Taylor Swift’s Re-Recordings: A Lesson in Copyright and Control

PICTURES BY JOHN SHEARER / GETTY IMAGES

Source: Harvard Law Today

Most of us have heard the name Taylor Swift, whether you’re a fan or not it is no debate that she is one of the biggest pop stars known globally. However, did you know that she is involved in a very interesting copyright-related issue specifically in the topic of intellectual property? 


On April 9 2021, Taylor Swift released her first re-recording of one of her old albums titled Fearless (Taylor’s Version). On the surface, people might wonder what is the reason for the release if the former version was already a successful money maker, well first let’s look at how it all started. Taylor Swift was originally signed to a record label named Big Machine since debut, she then recorded 6 albums total all of them being multi million sellers. In 2018 she left the company but afterwards Big Machine was bought by Scooter Braun. He then sold the company including Taylor’s albums that was owned by them to another company named Shamrock Holdings for a total 420 million USD.


PICTURES BY BIG MACHINE LABELGROUP & REPUBLIC RECORDS


Instead of fighting for the rights to the already released albums, Taylor Swift announced that she will re-record all the previous albums she released when she was under Big Machine all so that she can own the newly remastered album. This is where it gets interesting, to put it simply, copyrights in music usually comes in two. One for the musical work created by the songwriter and another for the mastered version that is usually the final release to the public. Since Taylor is the main songwriter for all her works, she already initially had the musical rights to her songs while the previous company only owns the mastered version. With this decision, it means that she now has most of the control over her new re-recorded releases.


The aftermath proved to be a major success as not only her fan base but the overall public is starting to deviate from listening to the older versions and only tuning to the re-recorded songs. As for Shamrock, they still could profit from the original albums but there will be less demand as the listeners prefer the new versions. Currently Taylor Swift is only left with 2 albums to be re-recorded which is Reputation and her debut album, Taylor Swift.


Personal Note: I think it was a smart move for her to re-record the albums rather than spending her time to get the rights on the older releases. While it is tedious to re-record all the albums again, I believe the end result was worth it as every new release gains a lot of hype and becomes successful. We can’t deny that a big part of it was because of her huge fan base and her power as a big artist, but this whole debacle really sparked some awareness on how copyright impacts artists’ rights and controls over their works.


-Aisyah Harun-

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