MUSIC’S HOTTEST FIRMS: BOYARSKI FRITZ LLP
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Boyarski Fritz LLP is a leading entertainment and media firm founded by two longtime multi-industry veterans, Jason Boyarski and David Fritz.
Boyarski, a Co-Founding Partner of the firm, has earned industry-wide recognition as a top entertainment lawyer and has been cited as an industry expert by legacy publications like The New York Times, Time and The Hollywood Reporter. Well-rooted in deal-making, Boyarski’s practice is a product of his diverse background, including his past post as the SVP/GM of Warner Chappell.
Boyarski has served as lead entertainment counsel for the Prince Estate since the late icon’s death in 2016, which included his handling of a 35-album deal with Sony Music; a full-catalog publishing-administration deal with UMPG; a performance-rights deal with Irving Azoff’s GMR; an agreement with Warner Music to distribute previously unreleased vault albums; an array of deals that brought Prince’s music catalog to TikTok, Peloton and SiriusXM; and many yet-to-be-announced projects, including new unreleased vault music, live events and visual-rights projects.
Widely regarded as one of the industry’s leading experts in music publishing, Boyarski represents some of the biggest songwriter/producers, including hitmaker Louis Bell (Post Malone, Halsey), ASCAP’s recent two-time songwriter of the year; Latin music’s #1 producer, Tainy (J. Balvin, Bad Bunny, Selena Gomez); chart-topper Frank Dukes (Camilla Cabello, The Weeknd); Ayo (Cardi B’s “WAP”); and song- writers Xplicit (Justin Bieber’s “Anyone”) and Melanie Fontana (BTS, Dua Lipa).
Catalog sales have been a major part of Boyarski’s practice in recent years, including the sale of Louis Bell’s catalog to UMPG, the sale of the Donny Hathaway Estate’s publishing and recorded-music catalog to Primary Wave and the sale of Nico & Vinz’s catalog to Warner, along with several other yet-to-be-completed transactions. Other recent major transactions include negotiating Electric Feel Music’s European joint venture with UMPG, a new publishing agreement for rock icon Joan Jett and the representation of Create Music Group in various transactions, including its new record deals with Tory Lanez and Snoop Dogg. Boyarski’s roster also includes Paul Oakenfold, Aluna George and the Estate of Antonio Carlos Jobim, as well as such companies as BMG, Disney Music, NEON16, Musixmatch, Jingle Punks and AudioUp.
Co-founding Partner Fritz has a varied entertainment and media practice that includes his longstanding representation of Marc Anthony and counseling his Magnus Media family of companies—which includes a booking agency, sports agency, television and film-production company and management company. Recent deals have included Anthony’s renegotiation with Sony Music Publishing (with a companion joint venture for Magnus) and a first-look deal with Viacom International. Fritz also co-counsels many big-name clients with Boyarski, including Joan Jett, Future Moguls and Homemade Projects.
This past year, Fritz has advised clients including musical artists Lil Tecca and his production company, Galactic Records (which included a worldwide endorsement deal with Puma as well as wildly competitive record and publishing deals with Republic and UMPG, respectively); artists Lindsay Lohan, Xie (Casablanca/Republic), Afro Bros and XIX (Masked/Warner Records); music-technology platforms Cinematic Music Group and Vydia; the talent incubator TalentX in its joint ventures with Sony Music Publishing, Elektra and Warner Records (which spawned Jxdn and Nessa Barrett, respectively); music producers such as Rob Cavallo (Green Day) and Keith Varon; and the live production of Enter the Dragon, slated for launch at Paris Las Vegas.
In addition to his vibrant music practice, Fritz represents restaurants, software developers and high-net-worth individuals. He’s also the co-founder of Creative Intell, Inc., a legal tech/ed tech business-affairs solution for the entertainment business.
