Have Other Musicians Benefited From Taylor Swift's Fight for Her Masters?

"But the masters rights for her first six albums - which means the actual recorded versions of her songs and music videos - belonged to her first label, Big Machine Records, as is standard in the music industry. This year, Swift finally struck a deal and reclaimed the master recordings from Shamrock Capitol, the private equity firm that acquired them in 2020."

""As a result, you had these companies coming in and bestowing upon these young talents this check to enable them to create recordings that the label could then make money with," says David Herlihy, an entertainment attorney and music industry professor at Northeastern University. "And so the labels owned the recordings." The terms and lengths of those licenses vary by artist, he explains. But whereas labels used to frequently own master recordings in perpetuity, leaving artists solely with royalty earnings, today's licenses often revert back to musicians after a period of time."

Taylor Swift reclaimed the master recordings for her first six albums after they were owned by Big Machine Records and later acquired by Shamrock Capitol. Publishing rights cover composition and lyrics, while master rights cover the actual recorded performances and music videos. Labels historically financed recordings and retained master ownership, but licensing terms now often include reversion to artists after a set period. The Copyright Act of 1976 prompted similar reversion rights in publishing, enabling creators to regain control. Private equity purchases of masters and high-profile artists advocating for ownership have brought the issue into mainstream attention.

Read at Kqed