Masters, shmasters: Taylor Swift plans to re-record music now owned by Scooter Braun
Aux Features Music
When Scooter Braun and record label Big Machine struck a deal that allowed him to acquire Big Machine Group—essentially making him owner of the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s earlier work—the pop songstress called the deal her “worst case scenario.” Citing Braun as a bully in a scathing Tumblr post, Swift claimed that she was never given a real opportunity to own her music and that a part of her legacy was now “in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.” In scenarios like these, there’s very little legal recourse that an artist can take that would work out in their favor. So to circumvent all that, she’s just gonna re-record her old stuff.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning’s Tracy Smith, Swift revealed that she plans on producing new recordings of some of her old music from her previous label. When Smith asked if that was a solid plan, Swift responded, “Yeah, absolutely.” She also confirmed the news on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts: “ “My contract says that starting November 2020, so next year, I can record albums one through five all over again. … It’s next year. It’s right around the corner. I’m going to be busy. I’m really excited.” Swift has not specified whether she plans to revisit the whole lost catalog or a few selections.
Swift isn’t the only artist who has had to recently revisit her music in this way. Late last year, singer-songwriter JoJo re-released her first two albums amid her own contractual issues with her previous label, Blackground.
[Via Variety]
36 Comments
I’m not one to say positive things about Princess Swift, but in all seriousness—Good for her.I’m really glad she has decided to this.
Honestly a re-recorded version of Speak Now with better mixing would be pretty neat. That album works great as a pop punk kinda thing.
Don’t care for her public victim complex, but this is a smart capitalistic move.
So Braun only owns the recordings, Swift can still record the lyrics and music? Or is she going to have to pay Douchey McGee a royalty, thus defeating the purpose?
Correct. The composition and lyrics are one thing. The recording is another.
The rights to the master tapes generally reside with the label, while songwriting and/or composing rights generally reside with the songwriter and/or composer (the Beatles notwithstanding).
Yeah, there are some cases where artists have been dropped and their recordings shelved and the artist just rerecords them and releases them themselves or through another label (I believe Aimee Mann did this).
Oldies acts do this frequently. Always gotta be careful buying compilations and Best Ofs from fondly remembered though less-than-iconic groups like say Tommy James & the Shondells or the Platters. Though they lack the resources that Swift might command to make something that builds on the previous work rather than diminishes it.
Gotta go with a label you trust. I have the late 80’s TJ&tS anthology from Rhino.
I had a compilation of 1930’s jazz recordings once – all of them familiar songs, but recorded by second or third-tier jazz bands of the day. I forget the label but whoof, it was painful sometimes.
In the UK in the 70s there were the infamous Top Of The Pops compilations where session musicians would recreate the hits of the day.
I don’t know what this really accomplishes for Swift, though? Like is this so she can convince people to only license the recorded versions to cut Scooter out as much as possible?
I wonder if she’ll end up actually having to do it, or if Braun and Big Machine Records will cave in response to the threat and negotiate a deal to sell them back?
Depends on how sleazy he feels like being.He owns the masters, he gets the rights to do whatever he wants with them within the bounds of whatever contracts were signed to procure them. If he’s allowed to release them for free, he could dilute her sales. If he chooses to sell them along side, etc.
But Swift has a large, very loyal fanbase. If she tells them to boycott the Big Machine versions and only to buy/listen to her re-recordings, that really could do a big hit to Big Machine’s TS music revenue.
All comes down to how much of a douche he feels like being.If he’s not coming from a rational profit motive, then all bets are off.
I know this was common practice in country music for years – maybe it still is. Artists with a sizable catalogue of hits would change labels and rerecord their hits, so the new label would have access to the income generated by a greatest hits collection and/or so the artist would have something to sell at their concerts (since they could no longer sell material from the old label). The new material was generally inferior, to a greater or lesser degree. Rerecordings often come up on Pandora (Yahoo music was really notorious for the number of soundalikes that they streamed). They weren’t always bad, but they are always noticeably different. Sometimes they were genuinely dreadful.
Doo-wop and early rock and roll artists did this a lot, too. So you’d get five randos calling themselves The Drifters recording a version of “Under the Boardwalk” that sounds like glorified karaoke.
I did come across a Ray Price rerecording of “Make The World Go Away” for TeeVee records with vocals that are almost shockingly good though, clearly made during the height of his vocal powers – usually an artist being forced to rerecord early material resulted in something that sounded like, at best, a chore, but he clearly used the opportunity to really refine what he’d done earlier. I know, “Ray Price” – who? He was the best, though, right up until the end.
Listen, I was raised on Frankie Laine, Marty Robbins, Vaughn Monroe and George Jones.
I know, I get pre-emptively defensive sometimes, and weirdly embarassed by my obsessions and tastes – only sometimes though. Maybe I’ll be completely over it by the time I’m, let’s say, seventy? Ray Price’s music, though, is one of my major loves. I decided it was time to learn to play guitar after I had a dream in which I was performing his music in a tribute show that I had produced (the best part of which, btw, was that it ended with my marrying Kris Kristofferson).
Multiple recordings of the same song listed as the same band? That, I have never heard of. I knew that on a lot of cheap compilations you would get these covers by never heard of bands, or 2 minute edits of 3.5 minute songs, but what you describe sounds like this could be grounds for a suit, unless it contained at least one original member, and/or the studio owned the band name.
Not really. It all depends on who has the rights to the band’s name (or variations thereof). At one point, there were four extant sets of Drifters, and the “main” one had no original/classic members. They’ve had three different longtime lead tenors (Clyde McPhatter, Ben E King, and Johnny Moore) and a bunch of short-term guys. Blood Sweat and Tears and Yes are “Ship of Theseus” paradoxes, too.
Motown for instance retained ownership of the acts names – so when, say, Florence Ballard left the Supremes she was forbidden from being advertised as “former Supreme”, since they owned the name. Whoever owns the act’s name can basically do what they want with it.
I did mention that at the end. But only one group can legally say they are the band unless the name is co-owned.
There is a newer recording of American Pie out there that is fkn dreadful.
Yes, there is an old recording of it which is the same.
That’s cooooooooold blooded.
Ha and the little guy gets it in the rear. I was traumatized by that song at an impressionable age, and literally scream and run from the room/dive for the radio dial if it starts.
Obviously the correct way is for her to throw shittons of money at Screaming Females, who’ve already proven superior at re-recording songs branded as Taylor Swift.
I have no idea who Screaming Females is, but I googled them and saw they are from New Jersey, so now I have to listen to them.
I learned about them through their AV Club Shake It Off cover and now they’re one of my favorite bands.
She better not sue, it will go to court and the court will say the deal is more important (see Ke$ha and the abuser she had to deal with).
It’s not just oldies acts doing this. There are a lot of bands from the 80’s and 90’s who have made new, usually subpar recordings of their hits. You can find them on Amazon Music and Spotify. Ones I’ve noticed, off the top of my head: Cracker, Gin Blossoms, Squeeze, Everclear, The Flys, Blondie, Toad The Wet Sprocket… There are plenty more.
When you say re-recordings, I assume you mean for new compilations/albums. You are not saying that the original albums have been re-recorded without acknowledging it, are you?
Yeah, usually collections of re-recorded songs, although if someone bought some of these “best of” albums without paying close attention, they might assume they’re buying a collection of the original versions.