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Taylor Swift: Will she re-record all six albums?
Photo: TAS Rights Management / Getty Images
Once again, the music rights of US singer Taylor Swift's early albums changed hands - and again the singer couldn't do anything about it, let alone buy it herself.
The investment company Shamrock Holdings has bought the so-called master tapes of the first six Swift albums from a holding owned by music manager Scooter Braun.
The 30-year-old has now announced that she will re-record her previous albums.
She recently started saying the process was "exciting and creatively fulfilling," she wrote on Monday on Twitter.
In the longer tweet, Swift talks about her failed attempt to regain the rights to her previous albums and master tapes, a legal battle that has dragged on for two years.
Music manager Scooter Braun, who also worked with Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande, bought the Big Machine Records label for more than $ 300 million in June 2018.
Taylor Swift joined the label at the age of fifteen and only left it ten years later, the original recordings of her first six albums remained with Big Machine Records, from the successful debut "Taylor Swift" in 2006 to the hit album "Reputation" in 2017.
"Absolutely not common"
Taylor Swift did not find out about the sale to Scooter Braun until it had already been concluded, although she would have been very interested in purchasing her own master tapes beforehand.
However, the only offer made to her was to switch back to Big Machine Records and earn her own masters back there - for each new record she should have got the rights to an old one, Swift was indignant at the time.
Since 2018 she has a new record deal with Universal Music.
At the time, Swift felt betrayed by Manager Braun.
Since then, there has been trouble between the superstar and the music mogul: She accused him of bullying her.
He would prevent her from performing with her old songs, she wrote on Twitter.
He also blocked a Netflix documentary about her.
Swift asked her fans for support.
Scooter Braun promptly reported death threats.
Now Braun has sold Swift's music to the Shamrock investor group, reportedly for more than $ 300 million.
It is a second sale without her knowledge, the singer complains on Twitter.
She was not given a price to purchase her master tapes herself with a counter offer - instead, to find out the selling price, she would have had to sign a statement that she would never say anything negative about Scooter Braun again, writes Swift, “My lawyers say , that is absolutely not common. "
A short time later, she was informed about the sale of her music as well as related videos and cover art.
Despite the sale to Shamrock, Scooter Braun will continue to be involved in the future exploitation of the albums.
"I was hoping to work with Shamrock," writes Swift, "but if Scooter is still in it, it's not for me."
"I know that I am reducing the value of my old tapes"
Taylor Swift also attached a letter to her tweet in which she asks the new owner of her music to understand that she will renounce a collaboration and instead want to re-record her old albums at Universal Music.
“I know that diminishes the value of the old master tapes.
But it's the only way for me to be proud again when I hear my music and to be happy when my fans hear my first six albums instead of annoying me that Scooter Braun is benefiting. "
The ten-time Grammy winner released the surprise album "Folklore" in July.
Swift, who has sold over 200 million records worldwide, set a new record with the album: For the first time since the industry magazine "Billboard" hit the US charts, an artist made it into both the album and the album in the same week also to enter the singles charts from zero to number one.
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