To Swift, Or Not To Swift?
Swiftie or not, there’s no denying the intellectual property icon this woman has become.
One thing I have never been, and don’t think I will ever be, is a Swiftie. I say that biting my tongue, because to say those words out loud can be as lethal as asking for a ham and pineapple pizza in an Italian restaurant. Taylor’s army of fans remain loyal to their Queen come rain or shine, and rightly so.
She is the highest-grossing female touring act, the most-streamed woman on Spotify and Apple Music, and has 14 Grammy’s under her belt. She writes all her own music, which is becoming more of a rarity among the stars these days. She has even produced her own film, which was the highest grossing concert film, earning $92.8 million in its opening weekend. With 4 million people going to her Eras Tour this year, it’s fair to say that she is a Jedi when it comes to marketing. To add to this even further, her estimated net worth lies around $1.1billion. And no, that’s not Kylie Jenner nepo-baby billionaire, that’s country girl from Nashville, Tennessee billionaire. One cannot deny that she is the walking, talking, singing, dancing definition of a ‘Girl Boss’.
But it doesn’t stop there… Her influence expands beyond the world of music with a new phenomena called ‘The Swift Effect’ - she has been credited for raising NFL viewing figures with her presence alone, and she’s also been able to bring the sale of vinyl records back into the ONS inflation basket for the first time since 1992. She has created a religion in which she herself is the prophet, but is she worth the worship?
Despite her glaring success, I just can’t seem to connect with her music like others can. And to add fuel to the fire, I can’t get over the fact that she’s single-handedly dragging us all into climate oblivion with her 13-minute private jet trips to spend time with her boyfriend. Although she may be robbing the life from future generations, every cloud has a silver lining though, right? Her silver lining is that instead of hitching a Lime bike in the rain because you’ve got 13 minutes left on your pass that you need to use before they expire, she gets to do the walk of shame at 40,000 feet with a glass of champagne in her hand.
As she travels from country to country on her flying Lime bike, she literally sends a wave of inflation through cities. No, I’m not kidding. Her Mexico City leg of the tour caused hotel prices to shoot up by 57%. What’s more, the concerts are predicted to generate $5 billion in consumer spending in the US alone. If not Jesus, I don’t know what she is.
Although I might not be a Swiftie, one thing I am is a raging feminist. So, when a country gal from Nashville comes along with a business brain like Steve Jobs and a guitar flung over her shoulder, I can’t help but pay my respects. With her Eras Tour nearing the UK, I think the time is ripe to delve into the world of “Taylor’s Version” to assess just how much a of Girl Boss she really is, and to answer the burning question: "To Swift, or not to Swift?”.
For those of you that aren’t aware, Taylor has been re-releasing her old albums, but rebranded with the ethereal “Taylors Version” slogan added to the end of each title. The reason why is a long and complex tale of events and industry jargon - are you sitting comfortably?
Swift signed to Big Machine Records in 2005. At a mere age of 15, a record deal like this would’ve been an exciting prospect. I can only compare it to the excitement I felt at my 11th birthday party at Pizza Express, Westfield. In hindsight however, one can only assume that she didn’t quite know what she was getting herself into.
As is rather normal in the industry, when signing her record deal, Taylor signed off the ownership to her master recordings for the next 6 studio albums. You might be sat there asking what the hell a master recording is. Well, since I’ve set the scene at Pizza Express, we may as well continue the theme… Imagine all your components to those mouth-watering doughballs – you’ve got your flour, water, yeast, and the star of the show - the garlic and parsley butter. All of these represent the separate layers of a recorded song. For example, the vocals, backing track, and the production. By themselves, they don’t mean much. But once they come out of the oven and are soaking in that silky butter, it becomes a master recording. To put it simply, it’s the original and finalised product which is put out for you to listen to from your music provider.
To put Taylor’s deal into context, it’s not considered a norm for an artist to own their master recordings, even with the big dogs. Jay-Z was only able to acquire re-possession of his masters after he became president of Def Jam, and Frank Ocean battled for years to get his back from Universal. Even Beyoncé doesn’t own all of her masters.
What this means is that the rights holder (usually the record label) controls which platforms the songs are streamed on, where they can be bought, and even where and when they can be performed. Owning the rights to a record means you have the freedom to deal with it as you wish. So, with the hard work of 6 studio albums under her belt, you’d understand why she might want that freedom back.
In 2019, Big Machine sold its catalogue to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, and this is where the drama started. For those non-Beliebers in the room who won’t remember that name, Braun was the Michael Jordan of talent management, with the likes of Ariana Grande and Kanye West among his fellow clientele. He’s also the guy who single-handedly ‘discovered’ Justin Bieber by accidentally clicking on one of his YouTube videos.
Taylor had a strong distaste for Braun, having reportedly bullied her on multiple occasions. So as you can understand, Taylor didn’t like that fact that this guy owned the rights to her masters. She wanted them back in her possession. But instead of surrendering to the disappointment, she rose up like Jesus on the third day and did the unthinkable. She didn’t quite turn water into wine, but she did take her cowboy boots back into the studio, and she re-recorded her albums.
But how could she do this if she didn’t own the master recordings? Worry not, friends. Part of her record deal meant that two years after her contract with Big Machine ended, she was able to regain the rights to the musical compositions – the flour, water, yeast and butter. Because Swift was born with the talent of being able to write all of her own music, as well as perform it, it meant that she was able to take her own ingredients, and make her own doughballs in her own kitchen. Although she didn’t have the rights to the Pizza Express doughballs, she still had the rights to use the recipe, so she only went and remade them herself.
In 2021, she released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”, and has since re-recorded 3 others. This way, she can distribute the music how she wants, and perform it wherever, and whenever she wants. And guess what - they have been a huge success. “1989 (Taylor's Version)” took over Spotify, breaking the platform's record for the most single-day streams in 2023. Moreover, “Red (Taylor's Version)” has received around 3 billion streams. And the funny thing? Since her subjects never disobey their sovereign, they refuse to listen to any of the old stuff. This means that the master recordings which were originally owned by Big Machine are making a fraction of what the Taylor’s Versions are making. Now that is one hell of a mic drop.
Swiftie or not, there’s no denying the intellectual property icon this woman has become. And what’s more is that she seems to have educated a whole new generation of people about intellectual property rights. So, what lessons can we learn from this?
Carefully consider the implications before relinquishing ownership of your copyrights, even in seemingly favourable situations.
Instead of outright transfer, explore the possibility of granting a copyright license for specific purposes.
If a party seeks full ownership of your copyright worldwide for its entire duration, demand a substantially higher fee.
When transferring copyright ownership, consider including provisions for rights to revert back to you after a defined period, offering flexibility for future commercialisation or estate planning purposes.
Always get legal advice before committing to long-term agreements like record contracts or publishing deals - this way you can fully understand your contract and you can make sure you’re getting a good deal.
With that in mind, despite her environmental wrong-doings, I think that she’s a killer when it comes to finding loopholes in the system. She fought for what she wanted, and managed to gain immeasurable success from it. So, I think it’s only right to reassess my opinion of her. I might never quite enjoy her music as much as others do, but she will definitely be in my thoughts the next time I go to Pizza Express.