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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Taylor Swift finally owns all her master recordings: the story, and why this is significant
'You belong with me', read the caption of superstar musician Taylor Swift's Instagram post on Friday (May 31), recalling the eponymous single off her second studio album, Fearless. She posed triumphantly with the covers of her first six albums: Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017). A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) In a letter on her website, she formally announced that she had purchased the master recordings of these albums – the copyrighted recordings used for analogue and digital duplication – from investment firm Shamrock Capital. This means that for the first time in about 20 years, she owns the recordings to all the music she has created. 'All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able one day to purchase my music outright — with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me,' she wrote. According to a Billboard article, she purchased the masters for $360 million. Friday's announcement culminated a six-year-long saga when Ithaca Holdings, then owned by record executive Scooter Braun, acquired her masters in 2019. The resulting 'feud' between Swift and Braun would have reverberations on the industry going forward. A year before the seminal feud erupted, Swift announced that she was parting ways with Big Machine Records, the record label she had been affiliated with since its inception in 2005. Her contract with the record label expired after she completed her tour for her sixth album, Reputation (2017). This contract, which she signed as a 15-year-old in 2005, had her sign over the ownership of the masters of her first six albums to the company. At the time, her departure had reportedly been described as amicable. Her new record deal with Republic Records, an imprint of Universal Music Group, captivated industry attention for its terms. The agreement allowed her to retain ownership of her master recordings. More importantly, it ensured that if UMG were to sell its $1 billion stake in music streaming company Spotify, it would share any resulting proceeds with its musicians, regardless of UMG's financial status. The Spotify clause 'meant more to me than any other deal point' of her new contract, she wrote in an Instagram post. This clause cemented her status in the industry as the 'saviour of underpaid artists', as an article in The Guardian described her in November 2018. Cut to June 2019. Swift had announced her first album under the new agreement, Lover (2019), and had dropped the first single, You Need to Calm Down, an anthem celebrating Pride and her freedom to own her music for the first time. On June 30, Braun's Ithaca Records announced its acquisition of Big Machine Records for $330 million from its CEO, Scott Borchetta, including the masters of Swift's albums. Braun's acquisition of her life's work until that point was a personal peeve for Swift, and she accused him of 'incessant, manipulative bullying' in a Tumblr post decrying the sale of her masters to him. Braun managed fellow musicians Kanye 'Ye' West and Justin Bieber, both of whom had repeatedly harassed her on social media in the past. West had infamously upstaged her receipt of the Best Female Video award at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), claiming fellow musician Beyonce Knowles was the rightful winner. And in 2016, he 'organised a revenge porn music video (Famous)', which Swift recalled in the post. In the post, she described the situation as her 'worst case scenario' and accused Braun of 'stripping' her of her life's work. She also wrote that she had tried to buy back her masters from Big Machine, but was instead 'given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and 'earn' one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.' Borchetta disputed these claims in a statement the next day, saying, 'Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings but… She chose to leave,'. He also described Scooter Braun as 'a supporter and honest custodian for her music.' The situation devolved further in November 2019, when she accused Borchetta and Braun of barring her from performing music from these albums at the American Music Awards. 'Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I'm not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I'm allowed to next year,' she wrote in a Tumblr post. She also alleged that the duo would permit her to perform her music on two conditions: 'If I agree to not re-record copycat versions of my songs next year (which is something I'm both legally allowed to do and looking forward to) and also told my team that I need to stop talking about him and Scooter Braun'. Big Machine Records denied these allegations, and eventually came to a licensing agreement allowing Swift to perform her old music on 'mutually agreed streaming platforms,' including the AMAs. Swift announced her intent to re-record the six albums on a talk show in August 2019, and said she would be eligible to do so a year later. The logic was simple – the re-recorded versions would be fully owned by her, while Braun would continue to profit off anyone playing the original versions of her songs. She confirmed the re-recording was underway in November 2020, even as news broke of a second sale of her masters, this time to Shamrock Capital. In a post on Twitter, she wrote that she was alerted about the sale by Shamrock, who had reached out to her, hoping to collaborate on this catalogue. On learning that Braun would continue to be in the picture even after her sale, she turned this down. Any collaboration with Shamrock would contractually provide Braun with a share of her profits even after the sale, while her attempts to purchase her masters meant signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement demanding she never disparage Braun again. Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up. — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 16, 2020 She promptly shut the door on all such negotiations. Swift continued recording and releasing music through the pandemic, releasing the critically acclaimed sister albums Folklore and Evermore in 2020. However, the re-releases of Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) in 2021 changed the game forever. While the album announcements were accompanied by the cryptic social media posts that sent Swifties (her fans) into a tizzy, speculating the order in which the tracks would be released, the albums themselves featured unreleased music, dubbed 'From The Vault', and new collaborations with fellow artists. Both albums topped the Billboard 200 charts that year, and a 10-minute version of her song All Too Well (Taylor's Version) dethroned Don McLean's American Pie for the longest song to be ranked Number One on the Billboard Hot 100. Her subsequent re-releases, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version), were met with the same fanfare in 2023. Her Eras tour (2023-24), which she called 'a journey through the musical eras of (her) career', further cemented her status as the top pop star in the industry. As a TIME article notes, Swift's struggle to cement her ownership of her masters recognises a simple truth that 'artists, even those with brands as powerful as hers, are vulnerable to exploitation.' In a March 2021 Instagram post, Swift wrote, 'Artists should own their own work for so many reasons. But the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.' This statement captured a sentiment widely felt by several artists who have spoken out against the terms of their record contracts, including Kanye West himself. The industry remains forever changed, with artists seeking to reclaim ownership of their body of work or agency over its exhibition. Olivia Rodrigo told The Guardian in 2021 that she negotiated a contract retaining control of her masters following Swift's example, while Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers and rapper Snoop Dogg expressed interest in re-recording their debut albums. And R&B artist SZA acknowledged Swift's efforts in her 2023 Billboard Woman of the Year interview, saying she 'deeply applaud(ed)' that.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
North and South Korea are in an underground war - Kim Jong Un might now be winning
Listen to Jean read this article The border between North and South Korea is swamped with layers of dense barbed-wire fencing and hundreds of guard posts. But dotted among them is something even more unusual: giant, green camouflaged speakers. As I stood looking into the North one afternoon last month, one of the speakers began blasting South Korean pop songs interspersed with subversive messages. "When we travel abroad, it energises us", a woman's voice boomed out across the border - an obvious slight given North Koreans are not allowed to leave the country. From the North Korean side, I could faintly hear military propaganda music, as its regime attempted to drown out the inflammatory broadcasts. North and South Korea are technically still at war, and although it has been years since either side shelled the other, the two sides are fighting on a more subtle front: a war of information. The South tries to get information into the North, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un tries furiously to block it, as he attempts to shield his people from outside information. North Korea is the only country in the world the internet has not penetrated. All TV channels, radio stations and newspapers are run by the state. "The reason for this control is that so much of the mythology around the Kim family is made up. A lot of what they tell people is lies," says Martyn Williams, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, and an expert in North Korean technology and information. Expose those lies to enough people and the regime could come crumbling down, is how the thinking in South Korea goes. The loudspeakers are one tool used by the South Korean government, but behind the scenes a more sophisticated underground movement has flourished. A small number of broadcasters and non-profit organisations transmit information into the country in the dead of night on short and medium radio waves, so North Koreans can tune in to listen in secret. Thousands of USB sticks and micro-SD cards are also smuggled over the border every month loaded with foreign information - among them, South Korean films, TV dramas, and pop songs, as well as news, all designed to challenge North Korean propaganda. But now those working in the field fear that North Korea is gaining the upper hand. Not only is Kim cracking down hard on those caught with foreign content, but the future of this work could be in jeopardy. Much of it is funded by the US government, and has been hit by US President Donald Trump's recent aid cuts. So where does this leave both sides in their longstanding information war? Every month, a team at Unification Media Group (UMG), a South Korean non-profit organisation, sift through the latest news and entertainment offerings to put together playlists that they hope will resonate with those in the North. They then load them onto devices, which are categorised according to how risky they are to view. On low-risk USBs are South Korean TV dramas and pop songs - recently they included a Netflix romance series When Life Give You Tangerines, and a hit from popular South Korean singer and rapper Jennie. High-risk options include what the team calls "education programmes" – information to teach North Koreans about democracy and human rights, the content Kim is thought to fear the most. The drives are then sent to the Chinese border, where UMG's trusted partners carry them across the river into North Korea at huge risk. South Korean TV dramas may seem innocuous, but they reveal much about ordinary life there - people living in high-rise apartments, driving fast cars and eating at upmarket restaurants. It highlights both their freedom and how North Korea is many years behind. This challenges one of Kim's biggest fabrications: that those in the South are poor and miserably oppressed. "Some [people] tell us they cried while watching these dramas, and that they made them think about their own dreams for the very first time", says Lee Kwang-baek, director of UMG. It is difficult to know exactly how many people access the USBs, but testimonies from recent defectors seem to suggest the information is spreading and having an impact. "Most recent North Korean defectors and refugees say it was foreign content that motivated them to risk their lives to escape", says Sokeel Park, whose organisation Liberty in North Korea works to distribute this content. There is no political opposition or known dissidents in North Korea, and gathering to protest is too dangerous – but Mr Park hopes some will be inspired to carry out individual acts of resistance. Kang Gyuri, who is 24, grew up in North Korea, where she ran a fishing business. Then in late 2023, she fled to South Korea by boat. Watching foreign TV shows partly inspired her to go, she says. "I felt so suffocated, and I suddenly had an urge to leave." When we met in a park on a sunny afternoon in Seoul last month, she reminisced about listening to radio broadcasts with her mum as a child. She got hold of her first K-drama when she was 10. Years later she learnt that USB sticks and SD cards were being smuggled into the country inside boxes of fruit. The more she watched, the more she realised the government was lying to her. "I used to think it was normal that the state restricted us so much. I thought other countries lived with this control," she explains. "But then I realised it was only in North Korea." Almost everyone she knew there watched South Korean TV shows and films. She and her friends would swap their USBs. "We talked about the popular dramas and actors, and the K-pop idols we thought were good looking, like certain members of BTS. "We'd also talk about how South Korea's economy was so developed; we just couldn't criticise the North Korean regime outright." The shows also influenced how she and her friends talked and dressed, she adds. "North Korea's youth has changed rapidly." Kim Jong Un, all too aware of this risk to his regime, is fighting back. During the pandemic, he built new electric fences along the border with China, making it more difficult for information to be smuggled in. And new laws introduced from 2020 have increased the punishments for people who are caught consuming and sharing foreign media. One stated that those who distribute the content could be imprisoned or executed. This has had a chilling effect. "This media used to be available to buy in markets, people would openly sell it, but now you can only get it from people you trust," says Mr Lee. After the crackdown began Ms Kang and her friends became more cautious too. "We don't talk to each other about this anymore, unless we're really close, and even then we're much more secretive," she admits. She says she is aware of more young people being executed for being caught with South Korean content. Recently Kim has also cracked down on behaviour that could be associated with watching K-dramas. In 2023 he made it a crime for people to use South Korean phrases or speak in a South Korean accent. Members of 'youth crackdown squads', patrol the streets, tasked with monitoring young people's behaviour. Ms Kang recalls being stopped more often, before she escaped, and reprimanded for dressing and styling her hair like a South Korean. The squads would confiscate her phone and read her text messages, she adds, to make sure she had not used any South Korean terms. In late 2024, a North Korean mobile phone was smuggled out of the country by Daily NK, (Seoul-based media organisation UMG's news service). The phone had been programmed so that when a South Korean variant of a word is entered, it automatically vanishes, replaced with the North Korean equivalent - an Orwellian move. "Smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people", says Mr Williams. Following all these crackdown measures, he believes North Korea is now "starting to gain the upper hand" in this information war. Following Donald Trump's return to the White House earlier this year, funds were severed to a number of of aid organisations, including some working to inform North Koreans. He also suspended funds to two federally financed news services, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America (VOA), which had been broadcasting nightly into North Korea. Trump accused VOA of being "radical" and anti-Trump", while the White House said the move would "ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda". But Steve Herman, a former VOA bureau chief based in Seoul, argues: "This was one of the very few windows into the world the North Korean people had, and it has gone silent with no explanation." Xi's real test is not Trump's trade war Channel migrants: The real reason so many are fleeing Vietnam for the UK Syrians have more freedom after Assad, but could they soon lose it? UMG is still waiting to find out whether their funding will be permanently cut. Mr Park from Liberty in North Korea argues Trump has "incidentally" given Kim a helping hand, and calls the move "short-sighted". He argues that North Korea, with its expanding collection of nuclear weapons, poses a major security threat - and that given sanctions, diplomacy and military pressure have failed to convince Kim to denuclearise, information is the best remaining weapon. "We're not just trying to contain the threat of North Korea, we're trying to solve it," he argues. "To do that you need to change the nature of the country. "If I was an American general I'd be saying 'how much does this stuff cost, and actually that's a pretty good use of our resources'". The question that remains is, who should fund this work. Some question why it has fallen almost entirely to the US. One solution could be for South Korea to foot the bill - but the issue of North Korea is heavily politicised here. The liberal opposition party tends to try to improve relations with Pyongyang, meaning funding information warfare is a no go. The party's frontrunner in next week's presidential election has already indicated he would turn off the loudspeakers if elected. Yet Mr Park remains hopeful. "The good thing is that the North Korean government can't go into people's heads and take out the information that's been building for years," he points out. And as technologies develop, he is confident that spreading information will get easier. "In the long run I really believe this is going to be the thing that changes North Korea". Top image credit: Getty BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Beastie Boys, UMG settle lawsuits against Chili's over ‘Sabotage' ads
Beastie Boys and Universal Music Group settled lawsuits accusing the parent of Chili's of using the legendary rap trio's 1994 song 'Sabotage' without permission in social media ads to promote the restaurant chain. Settlement notices were posted on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court and Dallas federal court, where Beastie Boys and UMG filed their respective cases against Chili's parent Brinker International. Terms were not disclosed. 3 Musicians Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys arrive at the 11th Annual Webby Awards at Chipriani Wall Street June 5, 2007 in New York City. Getty Images Advertisement Lawyers for Beastie Boys, UMG and Brinker did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. 'Sabotage' was a single from Beastie Boys' album 'Ill Communication.' It drew additional notice from its Spike Jonze-directed music video, a parody of 1970s TV police dramas. Beastie Boys objected to a Chili's video that they said included significant portions of 'Sabotage' and echoed the actual 'Sabotage' video. Advertisement 3 Beastie Boys and UMG are accusing Chili's of using their song 'Sabotage' without permission. REUTERS The video included 'three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys,' according to the complaint. Beastie Boys said they do not license their intellectual property to third parties to advertise products, and late founding member Adam 'MCA' Yauch forbade such use in his will. The trio's members also included Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horovitz and Michael 'Mike D' Diamond. Advertisement 3 Beastie Boys said they do not license their intellectual property to third parties to advertise products. WireImage Founded in 1981 in New York City, Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012, less than one month before Yauch died. In June 2014, Beastie Boys won a $1.7 million jury verdict, opens new tab against energy drink maker Monster Beverage over a YouTube video that included a remix of its songs, including 'Sabotage'. Advertisement As of March 26, Dallas-based Brinker owned, operated or franchised 1,573 Chili's and 53 Maggiano's Little Italy restaurants. The cases are Beastie Boys et al v Brinker International Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-05221; and UMG Recordings Inc et al v Brinker International Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, No. 24-02535.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce spark fan frenzy as deleted ‘Handmaid's Tale' clip ignites Reputation (Taylor's Version) rumors
Taylor Swift's surprise song drop in 'The Handmaid's Tale' causes chaos (Getty Images) Taylor Swift is back in the conversation—without even making a public appearance. As speculation continues to swirl around her anticipated return to the spotlight and a rumored appearance at the American Music Awards on Memorial Day, Swifties were sent into a frenzy when her song 'Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version)' unexpectedly played during a pivotal scene in the newest episode of The Handmaid's Tale. Taylor Swift's surprise song drop in 'The Handmaid's Tale' causes chaos after mysterious deletion by UMG The dramatic use of Taylor Swift's song in the dystopian drama wasn't just a random choice. The show's lead actress and producer, Elisabeth Moss, revealed how intentional the placement was. 'I've been wanting to use a Taylor song for many years on the show, and we finally found the perfect spot for a track from her, and I'm so glad we waited because there could not be a more perfect song for a more perfect moment,' Moss told The Hollywood Reporter. She continued, 'Taylor has been such an inspiration to me personally. As a Swiftie myself, and I think I can speak for Yvonne [Strahovski] and our entire cast, who are all Swifties, it's such an honor to be able to use her music in the final episodes of our show.' Moss also praised the show's editor, Wendy Hallam Martin, for choosing the track at just the right time. 'All the credit goes to Wendy for picking this track for this moment!' But what should have been a celebration quickly turned into confusion. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Shortly after the show's official X (formerly Twitter) account posted the video clip featuring Swift's song, it was mysteriously deleted. Not long after, Universal Music Group—Taylor Swift's label—posted it, only to remove it again. Fans were left baffled and suspicious. 'and deleted from UMG now,' one fan posted, paired with a crying emoji. Another added, 'y'all r we movin,' while a third echoed the confusion with, 'nvm wtf' followed by a cascade of crying emojis. The back-and-forth deletions have only fueled rumors that Reputation (Taylor's Version) is about to drop—and that Swift is saving the big reveal for the AMAs. Also Read: Taylor Swift to snub Chiefs' Brazil opener? Past trauma may keep her from supporting Travis Kelce abroad Until then, fans are keeping their eyes peeled and their streaming apps open. Something is definitely brewing in the Swiftiverse. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Music by John Williams' Doc Director on How Spielberg Convinced the Legendary Composer to Do the Film
When it comes to film music, there is no name more recognizable than John Williams, known for scores to movies like Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park in a career that has spanned seven decades. It's shocking, then, to know that there has been no documentary about his life and career until now. 'I have felt — as a filmmaker who loves to document people who inspire me, and who inspire people — that it was missing,' Music by John Williams director Laurent Bouzereau tells THR. 'I've known John 30 years, and there's not been a year where I've not said to him or to his representative or to Steven Spielberg, 'When are we going to do a doc on John?' ' More from The Hollywood Reporter How World-Building Took Over Television Chris Brown Freed on $6.7 Million Bail in Assault Case, U.K. Court Rules UMG to Move New York Offices in 2027 Turns out, all it took was a gala at The Kennedy Center celebrating Williams' 90th birthday to get the ball rolling. Bouzereau was tasked with interviewing directors who had worked with the legendary composer for a birthday greeting, but 'when I sat across all those people, they had incredible stories about John, and so I told Steven, 'We have to do this film. This is not a why. It's a why not.' ' Spielberg, with whom Bouzereau has a 30-year professional relationship, was the one who convinced Williams to do the documentary, although he was 'tentative' at first. 'I got a chance to talk to John directly, and he said, 'I don't really want to do this. I don't want to talk about myself.' And I said, 'John, it's not about you, it's about your music.' That reassured him, and by the end, he just couldn't get enough of us!' Bouzereau, who has made retrospective documentaries on Spielberg's Jaws and E.T., among others, knew that the anchor of the film would be Williams' relationship with Spielberg. 'Trying to find a point of entry in the film was very difficult, because when someone has lived close to a century and has been making music since he was 5 years old, where do you begin?' he says. 'So I thought, 'What is the one score that started him with us, the viewers and the audience?' And it was really Jaws.' The documentary takes audiences through Williams' prolific career and showcases how score elevates a scene — imagine, for example, the shark attacking from beneath without the synonymous 'bum-bum bum-bum.' To capture the composer's artistic impact, the film also features interviews with Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas, Ron Howard and Coldplay's Chris Martin, among many more. The pressure to profile someone known to so many generations was 'gigantic,' says Bouzereau. 'I didn't want it to be a hit parade — I wanted to tell a story, and I wanted it to be inspiring to people, like how you fall in love with a craft and how you hold on to that dream. And even though John's is an incredible success story, he also acknowledges that he was at the right place at the right time.' This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
