Published on Nov 6, 2023 at 4:58 p.m.
The Taylor Swift of today does the Taylor Swift of almost a decade ago better. The replica of the American singer’s 1989 album sold almost 1.7 million copies in the first week of this new release.
This is his greatest success. But also and above all “a great revenge”, summarizes Alice Enders, of the Enders Analysis firm, while Taylor Swift had tried in vain to recover the ownership of her recorded music after the sale of her catalog to a personal enemy.
Precisely, the revamped 1989 album sold 1.65 million units in the week ending November 2, surpassing the 1.3 million sales of the original album upon its release in 2014 , according to Luminate data, revealed by the “Financial Times”. A real feat: over the last decade, only five albums have managed to sell 1 million copies in the first week, including four from Swift.
Battle for property rights
We have to go back a few years to understand how this album is also the symbol of a battle around property rights. In 2019, Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s manager, with the support of the Carlyle fund, got his hands on the catalog of six albums of the famous singer for around 300 million dollars. More precisely, he acquired the “Big Machine” label, created when the singer was 15 years old, including the masters of Taylor Swift. The most popular performer in the world, who wanted this catalog, immediately published a press release, considering herself “robbed of her life’s work” judging that the buyer is “the worst scenario”, while he allegedly harassed on social media. Shortly after, the singer threatened to re-record five of her opuses produced between 2006 and 2017 to hold full rights.
In 2020, Scooter Braun’s holding company resold the catalog of six albums, for an equivalent amount, to Shamrock Capital, an investment company in Los Angeles. Here again, the transaction provoked the ire of Taylor Swift, who was again seeking to buy back the rights to the recordings of her albums and had not been kept informed of this transaction.
The star is, of course, the copyright holder of her first six albums as a songwriter and receives royalties. But the masters (the sound recordings) of these productions, which give rise to another type of remuneration, were, since its beginnings, the property of Big Machine. “A priori, these new recordings are a first, at least in such a context of opposition. As long as you own the music and the lyrics, you can re-record an album, even if contracts often prohibit it to avoid competition between two versions, notes Julien Guinot-Delery, lawyer at Gide. For the moment, we are not aware of any legal action from the owners of the masters.”
Decrease in catalog value
Other reissued albums have also done better than the originals: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sold approximately 627,000 units (album equivalent) this year, almost triple that of the original album. The new version of Red sold 884,000 units (compared to 214,000 units for the original), according to the “FT”.
“It’s not surprising that the reissues work better, especially since the singer pushes them,” adds Alice Enders. It certainly contributes to reducing the value of its catalog, but that has no impact for it since it does not own the rights to the masters.”
Taylor Swift has been with Universal Music since the end of 2018, where she retains the rights to her masters (for new recordings).
2023-11-06 16:06:21
#Taylor #Swifts #rerecorded #album #sells #original
