Music Bio
His clients include the multi-Grammy award winning music producer
Jerome “J-Roc tha Ghost” Harmon (co-produced singles for Justin Timberlake, Beyonce,
Michael Jackson, Jay Z, Timbaland and many others.) Tony’s expertise includes
producer management, publishing, licensing, dispute resolution, start-ups and many
areas relating to music copyright.
As a UK law graduate, Tony began his career in the music
industry in 2002 as a copyright assistant for Missing Link Music. At the same
time Bill Stafford (Vice President of Business Affairs at BMG Entertainment)
began mentoring Tony. In less than two years Tony accepted the role of copyright
manager at the company leading to a vertical learning curve.
A notable milestone in Tony’s career included being on a three-person
team that re-established the music publishing interests of an Elvis Presley
single, “Rubberneckin” back to the estate of one of the original songwriters. On
the song reverting to the estate, Tony was involved in issuing licenses on
behalf of the publisher. This included licensing the single in motion picture,
television commercials, manufactured goods, and most audio products.
While working with Missing Link Music, Tony also signed songwriters
and on-boarded many others. Tony’s focus centered on musicians knowing their
rights while he was active in resolving publishing disputes and negotiating
synchronization fees on their behalf.
With Bill Stafford’s mentorship, Tony learned the nuances of
major producer, publishing, songwriter, artist, and licensing agreements. In becoming well versed in such deals, Tony helped
develop a new business model for Missing Link Music that involved securing
production deals for songs recorded by the likes of Drake, Ludacris and Lil Wayne.
While developing new business models for the company, Tony remained steadfast
in his role of licensing music with the majors and media production companies.
On the back-office side – Tony had researched/identified and
set up foreign sub-publishing deals in all major music territories for Missing
Link Music. Also, Tony created a database that could manage client, contract,
and royalty information. Tony had taken traditional
business processes, spreadsheets and a rolodex and converted it into a fully
networked data application capable of rendering royalty statements from foreign
territories at a click of a button.
Another one of Tony’s milestones involved pursuing a
copyright infringement settlement for a well-known song that was prominently
used in a major motion picture. Tony identified the existence of a sound recording
sample, selected litigation counsel, and guiding them with the facts to
eventual settlement. While this was in motion Tony designed and structured a
publishing agreement that would allow the owner of the copyright to leverage
their interests to compensate the company and lawyers charged with enforcing those rights. The result led to many lucrative licensing deals and the songwriter being attributed for their contribution.
Since 2010, Tony consults with songwriters, musicians, and music companies with respect to copyright and licensing matters.