About Todd Brabec and Jeff Brabec
Award Winning Authors Adjunct Professors Entertainment Law Attorneys
Speakers Music Business Executives Licensing/Royalty Consultants
Todd Brabec, as Executive Vice President and Worldwide Director of Membership for ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers - the world’s largest music licensing organization) for well over 3 decades, was in charge of all ASCAP Membership operations throughout the world with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, London, Miami, Chicago and Puerto Rico, all writer and publisher payment formula recommendations, changes and implementation, all advances, loans and other member financial arrangements, all competitive payments and systems analysis and was responsible for signing most of ASCAP’s successful songwriters and writer/artists including James Taylor, Marvin Gaye, Metallica, Green Day, Smokey Robinson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Journey, the Jimi Hendrix catalogue, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bob McDill, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty as well as the blockbuster film and television composers James Horner (“Avatar”, “Titanic” - the 2 top grossing films of all time), Hans Zimmer ( “Pirates of the Caribbean” films), James Newton Howard (“Dark Knight”), Michael Giacchino (“Up”, “Medal of Honor” video games) and Randy Newman ("Toy Story" films), among many others.
Through his leadership, direction and efforts over 37 years, ASCAP grew from 60 million dollars to 1 billion dollars in annual revenues, from 30,000 members to 350,000 writers and publishers and from a 20% overall market share to market share dominance in radio, television, feature films and all other major media. In addition, he was able during his long career, to eliminate all ASCAP payment policies, provisions, formulas and rules which were not in the best interests of songwriters and composers as well as significantly increasing the payments for film and television score and theme songs as well as hit songs on radio.
He is a current Governing Committee Member as well as former Music Chair and Budget Chair for the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries where he conducts legal and business panels and webinars.
Jeff Brabec is Vice President of Business Affairs for BMG Chrysalis (representing the catalogues of OutKast, Sheryl Crow, Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse, John Denver, Leon Russell, My Morning Jacket, Blondie, David Bowie, Paul Anka, Billy Idol, Jethro Tull,The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, A3 (The Sopranos television theme), TV On The Radio and Ray LaMontagne). He specializes in evaluating, analyzing, projecting income and negotiating music publishing catalogue acquisitions as well as songwriter, co-publishing, participation, administration, subpublishing and joint venture agreements. He has negoiated more than 1,000 movie, television, video, new technology and advertising commercial agreements for chart writers,writer-recording artists and writer - producers.
Previously, he has been Vice President of Business Affairs for The PolyGram Music Group and Director of Business Affairs for both The Welk Music Group and Arista-Interworld Music Group where he represented the catalogues of Elton John, Henry Mancini, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Hall & Oates, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II, among others. A graduate of New York University School of Law, he has also been a government legal services attorney.
The Brabecs are co-authors of the best selling book "MUSIC MONEY AND SUCCESS: the Insider's Guide to Making Money in the Music Business" (6th edition/Schirmer Books/Music Sales).
The Brabecs are Entertainment Law attorneys, graduates of the New York University School of Law, former recording artists and legal services attorneys, Deems Taylor award winning writers for music journalism, Adjunct Associate Professors at the USC Thornton School of Music where they teach a course on Music Publishing, Music Licensing and Film, Television and Videogame Scoring and Song Contracts and conduct a guest Lecture series/course on Music Publishing and Music Licensing for Berklee College of Music.
They have over 300 educational articles published and lecture extensively throughout the world on all aspects of the business, economic, legal and financial side of music at colleges and universities, conferences, state and national bar associations, seminars, law schools, technology companies, management firms, foreign country collection and licensing societies, and songwriter associations including South By Southwest, Canadian Music Week, American Bar Association annual conferences, Midem, International Association of Entertainment Lawyers, American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, Practising Law Institute (PLI), American Film Institute (AFI), Guitar Center, Borders Books, American Federation of Musicians, Hollywood Reporter / Billboard Conference, Game Developers Conference, Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association, Taxi, PRS, SOCAN, APRA, IMRO, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Song Summit Sydney, ASCAP Expo, Society of Composers and Lyricists, California Lawyers for the Arts, California, Illinois and Minnesota Bar Associations and many others.
College, university and law school guest lecturing and teaching include USC, NYU, University of Miami, Syracuse University, Berklee College of Music, Belmont University, Middle Tennessee State, Loyola New Orleans, Adelphi, Thomas Jefferson Law, University of Florida, University of Texas, Trebas Institute, Hastings School of Law, Florida State, UCLA, Miami Dade, Five Towns College and Southwestern Law, University of Colorado among many others.