In honour of Taylor Swift re-recording her old albums, I thought that a brief overview of the messy legal situation that ensued when her masters were first bought by Scooter Braun would be very fitting.
There is a common misconception that she made the decision to re-release her old albums out of ‘greed’ and hunger for more money. But that’s not the case at all. In fact, the ownership of masters is a huge issue for the majority of artists out there because not all of them own it, including other big artists like Ariana Grande! If the term ‘masters’ sounds unfamiliar to you, it basically refers to the official recording of a song and most record labels will have control of them.
This all began when Taylor was a mere 15 years old. She signed a contract with her old label, Big Machine Records, which meant that all the rights to her music will be given to BMR, and they have the right to control the use of any of her work under this contractual agreement. Now you might be thinking, this is pretty much her own fault for allowing all of her work to be signed over. So, what’s the issue? The problem is that since the music industry is highly competitive, any young teen in her position would have done the same thing. In fact, they still do. At the end of the day, she wanted a record deal. At that age, she didn’t realise the implications of it and how valuable that would be. It was an investment into her singing career, and it clearly helped. How many talented contestants do you see on TV shows like the Voice or XFactor and they just... disappear? In this industry, having good vocals and songwriting skills isn’t enough. Unfortunately for Taylor, it meant that she had to sacrifice the ownership of her first six albums.
So, this takes us to 2018. Taylor refused to sign a new contract at BMR and instead made a huge move to Universal Music Groups. This was great news as she has since owned all of her albums released under UMG! But then, in 2019 BMR was purchased. This meant all her hard work was handed over when it was acquired by Scooter and his company, Ithaca Holdings. This outraged Taylor. Not just because these were songs she had actually written herself, but because her former manager at BMR, Scott Borchetta, had betrayed her trust. She noted that she knew Scott would be selling the label and also handing over her work. She just didn’t know who it was going to be sold to. This whole ordeal was only known to her when the news went public. To quickly sum up the personal beef, so I don’t stray away from the legal issues, Scooter Braun is a huge name in the industry. He has always been after Taylor. He manages big names like Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Ariana Grande. Imagine being the manager of the artist of the decade too? According to Swift, her “music legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter”
It is devastating for any artist not to own their work, but for someone who has repeatedly bullied her throughout her career (according to Swift) to own it? Not cool.
So, what’s the deal now? Well, in Taylor’s contract with BMR, it stated she was allowed to start her re-recordings from November 2020. And nearly a year later, she has done exactly that. As of April, this year, she released Fearless. This is Taylor’s version of her previous album that had won four Grammys, including Album of the Year and the first of her six albums she owns! Meaning, her iconic tracks like ‘Love Story’ and ‘You Belong With Me’ are now owned by her! And, as of November 12th this year, she is set to release Red (Taylor’s version). It’s been an emotional moment for fans and Taylor herself, as she has full rights over songs she has spent time writing in her bedroom since she was a teenager. This is only the beginning.
What does this mean for the music industry as a whole? This controversy has definitely raised awareness for future and current artists to not fall into contracts out of desperation, because it will cost them in the future. Another similar situation occurred to a popular soul singer, Anita Baker, where she had previously requested fans not to stream her music as she was not making any money. But fortunately for Baker, earlier this year she took to Twitter to announce she now owns her masters, and her fans were given the green light to stream! Rapper 21 Savage also stated that owning his masters earned him more money than touring. He stated in a podcast that he had learnt from other rappers “who f***** up” and “ain't do it the right way.”.
The fact that a big artist like Swift isn’t in control of all her music is quite a shock, but unfortunately, a common occurrence in the industry. For the law students who are interested in contract law, this may be of interest to you and something you may want to research further. It’s very likely the artist you listen to also does not own their masters. Here’s to hoping Swift’s decisions will be making a long-term impact on upcoming artists landing themselves a record deal, just as she has always impacted the music industry.
By Amena Khan