How To Understand Band Partnership Agreements
Avoid pitfalls, disputes, and unintended consequences with proper planning
Steve Carey

Vancouver, BC
(Illustration by: Megan Arnold)
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Steve Carey is lawyer in British Columbia and Ontario, as well as a former entertainment and arts journalist. He practices at Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP, a full-service law firm.

Business law doesn’t matter to most bands until it’s too late to know it. For most DIY bands, you form, write, play some venues, release an album, tour a bit, then split, hopefully with some cash in hand. It’s fun to jam, but when money starts to change hands, there’s the possibility for serious disputes. An on-stage blowout, backstage rager, or an unwanted debt can be avoided by understanding default partnership rules or through the creation of a band partnership agreement.

A partnership agreement, also called a band agreement, is a contract explaining how the band operates, how decisions are to be made, and how profits are tallied up and split.

Without an agreement, automatic rules set out in the various provincial partnership acts apply. If you’re playing in a band with a view to making a profit, you’re already a partnership and the default rules apply to you. These are … Read More »