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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How Taylor Won
It happened — Taylor owns everything. All her songs, all her masters, her life's work. She won. Eight years after her label Big Machine sold off her catalog, Taylor Swift has finally achieved her goal of buying it back herself. The most impossible battle of her career, the most invincible dragon she's ever picked a fight with, the most doomed leap she's ever taken. As she announced in her bombshell public statement on May 30, she bought her catalog from Shamrock Capital, after a six-year struggle for control over her own music. 'The memories,' she wrote. 'The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life's work.' It can't be overstated what a victory this is for her, or the ramifications for other artists. This is the independence that generations of musicians have fantasized about, but never gotten close to seeing. 'Long Live' hits different today. 'New Romantics' hits different today. 'Ours' hits different, so does 'Dear John,' 'All Too Well,' 'I Did Something Bad,' and damn, don't even start about 'A Place in This World.' 'It's Time to Go.' All those songs feel bigger right now. It's one of those 'remember this moment' occasions. The patriarchy is having an extremely fucked day. Taylor won. How did this happen? More from Rolling Stone 'I Couldn't Stop Crying': Swifties React as Taylor Swift Reveals She Finally Owns Her Music Taylor Swift Got Her Old Albums Back, But Her Re-Records Were Still a Massive Success Taylor Swift's Vinyl Records Are on Sale After Revealing She Now Owns All of Her Music 'I'm trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent,' Taylor wrote in her bombshell public statement. 'But right now my mind is just a slideshow. A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news. All the times I was this close, reaching for it, only for it to fall through. I almost stopped thinking it could happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that's all in the past now. I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: 'All of the music I've ever made…now belongs…to me.' Taylor's battle was always much bigger than her. She's taking on the whole issue of artists controlling their own work. When Big Machine boss Scott Borchetta sold her masters to her arch-enemy Scooter Braun in 2019, she wrote, 'He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn't want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.' Six years later, she owns herself. Taylor was fighting for a kind of artistic freedom that her heroes never had, from Prince to Joni Mitchell. They never got to own their music, which was why Prince wrote 'Slave' on his face and renounced his name. Even Paul McCartney, the most successful musician ever, had to suck it up, after the Beatles publisher Dick James sold off the Lennon-McCartney song catalog in 1969, while both John and Paul were out of the country. (John was actually on his honeymoon.) Macca lived with this disappointment for decades, and being Macca, he didn't keep quiet about it. But still, he got up there every night and sang 'Hey Jude,' and had to pay for the right to sing it. But Taylor, still only 35, has won control of her work in a way that never seemed possible for artists, even the biggest ones. It's an unprecedented victory—you have to wish Prince had lived to see this day. As she wrote, 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it.' As she wrote, 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it.' It seemed like a crazy battle for her to carry on — a guaranteed failure, a waste of her time. Yet as she said three years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival, in one of her all-time greatest quotes, 'People often greatly underestimate how much I will inconvenience myself to prove a point.' Her fight began in 2019 when she announced that Borchetta had sold her masters to Braun. 'This is my worst case scenario,' Swift said. Braun was not just any music-biz mogul; he was a man who had seriously bad blood with Swift. (For one thing, he was the manager of a famous male rapper who was bizarrely obsessed with her — can't remember his name right now but he's the guy who just released the summer jam 'Heil Hitler.') For Borchetta to sell her off to Braun was seen as gamesmanship, especially since both men openly strutted about the deal. To the general public, it looked like they were going out of their way to make her mad, and it's safe to say they succeeded. Talk about a 'be careful what you wish for' situation. But when she raged about it, the industry response was basically: You're on your own, kid. Sorry, but that's the music business. Welcome to the big leagues. Unfair or not, that's how it works. All your old-school heroes, they all had to shut up and live with this, so what makes you special? This is the business we've chosen, remember? There was a bit of bemusement that she was taking this so personally. It was just proof that she was an emotional girl who didn't have a head for business and didn't get how things worked in the grown-up world. 'For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,' Taylor wrote at the time. 'When I left my masters in Scott's hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter.' But big deal — Scooter was just playing the game. As Bloomberg reported, 'All along it's been clear she was using personal animus towards him to make a few larger points about the music business.' Maybe she had some valid points about artists' rights. But as Bloomberg sniffed, 'Swift was never the ideal messenger.' She lashed back in 2019 by announcing plans to re-record all six of her albums, in new versions that she would own. Every single person in the music industry — every last one of them — assumed she was bluffing. She wasn't. Since the Taylor's Version project became a blockbuster, nobody wants to admit now they thought it was a dumb idea, just as nobody wants to admit they booed Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. It only looks like a brilliant move in hindsight, especially since it led to the Eras Tour phenomenon. But there was no precedent for any artist attempting this, much less getting away with it. Everybody thought it was crazy, even if they were rooting for her. Anyone who tells you different is a liar (and pathetic, and alone in life). Controlling her own music was obviously a silly thing to even talk about — just a childish fantasy. It was another one of those doomed quests that Taylor has always kept taking on — like her fight with Apple Music over artists' rights, or her legal fight against the male DJ who groped her at a concert. (Combat, she's ready for combat.) She'll pick the battles that seem crazy, or beneath her, and turn them into major victories. Other artists were stunned she had the nerve to try Taylor's Version. SZA called it 'the biggest 'fuck you' to the establishment I've ever seen in my life, and I deeply applaud that shit.' But it was the fight of her life, and she won. As Taylor wrote today, 'All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy.' Today is that day, and it's a major victory for artists. Her statement has so many ramifications for her fans. For one thing, we can now listen to the old version of 'Holy Ground' with a clear conscience, since sorry, but the Red (Taylor's Version) mix blew it with the rhythm track. (Try it again, Taylor—hell, you own it now. Take all the do-overs you want.) Taylor also announced that she has barely begun work on Reputation TV. This can only mean she's about to drop Reputation TV. 'Full transparency: I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it,' she wrote. 'To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first six that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch.' As for 'full transparency,' yeah well — this is the artist who posted 'Not a lot going on at the moment' the day she wrote 'Cardigan.' We all know better than to trust her. She loves to deceive, to mislead, to disrupt. She's fooled us before; she will never NOT fool us. Don't be surprised if we get Rep TV this weekend. Taylor also spelled 'thiiiiiiiiiiiis close' with the letter 'i' 12 times, which may or may not be a hint about TS12, just like water may or may not be wet. She added that her debut album has been totally re-recorded. 'I really love how it sounds now,' Taylor said, which probably means she's adjusted the accent a tiny bit. 'Those two albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would still be excited about.' Oh, the modesty. Yes, people will be slightly excited. The audience has been fiending for Debutation TV for way too long, the last two missing pieces of the Taylor's Version puzzle. She made headlines this week by not announcing these albums at the American Music Awards (or even showing up). 'But if it happens,' she wrote, 'It won't be a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.' Today is a celebration for sure, and it's a celebration Taylor Swift has earned. Nobody thought this victory was possible. She had the time of her life fighting this dragon—even though nobody thought the dragon could lose. But she won. She did something bad, and it feels so good. Long live. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Major Taylor Swift News Breaks After Big Career Announcement
Major Taylor Swift News Breaks After Big Career Announcement originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Friday was a day that Taylor Swift and her fans won't soon forget. Less than 12 hours after being spotted out in New York City at Italian hotspot Via Carota in West Village without boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who was in Kansas City training with the Chiefs having started OTAs, Swift made a major personal announcement on Instagram. In news that some of her fans expected thanks to a previous report from Page Six, Swift announced that she bought back the masters of her first six albums, 'Taylor Swift,' 'Fearless,' 'Speak Now,' 'Red,' '1989' and 'Reputation.' Billboard reported the acquisition cost Swift a hefty $360 million. Swift also revealed that while most of her fans were anxiously awaiting her to announce the release date of her 'Reputation (Taylor's Version)' album that she had some disappointing news for them. 'I know, I know. What about Rep TV?' Swift wrote. 'Full transparency: I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it. The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. 'All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief. To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. With news that a re-release of 'Reputation' likely wasn't happening, Swift's fans took matters into their own hands, and some pretty big news broke after she announced she had bought back her masters. 'Taylor Swift's 'Reputation' has returned #1 on US iTunes following masters announcement,' the @ChartData X account posted. Swift dethroned Morgan Wallen's 'I'm the Problem' album, which debuted at No. 1 on May 16. Released in 2017, 'Reputation' spent four weeks at No. 1 on the iTunes chart after its release. The album went three times platinum and has sold 2.478 million copies in the United States. Though Swift has been doing her best to stay out of the spotlight following Super Bowl LIX, it's clear following Friday's announcement that's no longer the case. She and Kelce were spotted having a public date night last weekend, and with the NFL season right around the corner, fans will likely see her at Arrowhead Stadium quite a bit in story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Taylor Swift PLC: How star's blockbuster Eras Tour, cool strategising and canny marketing nous paved the way for showbiz's most-stunning ever business deal
Six years ago, Taylor Swift was left nothing short of bereft after her former label sold 'her entire life's work' to music mogul Scooter Braun. What transpired was one of the nastiest feuds in music history involving Swift and Braun, who controversially acquired the rights to Taylor's material for $300million after buying Big Machine Media. He then went on to sell the catalogue of her first six albums to private equity firm Shamrock Capital for profit. But in a stunning moment of business brains versus Braun, Taylor has bought back 'her entire life's work' - largely thanks to her lucrative Eras tour last year, but also a string of other profitable ventures. The billionaire songstress, 35, could barely hold back her happiness as she announced yesterday 'all my music I've ever made now belongs to me' following an eye-watering buy-back deal thought to be in the hundreds of millions. Sources close to the negotiations told MailOnline the recent figure touted of 'between $600million-$1billion' was 'highly inaccurate' and is believed to be closer to the figure Shamrock originally paid, at around $360million. Taylor, who thanked Shamrock Capital for their 'honest, fair and respectful' way they handled the deal, said: 'I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams.' She also joked: 'My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.' The whopping sum represents a sizeable yet affordable chunk of the $1.6billion Taylor is said to have accumulated, according to Forbes. Last October, the outlet reported she is now the world's richest female music artist, having overtaken Rihanna, who owns the wildly-successful Fenty cosmetics and lingerie brand. So just how has the Love Story singer launched herself into the billion-dollar stratosphere? First and foremost, her record-breaking Eras tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time after passing a staggering $2billion in revenue. Comprising of distinct 'eras' based on her 10 studio albums, the singer committed herself to a three-hour-long, 40 song setlist for each show. Millions around the world - including A-listers, politicians and Royal Family members - flocked to see Taylor on a two-year tour that encompassed 149 shows. But while her jaw-dropping schedule would have been more than enough for most to contend with, Taylor additionally busied herself with other projects over those 24 months. The pop icon released re-recorded versions of Speak Now (July 2023) and 1989 (October) 2023 - announcing each release during tour dates, and accompanying them with music videos and never-before-heard songs. In February 2024 she shocked fans after announcing in her victory speech for Album Of The Year at the Grammys that she would be releasing yet another album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD). And that was not all: when TTPD was released last April, Taylor surprised Swifties by revealing it was a double album, meaning she effectively released the equivalent of four albums throughout the duration of the tour. Using her business nous to the max, Taylor further monetised the tour by releasing a film, which streamed on Disney+, and a book, published by her own company, documenting her record-breaking concerts. Secondly, her music catalogue itself has generated $600million in wealth for Taylor. The 14-time Grammy Award winner has been releasing music since she was 15 and has 11 original studio albums, including six that Braun had bought the rights to in 2019. Taylor, who branded the mogul a 'bully' for his tactics, claims she was unaware of his plan and alleged that when she previously approached Big Machine label head Scott Borchetta about buying her masters he would only sell them to her one at a time, starting from her earliest, least-profitable recordings. In exchange for the option to buy the masters back, Taylor claimed she would have to record a new album for the label in exchange for each old recording she bought, shackling her to Big Machine for years to come. The singer posted an emotional Tumblr at the time telling fans she made the 'excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Taylor surprised fans by releasing a staggering four albums while her Eras tour was running Now that her music is back under her control, Taylor's royalties and income from her music could skyrocket further 'Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.' She added: 'Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. 'Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words 'Scooter Braun' escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. 'He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn't want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.' She added that when she heard the news: 'All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I've received at his hands for years.' Taylor then listed a string of examples accusing Kim Kardashian and Kanye West – then Braun's client – of bullying. Shamrock acquired the master recordings to Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation – which Taylor has now regained ownership of. But prior to that she had begun a campaign to re-record her first six albums and has released the first four in recent years. Reputation (Taylor's Version) was heavily tipped to be her next release and the singer addressed the rumors in her open letter, saying it's the 'one album I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it' but teased she may still record another version, as well as offer up 'unreleased Vault tracks' from that album. Taylor says she has re-recorded the entirety of her debut self-titled album which, like Reputation, will 're-emerge when the time is right.' Now that her music is back under her control, Taylor's royalties and income from her music could skyrocket further. Last but not least, Taylor's third significant source of income is said to come from her impressive property portfolio, which Forbes estimates to be worth around £125million. The pop superstar first embarked on the property ladder in 2009 at the tender age of 19 when she snapped up with a three-bedroom penthouse in Nashville for $1.99m. Now Taylor boasts further homes in New York, California and Tennessee after opting for several stunning properties with fascinating histories. Most recently, the star revealed plans to expand her ocean-front estate in Rhode Island. After splashing out $17.75 million on the home in 2013, the Cruel Summer hitmaker plans to drop a further $1.7 million on a grand renovation. Elsewhere, new reports claim the singer is eyeing up property in Kansas City, Missouri, as Taylor allegedly looks into buying a home with NFL star boyfriend Travis Kelce. As for where Taylor's business acumen comes from, one does not have to look far to see where her natural nous comes from - with the singer heaping praise on her own parents for helping launch her to stardom. Her father Scott, 73, has played a key role in his daughter's business management team over the years. He is a longtime Merrill Lynch (a Bank of America company) employee, whose registered investment adviser The Swift Group is based in the family's hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. A disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission lists him as linked to 10 companies affiliated with his daughter, according to Bloomberg. This includes merchandising and rights-management businesses and entities that own her tour bus, two private jets and real estate. Meanwhile her mother Andrea, 73, is a former marketing executive described as 'calculated, logical, and business-minded'.
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Feels bigger than herself': the importance of Taylor Swift's latest victory
It goes without saying, but Taylor Swift has scored a lot of victories in the past few years. There was, first and foremost, the blockbuster Eras Tour, which became the bestselling concert tour of all time and a certifiable cultural era in itself. She released the bestselling concert film of all time, with a distribution model that upended the theatrical market. There was yet another album of the year Grammy. She turned the Super Bowl into the ultimate rom-com. Even with mediocre critical reviews, her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department, set more streaming records than I can count. All of these were beyond impressive, if at times threatening overexposure and annoyingly at odds with her self-styled narrative as an underdog – the emotionally astute lyricist battling against a sliding scale of villains, from careless boys, bitchy girls and heartbreak to gossip, criticism and misogynistic double standards. Often, the targets are petty; I never want to hear a Kim Kardashian reference again. But on Friday, with the announcement that she purchased the master recordings of her first six albums, Swift notched arguably the most significant victory of her career, over the one remaining foe worthy of her stature: the artist-devaluing practices of the music industry. For those who do not follow what has become canon in Swift's massive fandom, ownership of her masters has been the animating force behind the last six years of Swift's career, ever since Scooter Braun, most famous as the music manager behind Justin Bieber, purchased them from Swift's former label Big Machine Records for $300m in 2019. Like virtually all young artists, Swift had signed a deal that did not entitle her to ownership of her recordings, just royalties from their sales. The deal 'stripped me of my life's work', Swift wrote at the time, and left her catalog 'in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it'. (Braun used to manage longtime Swift antagonizer Kanye West.) For the following six years, even after Braun sold the catalog to private equity group Shamrock Capital for $360m, Swift re-recorded each album under the moniker 'Taylor's Version', a business masterstroke that at once devalued the originals, ginned up nostalgia and set the stage for the Eras Tour. The ownership of her master recordings, as well as her all her music videos, concert films, album art, photography and unreleased songs, is, in Swift's own words, deeply meaningful on a personal level. 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,' she said in a handwritten letter posted on her website to announce the acquisition. 'All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy.' (Swift, the daughter of a Merrill Lynch stockbroker and forever a savvy dealmaker, also thanked Shamrock Capital for being 'the first people to ever offer this to me' and praised the private equity firm for being 'honest, fair, and respectful'.) But it is also a victory that, for once in this era, feels bigger than Swift herself. Swift owning her masters is a small step toward transparency and artistic integrity in the music industry, and one made possible by her immense wealth and power. The fact that we're even talking about ownership of master recordings, that millions of music listeners now question the business standard of recording industry contracts, is a testament to the power Swift can wield when she chooses a worthy target, even if that target often takes direct form in the figure of Braun (who, for what it's worth, said he's 'happy for her'.) 'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' Swift wrote. 'Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.' This is Swift in her best crusader mode – grounded in the work, clear-eyed on the stakes, speaking as a songwriter in perhaps the one arena where she remains an underdog with something to fight for. Though often overshadowed by gossip and her personal life, in ways both self-inflected and expected by a culture that loves to see women fail, her flexing of her exceptional clout over the music industry for artists rights is one of her most enduring fights. It dates back at least to an open letter to Apple Music withholding her album 1989 from the company's streaming service because it would not pay royalties to artists during the service's first three months. (Apple quickly caved.) Or her Billboard's Woman of the Year speech in 2014 in which she called for fairer compensation of writers, musicians and producers – a point she cited five years later when accepting Woman of the Decade in 2019, in a speech that is worth revisiting for the contrast between which fights resonate, and which rankle. The part about adjusting her sound and image to appease critics? Flop, mild applause, one of many instances where Swift evinces a sensitivity to criticism and bone-deep desire for popularity that is so incongruous with her stature as arguably the most famous woman on the planet that I find it endearing, the most human element of her incomprehensible celebrity. The part where she bluntly calls out 'the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate, as if it's an app or a shoe line'? It's the most strident and fair she's ever sounded, and it holds up. Even if the purchase of her masters feels a bit like settling out of court before the full trial – the re-record project remains unfinished – this is the win that could have the most salient downstream effect for both artists and people who appreciate music. Similar to how her criticism of Ticketmaster, and fan frustration over the experience of buying tickets for the Eras Tour, led to efforts to reform ticket transparency and break up the Live Nation monopoly, this is power appropriately applied upward. 'Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion,' she wrote to her fans. 'You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here.' Swiftie or no, this is a Swift victory worth cheering for.
BBC News
14 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Taylor Swift now owns ALL her music
After a long running legal battle, Taylor Swift is now the owner of ALL of her 2019, the master recordings for Taylor's first six albums were sold in a big music deal worth millions. That meant that although they were her songs, she did not own the rights to them and wasn't in charge of her own response to the deal she started to re-record her albums, renaming them 'Taylor's Version'.But she has now bought back the ownership of those albums. In a letter to her fans last night, she said she's been "bursting into tears of joy"."To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it," she added, thanking fans for their support as the drama played out."I can't thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now."I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away," she wrote."But that's all in the past now."
