Business Formation & Label Structure
Your lawyer sets up the legal entities and internal agreements that turn your music activity into a real, protected business.
What This Covers
The moment money starts moving — a distribution payout, a feature fee, merch sales, a beat lease — you're running a business whether you've named it or not. Business formation and label structure is about turning that hustle into a real, protected company: the entity that holds your music (usually an LLC), the internal agreements that spell out who owns the name and the masters, how equity gets split among your crew, and the label, distribution, and imprint deals your business signs. It's the unglamorous foundation that lets everything downstream — ownership, royalties, deals — actually hold up.
Your lawyer forms the entity that separates your music business from your personal car, savings, and home, and helps you weigh an LLC against an S-corp or C-corp when taxes come into play. Your lawyer papers the band or partnership agreement, drafts the operating agreement and equity splits, and models the economics of a joint venture or imprint before you sign. Your lawyer reads the term, renewal, and exit clauses in a distribution deal, and writes the IP-assignment language that makes the business own the photos, logos, and videos it paid for.
Why It Matters to You
We've all seen the cautionary tales — groups that blew up and then imploded over who owned the name, who got paid, and who never signed anything. Without an entity, one lawsuit can reach your personal savings. Without a band agreement, your state's default rules quietly decide the split. Without IP-assignment, the designer may own your logo. And equity is permanent: hand a partner 50% casually and they may own half of everything for years.
Lock this in and you protect what you're building — your name, your masters, your company — so it holds up when the money and the ego hit the table, and so it's yours to pass down.
The Services We Offer
The Business Formation & Label Structure services Done Deal Digital offers, performed by a licensed attorney you engage directly.
LLC / Corporation Formation
Your lawyer forms the company that holds your music business so your personal assets are shielded and taxes are cleaner.
Band / Partnership Agreement
Your lawyer writes the agreement among bandmates covering money splits, decisions, name ownership, and what happens if someone leaves.
Operating Agreements & Equity Splits
Your lawyer documents who owns what percentage of the company and how profits and control are divided.
Label Services & Distribution Deals
Your lawyer structures or reviews the agreements your label uses to release and distribute music.
Independent Contractor & Employment Setup
Your lawyer papers your relationships with the people who work for you so they're classified and protected correctly.
Joint Venture & Imprint Deals
Your lawyer structures partnerships and label imprint arrangements so contributions, costs, and ownership are clearly defined.
Prefer to learn it yourself first? Get the Business Formation & Label Structure guide — $39 →
Start With a Free, No-Pressure Intro
Tell us what you're dealing with - a contract, a copyright, a name dispute, a bad deal - and we'll connect you with the right music lawyer. You'll engage and pay the attorney directly under their own agreement. Done Deal Digital is not a law firm and never collects or shares in any legal fee.
Request a Music Lawyer →Important Legal Notice
DONE DEAL DIGITAL IS NOT A LAW FIRM and does not provide legal advice or legal services. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
The legal services described here are provided solely by an independent attorney licensed in California, whom Done Deal Digital connects clients with. Done Deal Digital does not employ, supervise, or control that attorney and is not responsible for the legal services provided.
No attorney-client relationship is formed by this website or by contacting Done Deal Digital. An attorney-client relationship is created only by a separate written engagement agreement signed directly between you and the attorney.
You engage and pay the attorney directly. Done Deal Digital does not collect, hold, share in, or receive any portion of any legal fee. Any referral is non-exclusive, and you are free to choose any attorney you wish.
Communications you send through this page are not confidential or privileged. Do not send confidential or time-sensitive information here. Results depend on the facts of each matter; prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.