Artists First.
ArtistsLegal is the legal home for human artists. It gives visual artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, performers, and creators the contract literacy, rights-protection tools, and plain-language legal education that used to require a $500-an-hour lawyer — free to start, built entirely on the artist's side of the table.
Every industry that profits from art has an institution protecting its side. Labels have the RIAA. Studios have the MPA. Platforms have armies of lawyers. Artists have advice to "get a lawyer you can't afford." We're building the counterweight.
Fair Compensation
You should be paid for your work — on time, in full, with contracts that say so. We teach you to read the deal before you sign it.
Moral Rights
Your name stays on your work. Your work stays yours. Attribution and integrity aren't favors — in many cases, they're the law.
Respect for Human Creators
In every contract, every platform, every courtroom. Human creativity is not raw material for someone else's machine.
Contract literacy, not just templates.
Artists sign 360 deals, consignment agreements, and publishing contracts without knowing which clauses decide their next decade. Our teardowns annotate real contract types — clause by clause, in plain English, with the red flags marked.
The 360 Deal, Annotated
Six clauses in a modern record deal that decide whether you ever see royalties — cross-collateralization, the "in perpetuity" trap, and what a fair split actually looks like.
Read the teardown →Your PRO Is Not Your Copyright
ASCAP and BMI collect performance royalties. They don't register copyrights, and PRO registration won't let you sue anyone. What registration actually does — and why it costs $45 to protect a $150,000 claim.
Understand the difference →They Haven't Paid You. Now What?
70% of freelancers have been stiffed — average loss $6,000. The demand-letter sequence that gets artists paid: evidence, deadlines, escalation, and when small claims or the Copyright Claims Board beats a lawyer.
Get the playbook →Enforce your rights — with or without a lawyer.
From a politician using your song at a rally to a label sitting on your masters, the law gives artists real tools. We build the calculators, letter writers, and filing guides that put them in your hands.
Cease & Desist, Done Right
Unauthorized music at a political rally, your art on someone's merch, your photos on a stock site, your voice in an AI clone. Guided letters with the right statute, the right demands, and the deadline that makes them credible.
Build a letter →Reclaim Your Masters
Under 17 U.S.C. §203, recording artists and songwriters can terminate post-1978 grants during a 5-year window that opens 35 years after signing. Miss the notice deadline and the right is gone forever. Find your window in 60 seconds.
Calculate your window →The AI Threat, Answered
AI companies trained on your work without asking. Where the litigation stands, how to register for protection now, opt-out tools that work (Glaze, Nightshade, robots.txt), and how to license on your terms if you choose to.
See your options →Nobody built a safety net for artists. We're building the map.
Outside the guilds — WGA, DGA, SAG-AFTRA — artists get no health care, no retirement plan, no institutional support. MusiCares and the Entertainment Community Fund help some. Here's how to find the rest.
Health Care, Actually Explained
ACA marketplace plans for variable artist income — subsidy math, enrollment deadlines, and the MAGI estimation that trips up every gig worker. Most artists qualify for far more help than they think.
Find your path →Retirement Without an Employer
SEP-IRA vs. Solo 401(k) for people with lumpy income and no match. How much to stash in a good year, and the order of operations: emergency fund first, then tax-advantaged accounts.
Plan it →The Safety-Net Directory
MusiCares, Entertainment Community Fund, NYFA emergency grants, CERF+, Sweet Relief, Creative Capital — verified, current, and organized by what you actually need: rent, medical, crisis, or your next project.
Browse the directory →Legal help shaped to how you actually work.
A gallery consignment is not a sync license. A publishing deal is not a management contract. Start in your lane; everything cross-links from there.
Visual Arts
Consignment, commissions, licensing, moral rights (VARA), image theft
Music
Recording and publishing deals, masters, royalties, sampling, rally misuse
Literary Arts
Book contracts, agents, reversion clauses, plagiarism, KDP terms
Film & TV
Options, work-for-hire, credits, residuals, unauthorized clips
Performing Arts
Performance agreements, likeness, touring contracts, safety nets
Digital Creators
Platform terms, demonetization, sponsorship deals, account bans
Organize your legal life. Understand it. Handle it.
Create a Matter for every legal issue in your career — the deal you're reviewing, the client who won't pay, the photos on someone else's site. The Studio keeps your documents, timelines, and next steps in one place, with AI guidance grounded in our attorney-reviewed library. When a matter genuinely needs a professional, it tells you — and how to evaluate one.
Your Matters, One Desk
Each issue gets a workspace: documents, notes, deadlines, checklist. Stop managing your career's legal risk from your inbox.
AI That Works for the Artist
Upload a contract — get clause-by-clause plain English with red flags. Ask what your options are — get answers that cite real law, with clear limits. AI serves the artist here. Never the other way around.
Act From the Same Screen
Generate the demand letter, the DMCA notice, the split sheet — drafted from your matter's facts, exportable, tracked to resolution.
Straight answers.
- What is ArtistsLegal?
- ArtistsLegal is a legal education and self-help platform for working artists — contract guides, rights-protection tools, and document builders that let artists understand and enforce their own rights.
- It is an educational resource, not a law firm. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship.
- Can a musician stop a politician from playing their song at a rally?
- Often, yes. Ask your PRO (ASCAP/BMI) to exclude your songs from the campaign's Political Entities License — use after that is copyright infringement. Even with a venue license, Lanham Act §43(a) false-endorsement and right-of-publicity claims apply when your voice becomes campaign branding.
- Campaigns almost always stop after a credible demand letter — as they did for Rihanna, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, and the Isaac Hayes estate (which won a federal injunction in 2024).
- How can a recording artist get their masters back?
- 17 U.S.C. §203 lets authors terminate post-1978 grants during a 5-year window opening 35 years after signing (or 35-from-publication / 40-from-signing for publication grants, whichever is earlier). Notice must be served 2–10 years ahead and recorded with the Copyright Office.
- Artists who signed between 1985 and 1995 are in or approaching their windows now. Our free calculator finds yours.
- Does ASCAP or BMI registration protect my copyright?
- No. PROs only collect public-performance royalties. Copyright registration is separate — $45–$65 at copyright.gov — and it's required before you can sue or claim statutory damages up to $150,000 per willfully infringed work.
- What can I do if someone used my artwork online without permission?
- DMCA takedown first (fast, free), then a cease-and-desist demanding removal and a license fee if the use was commercial. Timely registration unlocks statutory damages of $750–$30,000 per work; claims up to $30,000 can be brought without a lawyer at the Copyright Claims Board.
Get the Artist's Legal Starter Kit.
The checklist bundle: 12 things every working artist should do this year to protect their work, their income, and their name — plus founding-member status when The Studio opens. One email when we launch. No spam, ever.