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No. 47Creative Controls
Also called deemed consent, silence equals approval, automatic approval, tacit consent
A clause that treats your silence within a short window as approval for a proposed action.
Watch closely
Short deemed approval windows are easy to miss and can result in unintended consent.
A deemed approval clause means that if you do not respond to a label's request within a specified period, often 5–10 business days, you are legally treated as having approved it. This shifts the burden to the artist to actively object rather than requiring the label to obtain explicit consent.
Deemed approval clauses are time-bombs. Artists and their representatives are busy; missing a response window can result in approval being granted for marketing materials, sync placements, or other actions you would never have consented to.
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.