Why did Taylor Swift lose rights to her albums?
A lot of artists look at their songs as if they were children, because of all the hard work that they have put into them. But in Taylor Swift’s case, her children will remain in other hands, not her’s.
Ithaca Holdings – fronted by Scooter Braun, the same person who Taylor accused of bullying – bought Big Machine Label Group for $300 million.
Old story, new people
The story goes that new artist with zero clout signs away their ownership of their recordings to a label, to get famous. When an artist has gained the recognition they tend to ask for their masters back. At this moment label pulls out a contract where it says that the record company owns them in perpetuity.
Artist can choose to re-sign, as a lot of artists has done before, or they make a deal to earn back rights to an old album, but the artist needs to make a new album, only then he or she can get back previous records.
Big Machine Gun owner Scott Borchetta told that he gave Taylor Swift this option. He has not yet responded to Taylor’s statement, that he is a bully. But Scott’s wife denied that he is a bully.
A big gamble
It is easy to blame labels and say that they are swindlers. But when the artist signs a contract, it still is a big gamble. That’s how the music business works.
In 2005 Taylor Swift was an unknown artist, Big Machine record label took a big risk when they signed her. It was a risk because Taylor was unknown and they didn’t know how well she will fit in the music business. Another problem was with digital downloads and piracy.
Now we can see that the industry has recovered, there are a variety of options – label services deals or simple distribution deals. If Swift was a new artist today, maybe things have been different.
Her fame and power, Big Machine took a big part of that making Taylor a big star as she is today, did enable her to negotiate one of the most favorable contracts in history. She did with the biggest record company in the world – Universal Music Group. Now Taylor owns all her future recordings.
For Taylor Swift, it is a happy ending because she lost her past masters. But Swift isn’t the only one who had problems with her record company. In 2007 Radiohead didn’t resign from EMI, Queen and Pink Floyd made a new album to earn back rights to their previous albums.
