Latest news with #musicownership
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rock Legend, 83, Sends a Bold Message to Taylor Swift
Rock Legend, 83, Sends a Bold Message to Taylor Swift originally appeared on Parade. Rock legend , 83, sent a bold message to after learning the "You Belong With Me" songstress purchased all of her master recordings. On May 30, Swift announced that she now owns her entire discography after 's company infamously sold it to Shamrock Holdings in 2020. She reportedly purchased the masters of her first six albums for $360 million, per Billboard. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 "I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: All of the music I've ever made... now belongs... to me," Swift revealed on her website. "And all my music videos. All the concert films. The album art and photography. The unreleased songs. The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life's work." Not long after Swift's big news, King took to her Instagram Stories to react. "@taylorswift You continued to inspire! 🩷🫶🎶," the "You've Got a Friend" singer captioned her update alongside a photo of Swift throwing her hands in the air in celebration. The image has since circulated on X, with many Swifties weighing in on King's reaction. One fan declared, "The most legendary swiftie out there." Another X user shared, "Powerful women uplifting each other -love to see it!" Someone else confessed, "Omg, I'm bawling." Meanwhile, a different fan wrote, "Tay grandmother." Swift and King's friendship goes back years. In August 2024, King spoke about Swift during a virtual fundraising event for the Swifties for Kamala [Harris] coalition. "I am a Swiftie," King said in a clip shared via X. "Taylor and I are actually friends." She added, "We have had conversations backstage and, you know, I see her as, like, sort of my musical and songwriting granddaughter. And we have a lovely relationship, and I'm so proud of her." In 2021, Swift introduced King at her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. "I cannot remember a time when I didn't know Carole King's music," Swift said, in part, during her poignant speech "I was raised by two of her biggest fans, who taught me the basic truths of life as they saw it: That you should treat people the way you want to be treated, that you must believe that you can achieve whatever you want to in life, and that Carole King is the greatest songwriter of all time." We love seeing stars support stars! Next: Rock Legend, 83, Sends a Bold Message to Taylor Swift first appeared on Parade on Jun 1, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 1, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Taylor Swift Reveals Why She Hasn't Released ‘Reputation TV' Yet: ‘I Kept Hitting a Stopping Point'
Taylor Swift finally revealed why we haven't seen Reputation (Taylor's Version) yet — are you ready for it? In a heartfelt letter to fans, Swift excitedly announced that she regained control of her music, purchasing her recordings from the investment firm Shamrock Capital. 'I can't thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but never owned until now,' she wrote. '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.' More from Rolling Stone How Taylor Won 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 While the news was certainly a reason to celebrate, it left fans with one major question: What about Reputation (Taylor's Version), one of two albums left to re-record and release? (Fans have also been waiting for her to release her debut album, as well, but Reputation was largely speculated to be the next drop.) Well, Swift came with answers and offered an update on the re-recording of the 2017 album, which fans have been feverishly waiting for ever since the last Taylor's Version, 1989, in October 2023. 'I know, I know,' she wrote, causing the ears of every Swiftie across the globe to perk up. 'What about Rep TV? Full transparency: I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it.' She continued: '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.' That's not to say that Swift won't release the Reputation vault tracks — or her complete re-recording of her 2006 self-titled debut, which she confirmed is already in the can. 'There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch,' she said. 'I've already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now. Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about. But if it happens, it won't be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.' It's important to note that this doesn't kill the Debutation fan theory — that Swift would release both Reputation TV and the debut TV simultaneously. But neither appear to be imminent, as Swifties were anticipating (they most recently expected the announcement to be made during the 2025 AMAs). Swift herself seemed to tease Reputation TV during the Eras tour, particularly during her first Miami show in October 2024, when she sported a new Reputation bodysuit — the only costume she hadn't swapped since launching the tour in March 2023. She premiered 'Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version),' the first taste of the Reputation re-recording, on the Amazon Original series Wilderness in August 2023. It was featured on another series just last week, in the penultimate episode of The Handmaid's Tale (star and executive producer Elisabeth Moss confirmed she's a Swiftie). Back in 2019, Swift spoke about Reputation in her Rolling Stone cover story, and how, despite it being dark and divisive, the album represented a period of happiness in her personal life. 'The one-two punch, bait-and-switch of Reputation is that it was actually a love story,' she said. 'It was a love story in amongst chaos. All the weaponized sort of metallic battle anthems were what was going on outside. That was the battle raging on that I could see from the windows, and then there was what was happening inside my world — my newly quiet, cozy world that was happening on my own terms for the first time.' Swift first released Fearless (Taylor's Version) in April 2021, following Scooter Braun's multi-million-dollar acquisition of her original masters in 2019. She followed up Fearless TV with re-recordings of Red (November 2021), Speak Now (July 2023), and 1989 (October 2023). Whether or not she ever releases Reputation TV and Taylor Swift TV, her re-recordings were highly influential to the music industry, encouraging other artists (including recently, John Fogerty), to do the same. 'Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this flight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen,' Swift said. But Swift regaining control of her recorded music is a massive, joyous achievement in itself, one that she joked she might celebrate by getting a shamrock tattooed on her forehead (please don't). 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
2 days 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
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How Much Did Taylor Swift Really Pay for Her Masters? Conflicting Reports Spark Debate
just reclaimed her legacy and her fans and famous friends are celebrating. The global superstar, who officially joined the billionaire club last year, announced Friday that she has successfully purchased the master recordings of her first six studio albums. The emotional milestone marks the end of a long and very public battle over ownership of her early music, something Taylor Swift has been open about over the years. Despite reports that she paid over a billion dollars to retrieve ownership of her music, a source told PEOPLE Magazine, "the rumored price range that was reported is highly inaccurate." According to a separate source who spoke to Billboard, Swift paid an estimated $360 million to buy the rights from Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm that previously purchased her catalog from music manager Scooter Braun in 2020. The amount is said to be close to what Shamrock initially paid for the rights after Braun's company, Ithaca Holdings, acquired Swift's former label Big Machine Records in 2019, and with it, her entire catalog up through "Reputation." At the time, Swift expressed her heartbreak and frustration, calling Braun a "bully" and lamenting that she was never offered a fair chance to buy back her life's work. 'Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy,' she said in a now-famous Tumblr post. The ordeal led her to begin re-recording and releasing her previous albums as 'Taylor's Versions' in 2021, a move that fans praised as both brilliant and empowering. At this time, neither Swift nor Shamrock Capital has yet to disclose the true price of the sale. On Friday, the 14-time Grammy winner took to her website to share the news she never thought she'd be able to say. The music she spent decades creating is finally hers. 'I'm trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow,' Swift began in a heartfelt, handwritten-style message to fans. 'A flashback sequence of all the time I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell this news. All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through.' She continued, 'I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that's all in the past now.' Swift, whose "Eras Tour" completely shattered records and whose latest album "The Tortured Poets Department" debuted at No. 1, said the moment has brought her to tears, in the best way possible. 'I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening,' she shared. 'I really get to say these words: All of the music I've ever made … now belongs … to me.' The acquisition includes her self-titled debut ("Taylor Swift") and fan-favorite albums like "Fearless," "Speak Now," "Red," "1989," and "Reputation," the very works that launched her into superstardom. Taylor Swift is feeling the love, and it's coming from her closest friends. Just hours after the 14-time Grammy winner revealed she officially owns the rights to her original music catalog, longtime bestie was among the first to celebrate the milestone. 'YES YOU DID THAT TAY!!!' Gomez wrote on her Instagram Stories alongside a heartfelt message of pride. 'SO proud!' The 'Single Soon' singer has long stood by Swift, and the two have been vocal about their friendship for years. Gomez wasn't the only one to celebrate the "Love Story" singer. Her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end , showed his support in a subtle yet meaningful way by "liking" the post. The post also received a wave of love from several of Swift's other famous friends and collaborators. Sportscaster , who is widely believed to have played a behind-the-scenes role in introducing Swift to Kelce, gave the post a like. So did actress , tour mates and Gracie Abrams, and even and , two members of Swift's growing inner circle ever since she began dating Kelce.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Patrick Mahomes Reacts to Taylor Swift's Major Career Announcement
Patrick Mahomes Reacts to Taylor Swift's Major Career Announcement originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Travis Kelce isn't the only Kansas City Chiefs player to react to Taylor Swift's big announcement on Friday that she now owns the masters of her first six albums, 'Taylor Swift,' 'Fearless,' 'Speak Now,' 'Red,' '1989' and 'Reputation.' Those records were recorded pre-2017 when Swift was signed to Big Machine Records, but she lost ownership of them when Ithaca Holdings purchased Big Machine in 2019 in a deal spearheaded by Scooter Braun, who later sold Swift's masters to Shamrock Capital. Swift and Braun were engaged in a public feud over her original musical catalog, which led to Swift re-recording her first albums and re-releasing them as 'Taylor's Version,' but now the 14-time Grammy winner confirmed in a post on her personal website that she owns every single song she's ever recorded. 'I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening," Swift wrote in a letter shared on her website. "I really get to say these words: All of the music I've ever made… now belongs… to me.' Kelce, Swift's boyfriend of over a year-and-eight-months, liked her post on Instagram announcing the big news. His teammate Patrick Mahomes, who is also a close friend of Swift's and has spent lots of quality time with the couple along with his wife Brittany, also reacted to the news on X by retweeting a Pop Base post on X announcing Swift once again owned her masters. Mahomes has been a big advocate of Swift ingratiating herself into NFL circles, and he's supported her attending as many Chiefs games as possible. He's also on record stating Swift is 100% a part of the Chiefs' family. In fact, a little over two weeks ago Swift donated a signed guitar to Mahomes to auction off at his 15 and the Mahomes Foundation charity event. The guitar fetched a hefty $15, story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
