Best time for artists who seek to reclaim their music rights is now
Throughout the past year, a spotlight was shone onto the crucial topic of termination rights, a provision in copyright law allowing artists to reclaim control of their recordings and compositions from labels and publishers.
In January 2025, a federal judge ruled that American copyright termination rules apply not just stateside but across the globe. Then, Salt-N-Pepa sued Universal Music Group, claiming the label refused to return their recordings.
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a landmark decision upholding the earlier ruling that songwriters can reclaim global copyrights under U.S. law.
Billboard named termination rights one of the biggest music industry stories of 2025, and it looks to be even bigger in 2026.
Why Isaac Hayes’ estate was able to sue Trump
Over the past decade, I’ve helped many artists put the proper strategy in place to fully benefit from terminating their rights. Among them is Atlanta-based producer and entrepreneur Isaac Hayes III, son of late singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes.
Under his guidance, the Hayes estate terminated his father’s publishing, including for his hit “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”
Because that process was started as early as legally allowed (more later on how that’s calculated), we were able to remove the song from the Performing Rights Organization’s list of politically usable tracks and sue President Donald Trump when he used the song 134 times without permission.
That case, which recently reached a mutual resolution, is one extreme example where termination rights come into play. But for any artist, reclaiming their rights as soon as legally possible is hugely beneficial.
Termination rights return control of an artist’s legacy directly to them or, if they have passed, to those who actually knew them and can make decisions based on what they stood for. After an artist has passed, termination rights provide their family opportunities to build generational wealth through sync licensing, brand deals, documentaries, book deals and more.
This is especially important for Black artists, who have long been robbed of the ability to pass money down to their ancestors through predatory deals.
“Hold On, I’m Comin’” brings in millions of dollars each year, and the Hayes family can now receive that income, build on it and keep it in the family going forward.
This is how the termination process works
So, what do you need in order to terminate? First, timing is everything.
For songs written and recorded prior to 1978, you can start the process after 56 years have passed, and you have five years from that date to do it. You can also give notice that you intend to terminate 10 years before that statute is up.
For songs written and recorded after 1978, you can terminate after 35 years, with the same option to notify 10 years in advance. Right now, artists can begin terminating songs recorded from 1988-2001.
After reviewing the timeline, artists must carefully examine their contract. A judge dismissed the Salt-N-Pepa lawsuit, saying that none of their contracts indicated that they ever owned their masters.
While I disagree with this interpretation and am glad the group is appealing, it’s a good reminder for new artists to be vigilant about looking for this language in their contracts and working with a lawyer to remove it before signing any label or publishing deal.
If the contracts are in order, next you must provide notice to the U.S. Copyright Office, the publisher and, if you are terminating recordings, the label. Labels tend to litigate — another reason to start the process as early as possible.
Many labels argue that recordings are works-for-hire since they are funded by advances. In my opinion, if the artist was given a recoupable advance, that means the label gave the artist a loan, meaning the artist paid for the recordings and owns them.
However, everything is negotiable, and as we continue to see more of these situations, I would advise labels to negotiate rather than litigate.
One option to consider is a term deal, where the label continues to recoup for a period of time, after which the artist gets all of the rights. Everybody wins!
We will undoubtedly see many of these cases play out in the coming years as more recent works become eligible. My hope is that artists and their teams will plan ahead, study their contracts and be willing to negotiate, and that labels and publishers will work with their artists in good faith.
After having earned millions of dollars from their artists over the years, it is time to let artists pass some of that wealth down to their families.
Liz Garner, an Atlanta native, is the founder of Garner Group Music alongside her twin sister and business partner, Elise, and has been instrumental in terminating rights for artists such as Isaac Hayes, Mint Condition, Montell Jordan, Brian Morgan, Shep Crawford, Kawan Prather and many others.
