T Swift’s rerecording crusade paves the way for artists, but threatens major labels

"You belong with me"... Taylor Swift to her own music. This weekend, T Swift dropped “Red (Taylor’s Version),” a rerecorded album of her hit 2012 breakup anthems, plus never-released tracks. Some background: Taylor doesn't own the "masters" (aka: original recordings) from her first six albums. When she was 15, those were signed over to record label Big Machine, later sold to Scooter Braun (Kanye’s ex-manager).

• In 2018, Taylor signed a new deal with Universal Music, which gave her ownership of her new masters. But she couldn’t buy back her first six albums.
• Taylor has bad blood with Braun. Even more, she’s passionate about artists owning their music. So she started rerecording.
• Last year, private-equity fund Shamrock paid $300M for Taylor's old tunes, but Braun still got a cut of the deal. Then Taylor announced she would rerecord all the albums they’d bought.

I knew you were trouble... Many fans are choosing Taylor's version over the OGs, which could undercut earnings for Shamrock. Earlier this year, Taylor released a rerecorded version of her album "Fearless.” It's racked up 3X as many streams as the 2008 original. The “Red” rerecording is also outperforming the OG, and was #1 this week on Spotify and Apple.

• Taylor is profiting: As the owner, Taylor is scoring lucrative licensing deals for her music (think: movies, ads, TikToks).
• She’s also getting paid more streaming $$, which makes up the bulk of revenue for labels like Universal, Warner, and Sony. Artists can keep more than 80% of streaming revenue for masters they own, compared to 20% if the label owns them.
• Ctrl + Swift: Now Universal, the world’s largest label, is scrambling to protect its rights with other artists who might want to rerecord too.