Taylor Swift made everyone rich – even their enemies

After years of fighting-who started selling her first record label to the Musikmogul Scooter Braun-the pop singer was able to acquire the rights to her first six albums from the US investment company Shamrock Capital. The American now has control of all her music, her concert films, music videos and unpublished works. « To say that my biggest dream came true is expressly expressed, » she then wrote on her Website.

The exact conditions have not been announced, but according to a “New York Post” report, the deal is said to have cost $ 600 million. A person trusted with the agreement estimated the price at the lower end of this range, another described the numbers as extremely imprecise. However, both did not want to be named because they are not allowed to talk about the conditions.

As someone who reported a few years ago over large parts of this drama, the author of this article can say that everyone who had to do music with Swift also made money with it. Scott Borchetta – who discovered Swift – received $ 300 million when he sold his company (her label Big Machine) to Braun in 2019. Brown sold Swift’s albums a year later for about $ 360 million on Shamrock, but kept the rest of the label. Shamrock has now got out – probably with a certain surcharge after it has collected a few years of license fees.

However, Taylor Swift himself is the largest winner of all: she channeled her frustration into the most productive phase of her career, supported by the best marketing campaign in the history of the music business.

Taylor Swift’s career was at the low point

In the meantime it has almost been forgotten, but Swift’s career was at a low point when Braun bought her records. Her two youngest albums – reputation and lover – were among the worst sold in their career. Both the press and the critics seemed to have turned away.

In her public dispute with Braun, Swift was the ultimate victim, as an artist who was treated unfairly by greedy music and private equity managers. Then she used the additional time-out during Corona pandemic to resume some of her first albums.

Most people in the music industry couldn’t do anything with this strategy because they assumed that most fans would not care. Ups! Swift had cultivated the loyalty of her fans like only a few others. The new albums generated billions of streams and millions of dollars.

The new edition of these first works was the start of a world tour that included all the epochs of Swift’s career-a greatest hits tour for a pop star that was only in his mid-30s. Although Swift has always been larger in the USA than abroad, she filled stadiums all over the world and set the record for the best -selling tour of music history.

She also published four new albums in just as many years and won two more Grammys for the album of the year. She won this award four times – as often as no one before. Taylor Swift reached a level that we have never experienced since Michael Jackson or the Beatles.

Review of Swift’s numerous feuds

After becoming the biggest pop star in the world, Swift Big Machine left for a more lucrative contract at the Universal Music Group – the largest record company in the world. As part of the agreement, she secured the rights to her future works.

Swift wanted to buy her former albums, but could not agree with Big Machine. Borchetta – who had lost his greatest star – decided to sell his company to the highest bidder as long as the catalog was still up to date.

Then there was the problem with the buyer: Scooter Braun – Manager by Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. According to Music Business Worldwide, Braun Swift offered to sell her albums, but the two sides could not agree. Swift represented a different version of the events and accused Braun to want to silence them. Braun, in turn, then sold the albums to Shamrock for about twice what he had paid for it. He later sold his entire company for about one billion dollars.

Scooters Braun and Taylor Swift remain enemies

Even if Swift and Braun will probably remain connected as enemies forever, both of them have emerged far richer from their dispute. And Shamrock also doesn’t lose money due to the sale to Swift. Because for other musicians, the company now appears as a good partner.

Disputes between artists and record companies are as old as the music business itself. But Swift may be one of the last big pop stars who have to worry that she is not the owner of her works. Most big musicians are licensing their songs on record companies today. Your works are no longer their property.

The past few years have consolidated Swift’s reputation as the most business artist of our time. She has a single-handedness influenced the negotiations between large music groups, streaming companies and social media services. Her success with new admissions prompted labels to adapt their contracts and prevent other artists from following their example.