The Story
Chris founded the firm in Los Angeles in 2005 and moved the firm to Austin in 2011. He works on a variety of transactional matters in the nexus of music, technology and policy. (See “What We Do”). Chris represented songwriter clients against “frozen mechanicals” in the Copyright Royalty Board’s Phonorecords IV (Subpart B) proceeding. The Subpart B proceeding resulted in an increase of the statutory mechanical royalty rate from the 2006 rate of 9.1¢ to 12¢ with a COLA. His public policy study for the World Intellectual Property Organization is available here. His comment to the UK Parliament’s House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Committee’s Inquiry into the Economics of Music Streaming is available here (cited in the Committee’s Report available here). His law journal article "Defiance or Collaboration: The Role of the Presidential Signing Statement in MLC Board Appointments” is here and his article “Ticket Resellers Campaign in Georgia Raises Resale Royalties, Securities Law Issues” is available on Law.com. His U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in Google v Oracle is available here.
Chris is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and was the director of the Texas Entertainment Law Institute. He has testified against speculative ticketing at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and on artist rights issues at the UK Parliament. Chris briefed the National Association of Attorneys General about brand sponsored piracy and has spoken at Congressional seminars. Chris lectures at law schools and business schools in the US and Canada on music-tech issues and artist rights including American University, University of Georgia Terry College of Business, Osgoode Hall, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, UCLA School of Law and Anderson Graduate School of Management, the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, the University of Texas Butler School of Music and the University of Texas School of Law CLE faculty.
Chris produced the original soundtrack from the film Moog, a retrospective on the life of Robert Moog released on Hollywood Records. He was Soundtrack co-producer with Leslie Lewis of the soundtrack from Advent Rising, video game score by Tommy Tallarico released on Nile Rogers’ Sumthin Else Music Works label. While at A&M Chris was the label’s executive in charge of the production of the soundtrack for Roadrash 1994, published by Electronic Arts. Roadrash 3D0 version was the first use of original recordings in a videogame featuring Soundgarden, Swervedriver, Monster Magnet, Paw, Therapy? and Hammerbox. Read about it here (“Promoting new bands with them newfangled videogames? Unheard of!!:”) During this period Chris oversaw the production legal of the Soundgarden CD Plus title Alive in the Superunknown one of the first CD Plus titles.
Chris is a co-founder of the Artist Rights Symposium at the University of Georgia. He was the principal drafter of the Texas True Origin of Digital Goods Act in the 87th Texas Legislature (2021). Chris was the founding chair of the Austin-Toronto Music City Trade Alliance, a cooperative effort of the Austin and Toronto city councils to promote commercial music business trade between the U.S. and Canada. In 2005, Chris was elected as a fellow of the World Technology Network. He received the 2016 Texas Star Award from the State Bar of Texas, is a member of the State Bar of Texas Pro Bono College and is one of the Billboard “Top Music Lawyers.” His current speaking engagements are here.
Prior to founding the firm he was SVP and General Counsel to SNOCAP in San Francisco, of counsel to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto and Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles, SVP Business Affairs at Sony Music in New York, and VP Business Affairs at A&M Records in Hollywood.
Chris is an MBA graduate of the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management and a JD graduate of the UCLA School of Law. While in law school he was a member of the UCLA Law Review, an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics and won the Norma Zarky Prize for the best published student paper on an entertainment law topic. Chris was an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law where he taught The Music Business in the Digital Millennium. Before law school, Chris graduated with high honors from UCLA, majoring in political theory. He is admitted to the bar in California and Texas.
Before all of this, Chris was a musician recording or performing with Long John Baldry (with Kathi McDonald and Alan Murphy), Jesse Winchester, Yvonne Elliman, Randy Bishop, Nanette Workman, Diane Dufresne, Claude Dubois, Jackson Hawke and many others. He was a member of Local 47, American Federation of Musicians.
Chris Castle writes the MusicTech.Solutions blog and the MusicTechPolicy blog.
High resolution image here. Credit Laura Lee Nall