Elliot Groffman

The veteran attorney on streaming royalties, revenue models and industry prospects under President Trump.

- Robert Levine

ON THE FRIDAY OF GRAMMY week, when Elliot Groffman received the Entertainment Law Initiative Service Award, he used his speech as an opportunity to reflect on just how much the music business has changed. “The economic model that I grew up with in the ’80s and ’90s has blown sky high,” says Groffman, a partner at Carroll, Guido & Groffman LLP who represents the Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam, among others. At the same time, Groffman’s advice for acts wouldn’t have sounded out of place 20 years ago: “If you have any leverage at all in a deal, keep [the term] as short as possible.”

Transactional lawyers like Groffman now find themselves representing bands in the brave new world of streaming, with its opaque royalties and unsettled economics. Streaming revenue is spurring the kind of growth in the recorded-music business that hasn’t existed for more than a decade. But it remains to be seen how much that growth will benefit artists — especially those without pop hits. “The question is, Is streaming a sustainable business model where labels and everyone are sharing in an equitable way with the artists?” asks Groffman. “This has always been an issue, from vinyl to CDs.”