Taylor Swift Doesn't Own Her Masters??

Hi guys, Wendy Day from Rap Coalition. Thanks for tuning in. I wanted to take some time to talk about, um, Taylor Swift. For those— and this is topical, this isn't one of those videos that's going to last because it's really about a certain instance. Um, for those of you that have been asking me and those of you that know, um, yesterday Big Machine announced that they were doing a partnership selling to Scooter Braun and Ithaca Ventures, which Scooter Braun is, I think, the main shareholder. And I want to be careful how I address this because I don't ever want to blame the victim, which in this case, um, Taylor Swift is feeling a little bit victimized. Um, and I also don't ever want to persecute somebody because they don't know something. Um, if you don't know something, it's not your fault. If you know better, you're going to do better. Um, but I am going to say that in the age of the internet and with all of the information out there about the music industry, um, it's pretty easy today to do the research on where the money and the power is in the music industry. So Scott Borchetta, who owned Big Machine up until yesterday, um, released at 10 o'clock in the morning his time— he's in Nashville— he released a statement through the Wall Street Journal saying that Scooter Braun had purchased Big Machine. And although Big Machine has quite a few recording artists, their biggest artist to date has been Taylor Swift. And for those of you that don't live under a rock, um, Taylor Swift is a hugely successful pop artist. She started as a country artist, she started recording when she was 15, um, and she's gone on to become one of the biggest pop stars in the world. So the value in Big Machine, aside from what they're going to continue to do, is obviously the masters and any partial publishing that they would own that belongs to Taylor Swift. But I'm going to address the masters because that's what you guys are asking me about, and that's what Taylor Swift lashed out against. So yesterday on her Tumblr page, she wrote, um, a, a post that said she was really upset about this. She was upset because first of all, she wasn't given a heads up. She found out with the rest of us that her masters went to Scooter Braun, and she took exception to that because apparently she's had some issues in the past with Scooter Braun. Um, she accused him of bullying her, and also the artists that he represents, some of them have bullied her. And she mentioned specifically Kanye and, um, Justin Bieber. So I'm going to ignore the WWE side of this. I'm going to ignore the personal issues that she may have with Scooter Braun. And with Scott Borchetta. I just wanted to mention it because it does play a role in her emotion and how she feels about this. But looking at this as a business deal, her complaint was that somebody now owns her masters. And that was a little surprising to me because Master P owned his masters in the early '90s and was, um, less successful when he did that deal than Taylor Swift is today at this point in her career. Um, Cash Money owned their masters in 1998, um, almost 20 years ago, and they were less successful at that point in time. The difference between those two deals— and both of those deals I played a role in, I did not play a role in Taylor Swift's deal— But in the Cash Money deal and the Master P deal, they retained their masters in lieu of advance funds. So I can only assume that when Taylor Swift was doing her deal, and I'm sure her first deal was a shitty deal because most first deals in the music industry, unless you've got leverage or a track record, um, are, are, are pretty shitty. That's just the reality of it. But as she became successful, and grew her career and the leverage switched from the record label— and by the way, her label's independent, um, Big Machine is independent, um, distributed through Universal— as her leverage switched, she could have easily taken less of an advance or offered to take less of an advance in exchange for her masters. I'm sure that the label would have been happy to do that, especially an independent label, because those advances can get very pricey when you're dealing with an artist at the Taylor Swift level. Um, one of her complaints about Big Machine, and one of the reasons she said that she chose to leave and sign to Universal directly after 6 albums— which, by the way, 6 albums is just too long to be signed to a, to a label if it's your first deal, unless you're renegotiating, and she may have— um, but she delivered 6 albums to Big Machine, and her complaint was in her post, she said that the only way they'd give her her masters back is if she delivered— she would get the masters back for every album she delivered. So in order to get her 6 masters back, she would have to deliver 6 more albums through Big Machine. And she just didn't feel that it was a good enough deal, being that it's an independent, in terms of advances that she could get at Universal. And by the way, at Universal, I believe she's owning her masters going forward. So Scott Borchetta last night posted, or did a press release, I think he posted it on his website as well, on the Big Machine website, that he took issue with the fact that she said she wasn't given a heads up since her father owns or is a shareholder in Big Machine. And that's a whole other issue that I'll reserve to speak about another time. But her father, who is her original investor and I think part of her management team, owns something like 8% of shares in Big Machine, and they had been— the board had been meeting for the past 5 days to discuss Scooter Braun's offer. And apparently he was knowledgeable, as was another person on her team that owns a share in, um, Big Machine. Um, apparently both of them were made aware of the sale and either chose not to tell her or hadn't had a chance to tell her. Um, additionally, Scott says that on Saturday night around 9 o'clock at night his time, he texted her to let her know that this was coming. So whether she saw the text or not is, you know, up to, you know, I guess whoever her carrier, her cell phone carrier is. But basically he said that he did tell her Again, I don't want to get into the he said, she said of this because that's not what's important, but he did say that in the deal that he offered her, and he harbored no ill will that she left, but in the deal that he offered her, she was going to get her masters back and she would get all 6 of her masters back immediately. So there's some speculation as to how long the new deal was. He admittedly said in his post that he was looking for length of term, because he was giving back the masters. And in the streaming— in the age of streaming, it's just a little challenging to make money in the music industry. Not impossible, but it's, it's just different today than it was back in the day. So it's a different game, and every year it becomes a different game. And again, she was signed, I think, at 20— uh, I forget when she was signed, but she's put out 6 albums. So suffice it to say that she's been with Big Machine at least 6 years, definitely longer, because I don't think she puts out an album a year. But that's just to clarify what this beef is for those of you that are calling me and saying, hey, why is Taylor Swift pissed off? She's pissed off because she wanted ownership of her masters. And again, I, I don't ever want to victim blame, but her attorney is Donald Passman, who wrote the book on the music industry, Everything You Want to Know About the Music Industry. I think it's in its like 9th edition or 11th edition or something. Like, it's been around forever. That's her attorney. So So if she had instructed him to get her masters back, he definitely would have structured a deal for her to get her masters back. It almost seems like she wasn't— she wasn't willing or able to stay with Big Machine at the deal they were offering where she did get her masters back. And instead of working out some sort of a deal where she could buy them back or, or even buy Big Machine. You know, if Scooter Braun was able to buy Big Machine by, you know, heading a company to, um, put a bunch of wealthy people together to buy it, Taylor Swift certainly could have done the same thing. So if owning her masters was a priority, she certainly didn't act like it. And maybe she wasn't even aware of what that means to own your masters. Maybe it wasn't until it was announced that somebody was buying her company and it happened to somebody that she had distaste for and she became annoyed that she didn't own the masters, that all of a sudden it became an issue. I don't know. I'm not in her head. But I would love to use this as a learning opportunity for you guys so that you know that if you sign to a record label and they own your masters, they have the right to do whatever they want with your music. They own the masters. The masters are the actual ownership of the ability to put your music into the marketplace. It's not the ownership of the music itself, that's publishing. Publishing is the ownership of the songs and the lyrics, but the master rights are the rights to put it up on a streaming service or to let Frito-Lay use it in a commercial or to, um, be on a soundtrack. Like, if Big Machine, or, or now Scooter Braun, really wanted to screw her over, he could just put all of her music in porn or something that would be, you know, equally embarrassing to her. And they can do that. They own the masters. They have the right to say where that music goes. They don't own the music itself, the publishing, but they have the right to say where they can license that music. And that's why the masters are so valuable, and that's why whenever you can, you want to hang on to them. But you need extreme leverage in order to own your masters. I could argue that she had extreme leverage and has extreme leverage today. She was bigger then than she is now, but she's still one of the biggest pop stars in the world. And if that means she didn't have the leverage to get her masters back, then either she wasn't trying hard enough, or she didn't know the value until yesterday. And I'm assuming it hit her like a ton of bricks. Again, I'm not victim blaming. I'm sad that she feels upset about this. I'm sad that's an issue. I'm sad that she doesn't like Scooter Braun. But if she had wanted to get her Masters back, she should have made it a priority. Thanks for tuning in. I hope this explained it. I hope it cleared it up. I hope I stayed away from the he said, she said shit. That seems to be rampant in the music business today. But guys, it's, it's a learning opportunity for you, so please take the time to understand this. Read as much as you can about owning your masters. Make sure you have the best team available, and make sure your team is working for you, and communicate what your priorities are and what your goals are to your team, because they can't fulfill your wishes unless they know what those wishes are. Thanks for tuning in. Wendy Day, Rap Coalition. Bye.