Taylor Swift masters controversy

The Taylor Swift masters controversy refers to the dispute of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift with her former record label, Big Machine Records, its founder Scott Borchetta, and new owner Scooter Braun, over the ownership of the master recordings of her first six studio albums. It was a highly publicized conflict, drawing widespread attention and media coverage.

Swift signed a record deal with Republic Records in November 2018 after her Big Machine contract expired. Mainstream media reported in June 2019 that Braun has purchased Big Machine from Borchetta for US$330 million, funded by various private equity firms. Braun became the owner of all of the masters, videos and artworks copyrighted by Big Machine, including those of Swift's first six studio albums. In response, Swift stated she tried to buy the masters but Big Machine had offered unfavorable conditions, and that she knew the label would sell them to someone else but did not expect Braun as the buyer, recalling him being an "incessant, manipulative bully". Borchetta claimed that Swift declined an opportunity to buy the masters.

Consequently, Big Machine and Swift were embroiled in a series of disagreements leading to further friction; Swift alleged that the label blocked her from using her music for the 2019 American Music Awards and documentary ''Miss Americana'' (2020), while Big Machine released ''Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008'' (2020), an unreleased work by Swift, without her approval. Swift announced she would re-record the six albums to gain complete ownership over them. In October 2020, Braun sold the masters to the Disney family's investment firm, Shamrock Holdings, for $405 million on the condition that he keeps earning from the masters. Swift expressed her disapproval again, rejecting Shamrock's offer for an equity partnership, and began releasing the re-recorded music via Republic. She released ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' and ''Red (Taylor's Version)'', the re-recordings of her albums ''Fearless'' (2008) and '' Red'' (2012), in 2021 to critical and commercial success, breaking multiple sales, streaming and chart records. One of the tracks—"All Too Well (10 Minute Version)"—became the longest song ever to top the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, giving Swift her eighth number-one song. "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" and " This Love (Taylor's Version)" have also been released. Swift was the global best selling soloist and highest earning musician of 2021.

Various musicians, journalists, politicians and scholars supported Swift's stance, prompting a discourse on artists' rights, intellectual property, private equity, and ethics in the music industry. Publications described her response and move to re-record as influential measures, encouraging new artists to negotiate for greater ownership of their music. iHeartRadio, the largest radio network in the US, proclaimed it will replace the older versions in its airplay with Swift's re-recorded tracks. ''Billboard'' named Swift the Greatest Pop Star of 2021 for the successful and unprecedented outcomes of her re-recording venture. Braun has stated he regrets buying Swift's masters and Big Machine at large, and subsequently sold his entire holding company, Ithaca, to Hybe Corporation.

Background

Law

According to the U.S. copyright law, any music recording, vocal or instrumental, is subject to two types of copyrights: one that protects the specific audio file developed in a recording studio, known as the master, and the other protecting the musical work of the song before it became a recording. The master is the first recording of the music, from which copies are made for sales and distribution. The owner of the master, therefore, owns the copyright to all formats of the recording, such as digital versions for download or streaming, or physical versions like CDs and vinyl LPs. A party who wishes to use or reproduce a recording must obtain a copyright license authorized by the master-owner. Before the emergence of digital platforms, musicians relied on record labels to promote their music through means such as airplay or physical distributions to retailers. Labels would typically require artists to give them the rights to the masters "in perpetuity". On the other hand, owning the musical work is referred to as the publishing rights, which covers the lyrics before it became a sound recording—its melodies, sheet music, composition, and instrumental arrangements. Songwriters generally own the publishing rights, and are referred to as "publishers" of the music.

Context

Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. In 2003, at age 14, she visited major record labels in Nashville, Tennessee, for record deals but was rejected. In 2004, Swift performed original songs at an RCA Records showcase, and received an artist development deal, following which she moved to Nashville and worked with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers. In 2005, she became the youngest artist (age 15) signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house, but left the Sony-owned RCA Records due to her concerns that "development deals may shelve artists". Later in 2005, Swift participated in an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Café, where she was noticed by a DreamWorks Records executive, Scott Borchetta, who had an idea of establishing his own independent record label. Eventually, Swift signed a 13-year recording deal with Borchetta's new Nashville-based label, Big Machine Records, as its first recording artist. The deal gave Big Machine the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six albums in exchange for a cash advance.

From 2006 to 2017, Swift released six studio albums with Big Machine: ''Taylor Swift'' (2006), ''Fearless'' (2008), '' Speak Now'' (2010), '' Red'' (2012), ''1989'' (2014), and ''Reputation'' (2017), all of which were commercially lucrative and established Swift as one of the most successful music artists in history. Although Big Machine owned the masters, Swift retained the publishing rights to the albums due to her role as the main songwriter of all of the songs she had released under the label. This would allow her to re-record the songs in the future if she desired, as per the artist-label agreement that limits the artist from re-recording a song for a fixed period of time; Swift would not have been able to re-record her musical work had she not been a songwriter.

In August 2018, as per ''Billboard'', Swift's attorney Donald Passman and her management team proposed to Big Machine Label Group that the masters be sold back to Swift as their contract was nearing expiration; the label group responded that it would happen only if she renewed her recording contract with Big Machine, agreeing to create more albums under the label for the next decade. The two parties never arrived at an agreement.

Ultimately, Swift's contract with Big Machine Records expired in November 2018, following which she signed a new, global contract with Republic Records, a New York-based label owned by Universal Music Group. ''Variety'' reported that Swift's catalog constituted around 80 percent of Big Machine's revenue. Swift revealed a negotiation as part of her Republic contract—any sale of Universal's shares in Spotify, the largest on-demand music streaming platform in the world, resulted in equity shares for all of Universal's artists on a non- recoupable basis. The contract also allowed Swift to fully own the albums distributed by the label—both the masters and the publishing rights—starting with her seventh studio album, ''Lover'' (2019), and as reported by ''Forbes'', offered a royalty payment of 50 percent or more compared to the 10 to 15 percent Swift "likely" had been receiving from Big Machine.

Dispute

Acquisition by Braun

Scooter Braun is an American media proprietor, talent manager and businessman known for managing the careers of music artists Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Kanye West, through his media company, SB Projects. In June 2019, ''The Wall Street Journal'', followed by other mainstream media, reported that Braun's holding company, Ithaca Holdings LLC., had fully acquired Big Machine Label Group by purchasing it for an estimated $330 million. The purchase encompassed all aspects of Big Machine's business, including its client roster, distribution deals, publishing rights and music masters, and was financed by American private equity companies such as the Carlyle Group, 23 Capital, and Soros Fund Management, all of whom owned a stake in Ithaca. In a joint announcement, the companies claimed that the buyout "creates one of the most powerful label, management, streaming, publishing and media companies by combining complimentary services, artists, executives and expertise". As part of the acquisition, the ownership of all of the masters and copyrights owned by Big Machine, including those of Swift's first six studio albums, transferred to Braun. Borchetta joined the Ithaca board of directors, acquiring a minority interest in Ithaca, and remained as the President and CEO of Big Machine.

Swift's response

On June 30, 2019, Big Machine announced via social media that the label group had been acquired by Braun, following which Swift denounced the acquisition on Tumblr the same day. She stated that she had tried to buy her masters for years, but was not given a chance unless she signed another contract that would require her to create six more albums under the label in exchange for the masters of the first six, which she felt was "unacceptable". While she knew that Big Machine was for sale, she said she was unaware that Braunwhom she described as an "incessant, manipulative bully"would be the buyer: "Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it". She highlighted Braun's involvement in the creation of West's music video for his 2016 single "Famous", which she described as "a revenge porn music video which strips erbody naked". Swift also claimed that Braun influenced Kim Kardashian, then-married to West, to orchestrate an "illegally recorded" snippet of Swift's phone call with West, and had "two of raun'sclients" collude to bully Swift online, referring to a FaceTime screenshot of Bieber, West and Braun, posted to Bieber's Instagram after Kardashian released the snippet. Swift accused Borchetta of betraying her loyalty for selling the masters to Braun despite being aware of Braun's role in bullying Swift. Passman argued that Borchetta never gave Swift "an opportunity to purchase her masters, or the label, outright with a check in the way orchettais now apparently doing for others".

Borchetta's reply

In response, Borchetta published a blog post titled "It's Time For Some Truth" on the Big Machine website. On June 25, 2019, Big Machine shareholders and Braun's Ithaca Holdings held a phone call regarding the transaction. While Swift's father Scott was one of the label's minority shareholders (4 percent), he did not join the call due to a "very strict" non-disclosure agreement. A final call was held on June 28, when Scott Swift was represented by a lawyer from Swift's management company, 13 Management. Borchetta said he texted Swift on June 29, claiming that she was aware of Braun's transaction beforehand. He denied that Swift had been hostile toward Braun, and posted a text message he alleged Swift had sent before signing to Republic Records; in the message, Swift said she would accept another seven-year contract with Big Machine on the condition that she took ownership of her audiovisual works. Borchetta agreed, but asked for a ten-year contract. The authenticity of the message has not been verified.

Further strife

On November 14, 2019, Swift accused Braun and Borchetta of preventing her from performing her older songs at the American Music Awards of 2019 and using older material for her 2020 documentary ''Miss Americana''. She said they were "exercising tyrannical control" over her music, and claimed Borchetta told her team that she would be allowed to use the music only if she agreed to not re-record "copycat versions" of her songs; Swift commented, "the message being sent to me is very clear. Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you'll be punished."

In response, Big Machine rejected Swift's claim, "we have worked diligently to have a conversation about these matters with Taylor and her team to productively move forward. However, despite our persistent efforts to find a private and mutually satisfactory solution, Taylor made a unilateral decision last night to enlist her fanbase." However, on November 18, the label issued a statement saying they had "agreed to grant all licenses of their artists' performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms" for the AMAs, without naming Swift. It also stated that Big Machine negotiated with the AMAs producer, Dick Clark Productions. To the contrary, Dick Clark stated they never agreed to issue any statement with Big Machine.

Swift's publicist Tree Paine released a statement the next day. Paine said Swift avoided performing her older songs at the Tmall Double Eleven Gala 2020, a Singles Day event in Shanghai, China, and sang only three songs from ''Lover'', because "it was clear that Big Machine Label Group felt any televised performance of catalog songs violated her agreement", attaching a screenshot of a portion of an alleged email from Big Machine that reads: "Please be advised that ig Machinewill not agree to issue licenses for existing recordings or waivers of its re-recording restrictions in connection with these two projects: The Netflix documentary and The Alibaba 'Double Eleven' event." Paine also denied Big Machine's statement that said Swift "has admitted to contractually owing millions of dollars and multiple assets" to the label, and claimed the label is attempting to deflect from "the $7.9 million of unpaid royalties" that the label owes to Swift "over several years", as assessed by "an independent, professional auditor". Swift performed six songs at the 2019 AMAs on November 24, 2019, four of which were from her first six albums, and received the Artist of the Decade award.

In April 2020, Big Machine released ''Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008'', a live album of Swift's performances at a 2008 radio show. Swift said she did not authorize the release, and dismissed it as "just another case of shameless greed in the time of Coronavirus". ''Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008'' earned only 33 units in the US and did not chart anywhere. From August 2019 to January 2020, Big Machine released 4,000 vinyl LPs of each of the singles from ''Taylor Swift'' for the album's 13th anniversary, which was met with immediate backlash from Swift's supporters.

Aftermath

Swift's solution to her crisis was to create new recordings of all of the musical work in the six albums, using the publishing rights she retained, and to have the finished product sound as close to the original as possible. She announced in August 2019, on a special episode of ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' with American journalist Tracy Smith, that she would " re-record" and release the six albums to own the complete rights herself, as soon as her Big Machine contract allowed her to. By re-recording, Swift is technically covering her own songs as new recordings, resulting in new masters she fully owns, enabling her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use, known as synchronization, by evading the owners of the older masters and subsequently devaluing them.

Sale to Shamrock

In October 2020, Braun sold the masters, associated videos and artworks to Shamrock Holdings, an American private equity firm owned by the Disney estate, for a reported $405 million. Swift stated that she attempted to negotiate with Braun, but that he offered her a chance to buy the masters back only if she signed an "ironclad" NDA that only allowed her to speak positively about Braun during the process; she refused to sign the NDA. She also claimed that Braun mandated Shamrock not to notify her about the sale until it is complete, and that she further declined an offer by Shamrock to become an equity partner, on the grounds that Braun and Ithaca Holdings would continue to financially benefit from her work. Swift upheld her original decision and began the re-recording process in November 2020. In response, Shamrock released a statement: "We made this investment because we believe in the immense value and opportunity that comes with wift'swork. We fully respect and support her decision and, while we hoped to formally partner, we also knew wift's re-recording venturewas a possible outcome that we considered."

Swift's re-recordings

Swift began releasing her re-recorded music in 2021. The re-recorded albums and songs are identified by the note "(Taylor's Version)" added to all of their titles, to distinguish them from the older recordings.

In February 2021, Swift announced that she had finished re-recording her ''Fearless'' and released "Love Story (Taylor's Version)", a re-recording of the album's lead single "Love Story", on February 12. ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' was released on April 9 to rave reviews from music critics, who praised Swift's move to re-record her music, viewing it as an act of preservation of artists' rights. On September 15, following a viral TikTok trend involving " Wildest Dreams" (2015) that was gaining traction, the older recording of the song accumulated 735,000 plays on Spotify, marking the highest single-day streams ever for the song on the streaming platform. On September 17, Swift teased the re-recorded song's bridge as part of the said trend with a snippet on TikTok, captioning "if you guys want to use my version of wildest dreams for the slow zoom trend, here she is!". "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" was subsequently released to streaming platforms. Swift stated that she saw "Wildest Dreams" trending on TikTok and thought fans should have " erversion" of the song. In its first four hours of availability, "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" amassed 2,003,391 Spotify streams, breaking the record the older "Wildest Dreams" had set a few days prior.

On November 12, 2021, Swift released ''Red (Taylor's Version)'', the re-recorded issue of ''Red'', consisting of all 30 songs that were originally meant for the 2012 version. The album broke several sales, streaming, and chart records, and was met with widespread acclaim, becoming her highest rated album by critics on Metacritic. Its closing track, "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)", scored Swift the eighth ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one song of her career and garnered the ''Guinness World Record'' for the longest song ever to top the chart. The song's producer Jack Antonoff told ''Rolling Stone'' that a 10-minute-long song topping the Hot 100 teaches artists to "not listen" to what the industry has to say. " This Love (Taylor's Version)", a track from ''1989 (Taylor's Version)'', was released on May 6, 2022. In September 2022, Swift reportedly turned down an offer to headline the Super Bowl LVII halftime show (2023), refusing to play the show until her re-recording process is finished.

In October 2022, Swift released the Easter egg-laden music video of "Bejeweled", a track on her tenth studio album '' Midnights''. The video contains several hints to ''Speak Now'', and incorporates orchestral versions of its two tracks, " Enchanted" and "Long Live"; fans and media outlets surmised that the next release would be ''Speak Now (Taylor's Version)''.

Press investigation

On November 16, 2020, ''Variety'' journalist Shirley Halperin reported, "some insiders speculate the value f Swift's masterscould be as high as $450 million once certain earn-backs are factored in". According to a November 2021 report by ''Financial Times'', Braun believed that Swift was "just bluffing" about re-recording. The newspaper stated that, after purchasing Big Machine, Braun began searching for buyers for the masters of Swift's back catalog, and that he and co-investors told potential buyers that Swift would not actually re-record the albums, calling her announcement an "empty threat"; Braun also told the buyers that Swift's posts about the dispute would only generate more publicity, boosting streams and downloads of the albums. ''Financial Times'' also alleged that the deal between Braun and Shamrock included "a post-purchase earnout to Braun and Carlyle Group, if sales and streams hit specific targets". On December 10, 2021, ''The New York Times'' published that the Carlyle Group contacted Braun and encouraged him to reach a ceasefire with Swift, such as a joint-venture partnership, to prevent her from re-recording, according to an undisclosed group of "four people close to the situation", three of whom said the firm was "unhappy to be dragged into the dispute in such a public way".

''Business Insider'' reporter Anna Silman released an investigation exclusive in March 2022. Silman wrote that one of Swift's many reasons to detest Braun's procurement of the masters is his poor handling of the relationship between Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, the latter being one of Swift's closest friends and vice versa. Silman also stated that Braun controlled news stories of several media outlets and blogs. American rapper Lil Twist

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