It happened. Taylor Swift now belongs. All of your songs. All of your master. Your life’s work. She won. Eight years after her label Big Machine sold her catalog Taylor Swift finally reached their goal. To buy him back.
Public statement on May 30th: a life’s work secured
The most impossible struggle of your career. The most invincible dragon with which she has ever fought, the most desperate jump she has ever dared. As she announced in her surprising public statement on May 30, she bought her catalog back after a six -year fight for control over her own music from Shamrock Capital. “The memories,” she wrote. “The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life’s work.”
You can’t emphasize enough what a victory that is for you. And what effects this has for other artists. This is independence from which generations of musicians have dreamed. But never only reached nearly. “Long Live” sounds different today. “New Romantics” sounds different today. “Ours” sounds different. Just like “Dear John”, “All Too Well”, “I Did Something Bad”. And damn, we don’t even start with “A Place in This World”. “It’s time to go”. All of these songs now feel bigger. It is one of these moments that you have to remember. The patriarchy has an extremely shitty day. Taylor won. How did that happen?
Taylor Swift: “All the music I’ve ever made … belongs now … me.”
“I try to summarize my thoughts into a little coherent,” Taylor wrote in her public explanation, which hit like a bomb. “But at the moment my head is just a slide show. A flashback to all the moments when I dreamed of it, and longed for me to be able to tell you this news. All the times I was so close. Only then not to achieve it. After 20 years in which the carrot was dangled in front of my nose and then pulled away, I would have almost stopped. All the past.
“All the music I’ve ever made … belongs now … me.”
Taylor’s struggle was always much larger than herself. It campaigns for the right of artists to determine their own works. When Big Machine boss Scott Borchetta 2019 sold her master’s rights to her arch enemy Scooter Braun, wrote she: “He knew what he was doing. They both knew. Checking a woman who didn’t want to have anything to do with them. Forever. That means forever.” Six years later, she belongs to herself.
From Prince to Paul McCartney – the dream of possession
Taylor fought for a kind of artistic freedom that her heroes never had. From Prince to Joni Mitchell. They could never own their music themselves. Which is why Prince wrote “slave” (slave) in the face and rejected his name. Even Paul McCartney, the most successful musician of all time, had to bite the sour apple after the Beatles publisher Dick James sold the Lennon McCartney song catalog in 1969, while John and Paul both were abroad. (John was actually in the honeymoon.) Macca lived with this disappointment for decades. And as it was his way, it was not silent about it. Nevertheless, he stood on stage every evening and sang “Hey Jude”. And had to pay for the right to sing this song.
But Taylor, who is only 35 years old, has achieved control over her work in a way that never seemed possible for artists, even for the greatest. It is an unprecedented victory. You have to wish Prince could have experienced this day. As she wrote: “To say that my biggest dream came true is actually quite cautiously.” It seemed to be a crazy fight for her. A guaranteed failure, a waste of your time. But as she said three years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival in one of her best quotes of all time: “People often underestimate how much inconvenience I take to prove my point of view.”
The trigger: Sale through Borchetta to Braun
Her fight began in 2019 when she announced that Borchetta had sold her master bands to Braun. “This is my worst nightmare,” said Swift. Braun was not just any music mogul. But a man who was seriously hostile to Swift. (On the one hand, he was the manager of a famous male rapper who was bizarre of her. I just can’t remember his name. But he is the guy who has just published the summer hit “Heil Hitler”.)
The fact that Borchetta sold her to Braun was seen as a game. Especially since both men bragged open with the deal. For the public it looked like they were doing everything to make them angry. And you can certainly say that they succeeded. This is a classic case of “be careful what you want”.
Industry reaction: Cold rejection and misogyny
But when she got angry about it, the reaction of the industry was basically: “You are on your own, small. We are sorry. But that’s how the music business is. Welcome to the Oberliga. Whether unfair or not, it works. All your heroes of the old school had to keep your mouth. And what makes you so special? This is the business we have decided?”
There was a little confusion that she took it so personally. It was just proof that she was an emotional girl who had no sense of shops. And not understood how the world of adults works. “For years I asked for a chance to own my work,” Taylor wrote at the time. “When I left my master bands in Scott’s hands, I resigned myself to that he would sell them at some point. I could never have imagined that the buyer would be scooter.”
But so. Scooter only played his game. How Bloomberg reported, “it was clear from the start that she used her personal aversion to him to score a few larger points about the music business.” Perhaps she had some legitimate arguments regarding the rights of artists. But as Bloomberg noted: “Swift was never the ideal ambassador.”
Swift’s counter -strike: “Taylor’s version”
She struck back in 2019. And announced that all six albums are re -absorbed in new versions that would belong to her. Every single one in the music industry – really everyone – assumed that she was bluffing. She didn’t. Since the “Taylor’s version” project became a blockbuster, nobody wants to admit that he thought it was a stupid idea. Just like nobody wants to admit that he has boasted Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. In retrospect, it only looks like a brilliant move. Especially since he led to the phenomenon of the “Eras Tour”. But there was no precedent for an artist who tried something like that. Let alone got through with it. All thought it was crazy. Even those who keep their fingers crossed. Anyone who claims something else is a liar (and pathetic and lonely).
Control over her own music was obviously a ridiculous idea. Just a childish imagination. It was another of these missions, who were doomed to fail, that Taylor takes again and again. Like her fight with Apple Music for the rights of the artists. Or her legal dispute against the male DJ, which she groped at a concert. (Fight, she is ready to fight.) She chooses struggles that appear crazy or under her dignity. Other artists were amazed that she had the courage Taylor’s version to try. Sza called it “The greatest ‘fuck you’ to the establishment that I have ever seen in my life. And I deeply applaud this shit.”
Swift’s own words about victory
But it was the struggle of her life. And she won. As Taylor wrote today: “Everything I ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to one day buy my music without conditions, without partnerships and with full autonomy.” This day is today. And it is a big victory for artists.
Your explanation has so many effects for your fans. On the one hand, we can now hear the old version of “Holy Ground” with a clear conscience. Because sorry, but the mix on “Red” (Taylor’s version) screwed it up with the rhythm track. (Try it again, Taylor – damn, it is yours now. Take as much time as you want.)
“Reputation TV”: Not yet fully recorded
Taylor also announced that she just started working on “Reputation TV”. This can only mean that it will soon publish “Reputation TV”. “Complete transparency: I haven’t even recorded a quarter of it,” she wrote. “To be honest, it is the only album in the first six, which I thought it could not be improved by recording. Neither the music nor the photos or the videos. So I have repeatedly postponed it. It will come (if you like the idea) in which the unpublished tracks from this album will see the light of the world.”
As for “complete transparency, well, well. That is the artist who posted the day on which she wrote ‘Cardigan’:” There is not much going on at the moment. ” We all know that we cannot trust her. She loves to deceive. To mislead. To disturb. She has already deceived us. She will always fool us. Don’t be surprised if we are this weekend Rep TV get to see.
Taylor wrote “Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis Close” twelve times with the letter “I”, which could be a reference to TS12. Just as water could be wet or not. She added that her debut album was completely newly taken up. “I really love the new sound,” said Taylor. Which probably means that she has adapted her accent a little. “These two albums can still have their moment when the time is ripe. If you can still get excited about it.”
The final triumph
Oh, how modest. Yes, people will be enthusiastic about it. The audience has waited too long for “Debutation TV”, the last two missing parts of the “Taylor’s version” puzzle. This week she made headlines by not announcing these albums at the American Music Awards (and not even published). “But if it happens,” she wrote, “it won’t be a place of sadness and longing for what I would have liked. It will just be a celebration now.”
Today is definitely a day to celebrate. Taylor Swift deserves this day. Nobody would have thought this victory possible. She had spent the time of her life fighting against this kite. Even if nobody believed that the dragon could lose. But she won. She did something bad. And it feels so good. Long live Taylor Swift!