Taylor Swift buys the rights on his main records

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Mark Savage

Music correspondent

Getty Images Taylor Swift performs on stage during "Taylor Swift | The tour of the era" Of BC Place on December 06, 2024 in Vancouver, British ColombiaGhetto images

Taylor Swift bought the rights to his first six albums, ending a long -standing battle for ownership of her music.

“All the music I have ever made now belongs to me,” the star said, reporting the news On her official website. “I broke out in tears of joy … Ever since I realized it was really happening.”

The saga began in June 2019, when the music manager Scoter Braun bought the former Swift Big Machine sound recording and with it all the songs from Taylor Swift, fearless, talk now, red, 1989 and reputation.

Swift had personal objections to the deal, accusing Brown of complicity in “continuous, manipulative harassment” against her by Kanye West, one of his clients.

On her website, Swift said that restoring rights to her music for a long time seems unimaginable.

“To say that this is my biggest dream come true, it is actually quite reserved by it,” she added, thanking fans for their support as the drama plays out.

“I cannot thank you enough for helping to bring me together with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but I have never owned before.

“I almost stopped thinking that this could ever happen, after 20 years, when the carrot crashed and then pulled away,” she wrote.

“But that’s all in the past now.”

In the music industry, the owner of the main record controls the way in which it is distributed and licensed. The artist still earns remuneration, but control of Masters offers protection against the way work is used in the future.

The reputation (Taylor’s version) is delayed?

Tasler Swift's Tasler's Rights Sit with Cross Legs on the Floor, holding copies of their first six albumsTAS’s rights management

Swift poses with vinyl copies of his first six albums to celebrate the news

Swift responded to the original sale of his masters by vowing to recording these records, effectively reducing the value of these master cartridges and returning the property back into their hands.

To date, she has released four re -recorded albums – known as Taylor versions – with dozens of bonus songs and additional material.

In her letter, the star told the fans that she had not yet completed the project after “hitting a point stop” while trying to process the 2017 reputation album – which deals with the public control of her personal life and the elimination of her feud with Kanye West.

“The reputation album was so specific at that time in my life,” she explained. “All this challenge that the longing must be understood as it feels purposefully misunderstood …

“To be completely honest, this is the only album in the first six I thought it couldn’t improve by doing it again … So I continued to postpone it.”

Last week, the star visualized the new version of the first single of the reputation, see what made me do, in an episode of the maid’s tale – but her letter suggested that a complete recording would be delayed or even defective.

However, she promised that the sober songs from the record would be released on a future date if fans were “in the idea”.

She also confirmed that she had re -recorded her debut of the same name, adding, “I really love how it sounds now.”

“These two albums can still have their moments to reappear when the weather is appropriate,” she added.

“But if it happens, it will not be from a place of sadness and longing for what I would like to have. Now it will just be a celebration.”

What is the main record?

As the name implies, the main record is the original recorded song. Whoever owns all the rights to operate music.

This includes its distribution in streaming services, pressing new physical CDs and vinyl, creating boxes or licensing songs on movies or video games.

Swift, as a writer or co -author of her music, always maintained her publication rights, which meant that she was able to veto the songs like the Shake It Off and Love Story of other companies.

“I want my music to live. I want it to be in movies. I want it to be in commercials. But I only want if I own it,” she told Billboard in 2019.

It is not known how much it costs to acquire her masters, but the catalog previously sold for $ 300 million (222 million pounds) in 2020.

The BBC understands that rumors that she has paid between $ 600 million to $ 1 billion are inaccurately high.

Getty Images Taylor Swift Dances in a richly decorated cream ball dress during a meeting on her Eras 2024 tourGhetto images

The review of her old songs for the Taylor Version project has helped to inspire the career era tour

How did the sale of the masters of Taylor Swift happen?

When 14-year-old Taylor Swift moved to Nashvil in 2004 to chase her dream of becoming a pop star, she signed a record deal with Big Machine.

The head of the label, Scott Borchets, gave unproven singer on a large cash advance in exchange for ownership of the main recordings of his first six albums “In Perpetius”.

It was a very common practice in the era before streaming, when contractors needed a reserve label to play on the radio, as well as for the production and distribution of CDs.

The SWIFT deal with Big Machine expired in 2018, at which point she left and signed with Republic Records and Universal Music Group (UMG).

A year later, the wrestling sold its label to Ithaca Holdings to SCOOTTER BRAUN.

Swift said she had learned about the deal only when she was announced; Characterizing it as an act of aggression that “deprived me of the work of my life.”

She marks Brown – who has faced the fame as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s manager – as “the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry.”

She also expressed powerlessness that she was unable to make a counter -proposal for her music.

“I spent 10 years of my life trying to strictly buy my masters straight and then I was denied this opportunity”, “” She told a billboardAdding that: “Artists may have to have the first right to refuse to buy.”

Later, Brown told Variety that the dispute was “out of use” after he and his family received threats of death.

Later, the music tycoon sold its share in a Shamrock Holdings Swift Catalog, an investment fund in Los Angeles, founded by the Disney family in 1978, in November 2020.

The multimillion -dollar deal left Swift again to feel betrayed.

“This is the second time my music was sold without my knowledge,” she said in a social media publication.

While she was “open to the opportunity to partnership with Shamrock,” she later learned that, under the conditions of sale, Brown “would continue to win from my old music for years.

“I just can’t with a pure conscience to join the interests of Scoter Braun,” she wrote in a letter to the company she published at X.

Getty Images Taylor Swift is presented at the top of Bejeweled during the Z100 jungle ball in 2012.Ghetto images

The ownership of the masters means that SWIFT can now choose to license original records of movies and television shows in addition to the re -records

She began to release her processed albums in 2021, starting with her breakthrough album, which is fearless.

Made with forensic attention to the details, they were often indistinguishable from the originals -albeit with slightly cleaner mixtures and a greater separation between the instruments.

But the big attraction was the bonus songs, including the endless, 10-minute version of her separation ballad, too well recorded by Variety magazine as the “Holy Grail” on the back of the star.

The song continued to head the US charts and made the number three in the UK – where it was the longest song that once reached the top five.

Meanwhile, the singer continued to release original material, including Grammy -awarded albums Folklore and Midnights.

In 2023, Forbes magazine announced that Swift became the first musician to make $ 1 billion (£ 740 million) alone from writing songs and performance.

Half of her wealth comes from music rewards and tour, while the rest came from the increasing value of her music catalog, including her re -records.

The revision of old material also inspired the Eras’ Eras tour, which made over $ 2 billion ($ 1.48 billion) at ticket sales in 2023 and 2024.

In his letter, Swift said the success of Eras’s tour “was the reason I could get my music back.”

She added that she was heard to see her struggle, inspiring other artists.

“Every time a new contractor tells me that he has agreed to own his main records in his recording contract for this match, I remind myself of how important it is to happen.

“Thank you for being curious about something that was considered too oriented towards a wide discussion industry.

“You will never understand how much it means to me that you are interested. Every part of it counts and ends us here.”

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