How Taylor Swift’s fight is transforming the music industry

The American pop star Taylor Swift has just given a great blow when buying the rights of her first six albums. It is an act both militant and economic, which illustrates a deep change in the relationship of forces between artists and recordings.

The music industry, which last year moved 30,000 billion dollars, has been based for decades in a structural imbalance: in exchange for the financing of their production, artists usually give the original recordings of their songs to the recordings. However, it is precisely these recordings that generate most income: sales, streaming, advertisement or films. Every time a song is spread, it is the head of the rights who charges, rarely the artist.

Taylor Swift, pioneer of a new model

In 2019, everything changed for Taylor Swift. When he ended his contract with his former record label, he discovered that his masters had been relieved without their consent. In response, he decided to re -record his former issues, a strategy that allowed him to continue to be the head of copyright (letter and melody). The result: the new versions had great commercial success and progressively eclipsed the originals, generating new income under their control. But this solution has a cost: Re -regret albums requires important resources. Therefore, in parallel, Taylor Swift opted for another more radical strategy: repurchase the rights of its first albums. An expensive operation – the estimates speak of hundreds of millions of dollars – but that guarantees the total control of his work.

Towards the economic emancipation of artists

Taylor Swift’s case is not isolated. In 2022, Kanye West also bought his masters from Universal thanks to a loan of one hundred million dollars. Others, such as Paul McCartney, could not prevent the sale of their catalog to other publishers. This movement reveals a growing awareness by artists: the intellectual property of their works is a lever for artistic independence and an important economic asset. In the future, the question of rights could be raised since the signing of the first contracts. An evolution that could deeply change the rules of the game in the music sector.