Editorial: Recording Artists Should Own their Work

The 2012 Rock-Country-Pop mix album Red by Taylor Swift covered every radio and billboard all across America. The tour was the most successful country tour of all time, making a whole $150 Million. Swift won two Billboard awards and an American Music Award. She also performed at countless award shows while receiving record breaking amounts of positive critical acclaim for the album.

You would think that this was the prime of Swift's career at the time, that she had everything a 22 year old music star could want. But there was one pressing issue that few people saw. The issue was that Taylor Swift owned 0% of her work. She had no legal ownership over any of it: the music she wrote, the music videos she imagined and put forward, the tours she went on. She was not financially compensated, nor did she have the freedom to make her own decisions about her music. None of what she came up with was legally hers.

In order to understand why Taylor Swift and countless other young artists often fall into this legal battle of copyrighted music, we must understand the mega music labels the stars are signed to at a young age.

At the young age of 15, Taylor Swift signed a six album deal to Big Machine Records (BMR), an independent record label in Nashville, Tennessee. There, her first six studio albums (released between 2006 to 2017) were produced. With the deal signed, Swift gave BMR full ownership of the official recordings of her songs, including music videos, album art, future albums, therefore licensing the record company to use her art in any way they wished. Swift was left with absolutely zero control over how or when her creations could be sold and bought.

Despite this, Taylor Swift continued to permanently influence the world of music and the culture of the arts for over a decade. She produced 6 albums: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation. She also completely switched genres from country-pop, to exclusively pop during her 1989 era.

Swift was a constant presence in the entertainment world. Many people believe she only wrote songs about her past relationships other than seemingly more important ideas, and yet she still continued to sing her songs, and go on tour after tour.. It was during this time in 2019, that Big Machine Records was bought by Scooter Braun, for $300 million. And since he bought the company as a whole, he had full ownership of all 6 albums. According to Swift, she had been ‘’treacherously’’ given no notice of this transaction. The ownership had been sold yet again in November of 2020, even after Swift had declined consent to the whole situation. And even till present day, Swift's every attempt to require her art ownership has been declined.

Due to the lack of transparency with the label, Swift parted ways with Big Machine Records, and re-signed with Universal Music Group Republic Records in 2019, with whom she has since written and produced three albums within three years: Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), and Evermore (2021). The fight over ownership has continued since, and Swift has had a unique approach to this legal battle. She decided and announced in 2019 that she would reclaim her art the best way she knew how: re-recording all her old work.

Swift's first re-recording was of her 2008 album, Fearless (Taylors Version), released April 9, 2021. The album contains her already released 20 songs, and seven newly released songs she wrote during that era but that were never released. The second re-released album was Red (Taylors Version), released November 12, 2021. Not only does Red (Taylors Version) have thirty tracks, ten newly released songs from that era, and a 10 minute song version of All Too Well, but also a short film directed and written by Taylor Swift herself. All Too Well: The Short Film, is a 15 minute film starring actors Sadie Sink and Dylan O'brien, and Taylor Swift. The film goes deep behind the inspiration for the 10 minute song, All Too Well, and introduces the audience to Swift's new director persona.

The rerecording of albums is a new idea to the music industry and has opened the eyes of many other young artists and their dedicated fans. Many times it's easy to point the blame to the artists, rather than the companies, but Swift is showing us all that she deserves to own her work. As she writes on an Instagram post, ´´Artists should own their own work for so many reasons.´´ I agree.