Taylor Swift Is The Music Industry

Taylor Swift is a household name that has been making headlines and breaking records in the music industry for over fifteen years. As an artist, she has moved seamlessly across genres and constantly reinvented herself and her work, but not without controversy. In her teenage years, constant headlines revolved around Swift’s love life and ex-boyfriends. However, the biggest headlines involving Swift and another man started in 2019 when Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group, and subsequently Swift’s entire discography of master recordings.[i] After much public disdain from both parties and music industry figures picking sides with either Swift or Braun, Swift decided to take an unprecedented move. She vowed to re-record her six-album discography purchased by Ithaca Holdings.

On November 12, 2021, Taylor Swift released the highly anticipated Red (Taylor’s Version). This was the second re-release of a previous album, the first being Fearless (Taylor’s Version), released on April 9, 2021. Upon release, Red (Taylor’s Version) broke the record on Spotify for the most-streamed album by a female in one day.[ii] In addition, the album also led to Swift breaking the record for most-streamed female in a single day.[iii] Why does this matter for the broader music industry, and not just devoted fans excited for never before heard vault tracks and a public forum for bashing Jake Gyllenhaal? Swift’s move to re-record her music to own her master’s makes way for artist empowerment public support of artist rights of ownership, and it holds significance regarding copyright law.

Negotiating Interests And Empowering Songwriters

When an artist signs with a record label, they typically must agree to sign over copyright ownership of their albums to the record label as part of the deal. The record label will commercially exploit the album in exchange for copyright ownership, and an artist will receive royalties from it. An artist cannot gauge the commercial success value of their work when negotiating their contract, making it possible for an artist to agree to royalties that are potentially lower than what they deserve. If their work proves to be a hit that stands the test of time, they could be missing out on a lot of the profits from the sound recordings of their work. Most recording contracts, including Taylor Swift’s, have a clause that states for a period of time (typically five years)[iv] artists cannot make new recordings of the songs featured on the sound recordings or master’s held by the label once they leave. However, Swift’s major success with her re-recordings can now empower artists to negotiate with record labels. For example, when discussing royalties, if an artist does not feel like they are getting what they deserve, they could use Swift’s example as a bargaining chip to increase royalties. Wouldn’t the record label rather pay a higher artist royalty rate for the duration, instead of one day having the value of their recordings greatly diminished due to new recordings? In Swift’s case, she makes her new recordings incredibly enticing as she has released multiple “Vault Tracks” of songs that were considered for the original albums but did not make the final cut.