultivating younger talent.

Most pressing issue: “I’m not focused on the advance. I’m focused on the [deal] structure,” Sweeney said in a recent podcast interview. “My goal for my clients is to own equity so that when they decide to retire, they’ve got an asset that they can sell.”

José Juan Torres Managing member, Torres

With offices in Puerto Rico and New York, Torres represents superstars such as Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro, as well as Residente and Eduardo Cabra, and music companies like The Wave Music Group. While Torres wouldn’t name the players, he cites as a recent highlight of his work an “intricate, triangular” transaction concerning the acquisition of specific rights from an independent label that “included influential figures in the current music scene and is poised to influence the direction of the music industry for the next seven to 10 years.”

Seth Traxler Partner, Kirkland & Ellis

Specializing in global technology and IP transactions, Traxler says the firm’s focus has been “helping various clients navigate the shifting catalog-sale market, including acquisition work, and the creation and funding of new vehicles to pursue opportunities” with an emphasis on “new technologies to expand their musical reach.” Clients include Hipgnosis, Blackstone, Metallica and Kobalt. For Universal Music Group, Kirkland & Ellis provided counsel in February for the acquisition of a 25.8% interest in Chord Music Partners for $240 million. UMG will now handle distribution and publishing administration for Chord’s catalog, which features more than 60,000 copyrights, such as stakes in songs like “Dreams” and “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, “Girls Like You” and “Sugar” by Maroon 5 and “Halo” by Beyoncé.

Most pressing issue: “Expand the pie aggressively and divide it fairly.”

David Vodicka Founding partner, Media Arts Lawyers Rob Glass Julian Hewitt Stephen King Marcus Walkom Partners, Media Arts Lawyers

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Media Arts Lawyers worked on over $50 million in mergers and acquisitions in the past 18 months, including BMG’s catalog acquisition of chart-topping Australian band Jet. The firm boasts clients including Tame Impala, Dom Dolla, Rüfüs Du Sol, Timmy Trumpet, Kylie Minogue, Ruel, Gotye, OneFour and Tones and I, as well as festival promoters, record labels and entertainment companies such as Onelove, Future Classic, Untitled Group, Select Music and BenchMob. Today, artists have a plethora of options for their music, so “an artist’s team must identify their specific goals,” Vodicka says, “and needs to ensure the resources on offer from prospective suitors will support and strengthen the artist’s trajectory in both the short term and long term.”

James L. Walker Jr. President, Walker & Associates

In a 30-year career, Walker has represented an array of iconic artists across pop, R&B, hip-hop, gospel and jazz including Aretha Franklin, Vicki Winans, DMX (and now his estate), Miki Howard, Freddie Jackson, the late Rick James and Shirley Caesar. (Walker’s firm also has advised leaders of the civil rights movement including Andrew Young, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the families of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Dick Gregory.) Walker fielded notable cases this past year involving copyright infringement, settling the high-profile case of Take 6 v. H.E.R. over the latter’s song “Could’ve Been” (featuring Bryson Tiller), and winning a case of trademark infringement levied against Marvin “Slim” Scandrick of R&B group 112.

Previn Warren Tech and media litigator, Motley Rice

As Motley Rice’s tech and media litigator, Warren is part of a team working for performing rights organization SESAC “in representing its interests, and the interests of its affiliated publishers and songwriters, in an arbitration seeking to increase the license fees owed by commercial radio stations represented by the Radio Music License Committee,” he says. Touching on a perennial point of concern, Warren says, “It is long past time to eliminate terrestrial radio’s unfair and unneeded exemption from paying sound-recording royalties.”

Most pressing issue: “Social media companies and websites that host deepfake content are immune from accountability because of an outdated liability shield, Section 230. Creators and their representatives should make clear to Congress that the time for Section 230 reform is now.”

Douglas Wigdor Founding partner, Wigdor Michael J. Willemin Partner, Wigdor

Much of the Wigdor firm’s activity in 2023 stemmed from the passage of the Adult Survivor’s Act. The company represented singer Cassie Ventura in her sex trafficking and assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging years of physical abuse. “We are proud to have represented Ms. Ventura in her lawsuit,” Willemin says. “In speaking out, Ms. Ventura gave other victims the strength to also come forward with their stories.” The parties settled the suit the day after it was filed. The firm’s other clients are Model Alliance founder Sara Ziff, actress Julia Ormond, sports journalist Jim Trotter and former New York Knick Charles Oakley.

Most pressing issue: “Continuing the push for diversity and inclusion for all underrepresented persons and musicians,” Willemin says.

Marcus Wiggins Founder/owner, Wiggins Sports & Entertainment

Wiggins’ clients range from dancehall legend Cutty Ranks and Chopmaster J, the surviving founding member of Digital Underground, to concert promoter WorldOne Presents and record label Bully Park. “I want to do as much as I possibly can for artists and musicians,” says the Sacramento, Calif.-based Wiggins. He fulfills this goal by finding and claiming rightful retroactive royalties for musicians, enforcing and protecting copyrights and trademarks, and reviewing music clearance requests. Wiggins says he’s in the process of retrieving past royalties for several musicians through SoundExchange and negotiating a major-label contract for Kstylis, the Missouri-based rapper known as the “King of Twerk.”

Most pressing issue: “The streaming companies are raking in billions, but the artists, the people responsible for actually making the music, are woefully underpaid and unappreciated. This is why I have participated in the Recording Academy’s advocacy efforts since 2016.”

Richard Wolfe Founder, Wolfe Law Miami

Based in Miami, Wolfe lists among his firm’s clients “29 defendant artists in the dembow case,” including Carlos Vives, Maluma and Wisin & Yandel. Scores of different artists who use the dembow rhythm — the beat at the core of reggaetón — are defendants in a suit brought by lawyers for Jamaican duo Steely & Clevie, who claim use of the rhythm violates the copyright on the pair’s 1989 song “Fish Market.” Wolfe also works with boy band Why Don’t We and hip-hop label Lil Joe Records. He highlights his company’s work on Lil Joe’s “groundbreaking Section 230 copyright termination case,” which is pending in federal court in Miami.

Most pressing issue: “The inverse relationship between the need for legal documentation and the financial ability to hire competent lawyers.”

Andrea Yankovsky Founder, Yankovsky Law

Yankovsky has her sights set on battling copyright infringement on streaming platforms: “Fake accounts using artist or indie-label names” filled with a “deluge” of AI-generated content. Some of her clients have faced revenue losses of up to $180,000 due to infringement, she says, but the firm has developed an effective strategy to stave off these attacks with trademark registrations. “It’s like playing Whac-a-Mole, with dozens of [AI] accounts and tracks popping up daily,” she says, adding that trademark registration allows the firm to force platforms to take down infringing accounts and tracks.

Most pressing issue: “The dominance of the major labels and publishers continues to be an issue. We need to keep working to put power and profits in the hands of those who actually make the music — artists and small businesses.”

Helen Yu Partner, Yu Leseberg

Yu counts Ty Dolla $ign, Black Eyed Peas member Apl.de.ap and the late Deon “Big D The Impossible” Evans as some of her clients. She is proud of a recent deal she struck for the Evans estate, negotiating a catalog acquisition agreement with Reservoir Media for some of the songwriter-producer’s most beloved tracks with Tupac Shakur, including “Changes,” “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and “Papa’z Song.” By finding the right creative home for these songs, Yu says Evans’ contributions to Shakur’s legacy have now “taken their rightful place in history.”

Most pressing issue: “It is incumbent upon the leaders in the music industry to ensure that our artists, producers and songwriters receive fair compensation for their creative contributions to keep music as a sustainable ecosystem and safeguard the vibrancy and integrity of the music business for generations to come.”

Donald S. Zakarin Partner/co-chair of the litigation and music groups and media and entertainment litigation practice, Pryor Cashman Ilene S. Farkas Partner/co-chair of the litigation and music groups and copyright, media and entertainment litigation and music litigation practices, Pryor Cashman James G. Sammataro Partner/co-chair of the music group and media and entertainment litigation practice, Pryor Cashman Frank P. Scibilia Partner/co-chair of the music group and the copyright, media and entertainment litigation, music litigation and music transactions practices, Pryor Cashman Benjamin K. Semel Partner/chair of the AI interdisciplinary group and co-chair of the music group and media and entertainment litigation practice, Pryor Cashman Brad D. Rose Partner/co-chair of the intellectual property group, Pryor Cashman

The team of A-list music litigators from Pryor Cashman, which counts Megan Thee Stallion, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and all three major labels as clients, successfully represented Ed Sheeran at the blockbuster 2023 trial over allegations that he based his “Thinking Out Loud” on Marvin Gaye’s famed “Let’s Get It On.” Litigator Zakarin was recognized on Billboard ’s 2024 Power 100 ranking for his achievements. And 2024 could be even bigger, as the firm is representing Karol G, Daddy Yankee and dozens of others in a copyright case over reggaetón. Pryor Cashman also worked on the Phonorecords proceedings before the Copyright Royalty Board, where significant increases in the royalty rates for the 10-year period of 2018-27 were achieved, which the firm says will result in billions in additional royalties paid to songwriters and music publishers.

Adam Zia Founding partner, The Zia Firm Nate Kuo Partner, The Zia Firm

Zia credits the firm’s work in representing Bandsintown for securing a significant deal with Spotify in February. Now, with the two platforms combined and Bandsintown incorporated into Spotify’s user interface, artists can experience “enhanced engagement [with] fans and stronger sales for live events worldwide,” Zia says. Meanwhile, the firm also negotiated rising artist Dylan Cotrone’s record deal with Columbia Records, while simultaneously representing a growing roster of A-list artists including Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Scott, Tokischa and Tierra Whack.

Most pressing issue: “The battle between the already established DSPs and the other platforms that are developing commercial music models, which obviously includes TikTok,” Zia says. “TikTok has become such a powerful tool for artists, both established and up-and-coming. But artists also need to be compensated fairly, whether they’re on a major label or as an independent artist.”

Leslie José Zigel Partner/chair of entertainment, media and technology group, SMGQ Law Javier Feito Partner of entertainment, media and technology group, SMGQ Law

SMGQ Law has served as the legal counsel for Bobby Weir of the Grateful Dead on all touring (Wolf Brothers, Dead & Company) and Grateful Dead legacy-related legal matters. The firm is also counsel for Marco Antonio Solís and Los Bukis’ international tour and Las Vegas residency and represented Carlos Vives for his 2023 El Tour de Los 30 trek. Additionally, Zigel and Feito, who represent acts like Wisin, Joaquina and Maffio, represented Pitbull in the release of his 2023 album, Trackhouse , and its publishing. On the film/TV side, the law firm was also lead counsel for the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

Most pressing issue: “The complexity of the financial models for streaming services,” Zigel says, “and the resulting huge black box of unmatched revenue due to poor inputting of label-copy information.”

Contributors: Trevor Anderson, Rania Aniftos, Megan K. Armstrong, Chuck Arnold, Nefertiti Austin, Katie Bain, Steve Baltin, Karen Bliss, Lars Brandle, Dave Brooks, Anna Chan, Ed Christman, Leila Cobo, Mariel Concepcion, Janine Coveney, Stephen Daw, Kyle Denis, Bill Donahue, Thom Duffy, Chris Eggertsen, Griselda Flores, Josh Glicksman, Gary Graff, Paul Grein, Raquelle “Rocki” Harris, Lyndsey Havens, Gil Kaufman, Steve Knopper, Katy Kroll, Carl Lamarre, Elias Leight, Jason Lipshutz, Joe Lynch, Heran Mamo, Geoff Mayfield, Taylor Mims, Gail Mitchell, Latifah Muhammad, Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Glenn Peoples, Sigal Ratner-Arias, Isabela Raygoza, Kristin Robinson, Jessica Roiz, Dan Rys, Damien Scott, Crystal Shepeard, Richard Smirke, Eric Spitznagel, Jaelani Turner-Williams, Andrew Unterberger, Christine Werthman, Jewel Wicker, Deborah Wilker

Methodology: Billboard ’s Top Music Lawyers recognizes only outside counsel at law firms with the exception of in-house attorneys at market-leading companies in the sectors shown. Nominations for all of Billboard ’s industry-sourced executive lists open no less than 150 days in advance of publication, and a submission link is sent by request before the nomination period. (Please email [email protected] for inclusion on the email list for nomination links and for how to obtain an editorial calendar.) Billboard ’s 2024 Top Music Lawyers were nominated by their firms and chosen by editors based on factors including the stature of their clients, as measured by year-end Billboard charts; sales and streaming performance; market share; revenue or, where not available, Billboard revenue estimates, which may be aided by company guidance; social media impressions; and radio audiences reached, using data available as of Jan. 15. Career trajectory and momentum were also considered. Where required, U.S. record label market share was consulted using Luminate’s current market share for albums, as well as track-equivalent and streaming-equivalent album consumption and Billboard ’s quarterly top 10 publisher rankings. Unless otherwise noted, Billboard Boxscore and Luminate are the sources for tour grosses and sales/streaming data, respectively. Luminate is also the source for radio audience metrics. The source for radio metrics is monitored station airplay from Mediabase provided by Luminate.

Leading Law Schools Of The Top Music Lawyers

The most frequently cited alma maters of the 2024 class of honorees.*

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University (New York) Enrollment: 906

Brooklyn Law School (Brooklyn) Enrollment: 1,070

Columbia Law School, Columbia University (New York) Enrollment: 1,293

Fordham University School of Law (New York) Enrollment: 1,145

Harvard Law School, Harvard ­University (Cambridge, Mass.) Enrollment: 1,747

New York University School of Law (New York) Enrollment: 1,413

Southwestern Law School (Los Angeles) Enrollment: 742

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley, Calif.) Enrollment: 1,093

University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law (Los Angeles) Enrollment: 1,038

University of Miami School of Law (Miami) Enrollment: 1,150

University of Southern California Gould School of Law (Los Angeles) Enrollment: 631

*Enrollments source: U.S. News & World Report. Schools are presented alphabetically and are not ranked. An alums-count tie results in 11 schools listed this year.

This story originally appeared in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.

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