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William R. Leibowitz is an American lawyer and business executive, who pioneered both music royalty securitization deals (so-called "music bonds" [1], [2]) and the 360 degree [3], [4] concept that revolutionized the music industry.

Educated in music at the Juilliard School (Manhattan School of Music) [5] ; Mr. Leibowitz earned a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University [6] (Phi Beta Kappa, University Honors Scholar, Magna Cum Laude) and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University Law School [7] (Honors in Intellectual Property). Within five years of graduating Columbia, he became a name Partner at the New York City law firm, Mayer, Katz, Baker & Leibowitz, P.C., an internationally recognized entertainment law firm, which among others, represented clients such as, Atlantic Records [8], Elektra Records [9], Warner Music International [10], Warner Special Products and Hachette/Filipacchi, in addition to numerous renown recording artists, producers, and major U.S. and U.K. independent record labels, publishing and management companies.

In October, 1995 after being a Partner for 13 years at Mayer, Katz, Baker, Leibowitz & Roberts, he left to form the New York City entertainment law firm, Leibowitz, Roberts & Ritholz, LLP, with clients such as 'N' Synch, Prince, Atlantic Records, Motown Records [11], Sony Records [12], INXS [13], Michael Hutchence [14], Maxwell [15], Lisa Loeb, Iron Maiden [16], V2 Records, (Richard Branson's record label), Madison Square Garden, New Line Cinema [17], Anthrax [18], David Byrne, TVT Records [19], Cablevision, Maxim Magazine [20], Salt N' Pepa [21], Cable Network Services, Broadway Video, Megaforce Records [22], Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation [23], U.S. Tobacco, L.O.U.D. Records [24], The Sanctuary Group of Companies [25] , Alive Entertainment, Active Entertainment, Mc-Cann Erickson [26], numerous executives at MTV [27], Nickelodeon [28], VH-1 [29], and major record and publishing companies.

While at his law firm, Mr. Leibowitz specialized in complex transactions including acquisitions of intellectual property companies and assets, and leading artist management companies. He was also one of the first advocats of the advantages for music artists of using their recording and publishing royalty-streams to issue bonds to investors. These so-called "royalty securitizations" or "music bonds" [30], [31] provided artists with long-term (i.e. 15-20 year) tax-advantaged low-interest financing (without personal guarantees or liability) thereby freeing artists from being dependent on record companies and music publishers for advances. He initiated and negotiated the first pure "music bond" [32], [33] deal ever done for a single recording artist's royalty streams ("Iron Maiden") and the first securitization transaction accomplished for a record and publishing catalog (TVT Records and Publishing); both of these transactions were eight-figure deals.

In August of 2004, Mr. Leibowitz left private practice to become Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of the Sanctuary Group(a U.K. public company) which was the largest independent music company in the world. At Sanctuary, Mr. Leibowitz was a chief architect of the "360 degree" [34], [35] business model that subsequently became the blueprint for virtually all record companies worldwide. Under this structure, a record company acquires rights in all aspects of a recording artist's career -i.e., recording, music publishing, touring and merchandising, sponsorships and endorsements. However, under Mr. Leibowitz' aegis, Sanctuary actually had substantial operating companies in each area (including artist management and talet agencies) which provided extensive services to the artists in return for the rights granted. This was in contrast to many other companies that sought "passive income" by requiring artists to grant pieces of their income from all these ancillary sources merely in exchange for getting a record deal.

In late 2007, the Universal Music Group [36], the world's largest music company and a subsidiary of Vivendi [37], aquired Sanctuary, where Mr. Leibowitz continues in his role as General Counsel/Chief Operating Officer.


References

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  1. ^ http://www.cfi-institute.org/VP%20-%20Royalty%20Securitizations%20-%20Morris.html
  2. ^ http://www.ipeg.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/QA-IP-Securitization.pdf
  3. ^ http://www.economist.com/node/10498664?story_id=10498664
  4. ^ http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0310/Facing-The-Music-The-Recording-Industry-Power-Struggle.aspx
  5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juilliard_School
  6. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University
  7. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University
  8. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Records
  9. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektra_Records
  10. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Music_Group
  11. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motown
  12. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Music_Entertainment
  13. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INXS
  14. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hutchence
  15. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_(musician)
  16. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Maiden
  17. ^ http://www.newline.com
  18. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrax
  19. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVT_Records
  20. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_(magazine)
  21. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt-n-Pepa
  22. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaforce_Records
  23. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Leonard_Corporation
  24. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loud_Records
  25. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_Records_Group
  26. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCann_Erickson
  27. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV
  28. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelodeon_(TV_channel)
  29. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VH1
  30. ^ https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=7+UCLA+Ent.+L.+Rev.+367&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=cd2a204ca8788d72548165048fcdc1ff
  31. ^ http://www.buildingipvalue.com/n_editorial/28_32.htm
  32. ^ http://www.ltrm.org/journal/vol3Issue2/articles/issue3vol2_AGlaser_pp27_65.pdf
  33. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intangible_asset_finance
  34. ^ http://musicindustryreject.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-is-360-degree-deal.html
  35. ^ http://www.berklee-blogs.com/2010/10/future-of-music-series-is-the-360-degree-diy-model-good-for-musicians
  36. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group
  37. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivendi
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