Swift expressed no gratitude for the industry that made her rich and famous. Instead, she griped about the people who invested enormous sums to promote and distribute her music.
Taylor Swift Attacks ‘Private Equity’
At issue is the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first six albums. Her former record label, Big Machine Label Group, owns the masters (as well as the obligation to maintain them).
The country music icon has had “ bad blood ”since June about the sale of her albums to recording industry exec, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC.
After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was funded by the Soros family, Capital, and the Carlyle Group.
Taylor Swift did not like the deal, so she chose to walk away. At the Billboard event this week, she oddly characterized the failed negotiation in terms of toxic masculinity:
And let me just say that the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, ‘But he’s always been nice to me,’ when I’m raising valid concerns about artists and their right to own their music.
But if we’re going to view the dispute through a lens of sensational identity politics, this looks less like male privilege, and more like millennial entitlement.
She’s one of the world’s highest-paid celebrities. She just broke Michael Jackson’s record this year to hold the most AMAs of any recording artist. She owns two private jets, which she flies to her estates all over the country.
The deal she made with Big Machine as a teenager is what made all this possible. She made the deal of a lifetime for access to the production and marketing muscle that made her a star.
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