Chief Music Licensing Counsel - Oakland, CA
At Pandora, we're a unique collection of engineers, musicians, designers, marketers, and world-class sellers with a common goal: to enrich lives by delivering effortless personalized music enjoyment and discovery. People—the listeners, the artists, and our employees—are at the center of our mission and everything we do. Actually, employees at Pandora are a lot like the service itself: bright, eclectic, and innovative. Collaboration is the foundation of our workforce, and we’re looking for smart individuals who are self-motivated and passionate to join us. Be a part of the engine that creates the soundtrack to life. Discover your future at Pandora!
SiriusXM and Pandora have joined together to create the world’s largest audio entertainment company. Together, we are uniquely positioned to lead a new era of audio entertainment by delivering the most compelling subscription and ad-supported audio experiences to millions of listeners – in the car, at home and on the go. Our talent, content, technology and innovation continue to be at the forefront, and we want you to be a part of it! Check out our current opening below and at www.SiriusXM.com/careers.
Pandora is seeking a highly motivated, proactive attorney for a unique opportunity to join and lead the music licensing legal team. The right person for this position must be a team player with highly collaborative interpersonal skills. This individual will take pride in personal excellence, display a high level of confidence, energy and possess a proven ability to thrive in an environment with frequently shifting priorities. This is a great opportunity to be a key strategic player in an exciting, fast-paced and fun company. This position is responsible for the negotiating and drafting of various content and music related agreements and rendering legal advice with respect to copyright and music related issues.
Responsibilities:
Lead the creation of Pandora’s ongoing strategy for music licensing – and manage that strategy’s implementation through a team of lawyers.
Work closely with the content licensing team in negotiating, structuring and drafting various content acquisition deals for the Pandora services, including agreements for songwriters, publishers, non-music content providers, performing rights organizations, recording artists and record labels.
Work closely with the artist marketing, event production and content production teams in negotiating, structuring and drafting artist engagement and production deals, including agreements with recording artists, talent agencies, vendors, suppliers and contractors.
Effectively negotiate and interact with key players in the music industry (business and legal) and efficiently discuss risk and tradeoffs with other members of the Pandora team, including finance, accounting, tax, engineering, product, royalty reporting and senior-level executives under time-sensitive conditions
Advise Pandora team members regarding various business and legal matters including copyright, contractual rights and obligations and legal claims
Coordinate and assist in managing music and/or copyright litigation, disputes and relevant rate proceedings. Assist in responding to subpoenas, document requests and other formal requests for information including negotiating the scope of any response, consulting with internal business partners and obtaining, reviewing and producing documents
Build strong internal client relationships and generate client satisfaction through strategic thinking and risk analysis.
This role will manage three existing roles on the Pandora legal team – two music licensing attorneys and one artist and events attorney.
This role will report to the General Counsel of Pandora and be an important member of the Legal Leadership Team.
Minimum Requirements
10+ years of experience practicing music law
A Juris Doctorate from a nationally recognized law school
Admission to at least one state bar (State Bar of California preferred)
Strong law firm or in-house experience/training
Preferred skills
Proven, in-depth knowledge and experience drafting and negotiating complex agreements relating to the creation, distribution, sale, marketing and financing of music
Intimate knowledge of copyright law
Meaningful experience with managing a team of lawyers
Demonstrated strong ability to collaborate effectively and influence internal company clients
Strong analytical capabilities and judgment, even when the rules are unclear and the issues are of first impression
Ability to manage a varied, high-volume workload efficiently and smoothly, operate autonomously (without outside counsel support) and remain cool and levelheaded in pressurized situations
Knowledge of record label and publishing administration
Practical knowledge of the music and technology industries
Ability to make decisions and pivot quickly and fluidly, think practically and be solution-oriented
Curiosity and willingness to tackle matters outside area of expertise
Able to recognize and respond quickly and pragmatically to urgent situations and demanding clients
Able to take rational business risk
Outgoing, optimistic, a self-starter and flexible
