Mr. CONDIT. Our next witness is Mr. Downs. Mr. Downs is the
attorney for R.E.M. and he is also a professor for the University of
Georgia School of Law. Thank you for being here today.
STATEMENT OF BERTIS DOWNS, ATTORNEY, R^.M., AND AD-
JUNCT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA SCHOOL OF
LAW, ATHENS, GA
Mr. Downs. Good morning, thanks for letting me be here. I live
in Athens, GA, As you said, my name is Bertis Downs. I am the
attorney for the group R.E.M. , a popular rock band that I have rep-
resented since I graduated from law school in 1981. As you also
said, I teach part-time at the University of Greorgia School of Law
where I teach courses on entertainment law and sports law. Also,
for the last 2 years I have served as the music division chair of the
American Bar Association’s Forum Committee on the Entertain-
ment and Sports Industries.
I mention these affiliations for identification purposes only, and
emphasize that the views I am about to ofFer are mine alone and
not necessarily the views of any organization with which I am asso-
ciated.
My views spring principally from my representation of R.E.M.
The band was founded in 1980 and has given hundreds of live per-
formances since then. Right now, R.E.M. is actively considering an-
other major tour, possibly as early as 1995. Since my own work
largely concerns these tours, I have had a chance to observe all of
the many business components that make up the live music tour-
ing industry. If you don’t mind, I am going to take a second to
draw — I am going to get into my teacherly mode.
I want to draw on the blackboard to show how a deal is put to-
gether. There have been a lot of questions, trying to get at sort of
the macro part of all this and I want to try to provide a framework
or a context for you to understand how this particular corner of the
music touring industry, ticket sales, relates to the rest of it, and
I then want to make a larger point about that.
BERTIS DOWNS 