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Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Taylor Swift's master plan worked
The pop star's fans vowed to listen to only "Taylor's Versions" when her catalog was sold. They no longer have to choose. When news broke in May that Taylor Swift bought back the rights to the master recordings of her first six albums, her close friend and producer Jack Antonoff posted of video of himself and Swift lip-syncing together to "Getaway Car" from her 2017 album Reputation — the only album she is yet to completely rerecord — writing, "rep forever guilt free listening!' One week after Swift announced the purchase, the album landed in the top five of Billboard's 200, and its Spotify streams jumped 175%. Meanwhile, streams of the original version of Speak Now, released in 2010, spiked 430%, and streams for Swift's debut self-titled album from 2006 rose 220%. 'It was a full boycott for a long time,' Chelsea Tanagretta, a 40-year-old Swiftie from San Diego tells Yahoo of her decision not to listen to Reputation. So the moment Tanagretta found out that Swift was the proud owner of her original recordings, she hit play on 'Dress,' her favorite song from the album. It felt like a win for both Swift and Tanagretta. 'It's like watching your friend achieve their ultimate goal,' she recalls. 'It was a very proud moment.' Tanagretta is among millions of Swift fans who stopped listening to the original albums after Swift encouraged them to embrace her Taylor's Versions instead. Swift launched these rerecordings to reclaim control of her first six albums from Scooter Braun, her longtime industry rival, who gained ownership of her catalog when he acquired her former record label, Big Machine, in June 2019. Swift, who once accused Braun of 'incessant, manipulative bullying' in a widely circulated Tumblr post described losing control of her masters as her 'worst-case scenario.' By rerecording and releasing her music in the form of Taylor's Versions, Swift intended to reclaim ownership and diminish the financial worth of Braun's acquisition. Swifties quickly rallied behind her, turning their streaming choices into a gesture of solidarity. Now that Swift owns her masters outright, those same fans are confronting a new listening landscape, one that's no longer about choosing sides in a feud, but about navigating a doubled catalog, shifting habits, and what, if anything, ethical consumption means now. 'Clash of the titans' Plenty of artists who preceded Swift have tried to get their fans to care about artists' rights and the issue of ownership, including Prince and Van Morrison, music journalist Alan Light tells Yahoo. The English rock band Squeeze even rerecorded their top hits for a new album called Spot the Difference in 2010, only for a majority of their fans to say they much preferred the originals, Light says. In fact, no other musician who took up the issue of artists not owning their master recordings had much success rallying their fans to support their efforts, at least not compared to Swift. That's because Swift turned what might normally be considered a business dispute into an ethical debate, Paul Booth, a professor of media and pop culture at DePaul University, explains. 'She didn't explicitly say, 'Don't stream the originals,' but her messaging — especially around ownership and exploitation — created a moral framework that fans internalized,' he tells Yahoo. Light agrees. 'The fact that she played out the ownership dispute so publicly and so personally made it into this clash of the titans thing with Scooter Braun,' he says. So even though the contract Swift signed with Big Machine Records — and the offer it made for her to earn back her masters — were standard for the industry, fans saw the whole debacle as deeply unfair to Swift and gladly took up her cause. To them, it wasn't just business. It was personal — political, even. 'This felt like another example of corrupt and broken systems that cheat working people out of fair opportunities,' Mel Cairo, a 29-year-old Swiftie who works as a consultant in New York City, tells Yahoo. 'Even the most powerful woman in the world, with all the money in the world, couldn't escape it. If the system was fair, she could've bought her music back in 2019.' 'A cause we all had a stake in' Like Tanagretta, Cairo promptly stopped listening to the original versions of the six albums Swift did not own outright once Braun bought them — Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation — an experience she says was easy given how worthwhile and exciting Swift made the rerecordings. Each new album arrived packed with songs Swift had left off the original releases, and fans quickly embraced these so-called 'vault' tracks, fueling frenzied debate over additions like the sprawling new 10-minute version of 'All Too Well' from Red (Taylor's Version) — released alongside an acclaimed short film Swift directed herself. 'She made it fun throughout the process. It almost felt like it was a cause that we all had a stake in,' says Cairo. For her, the hardest part of standing by Swift was having to forgo the raw vulnerability of the original Speak Now in exchange for the rerecording's more polished and mature sound. Now that Swift owns all her masters, though, Cairo is listening to the original Speak Now again and "appreciating it in new ways.' Otherwise, she gravitates toward the rerecordings because they are associated with more recent parts of her life. She especially enjoys 1989 (Taylor's Version). 'The vault songs are unreal,' she says. Annie Marcum, a fellow Swiftie and a 32-year-old veterinarian in Kansas City, Mo., appreciates the rerecorded version of 1989 for the small ways it differs from its 2014 counterpart. 'I love how much more '80s synthesizers she put in there to pay homage to that decade,' Marcum says. In fact, Marcum had so much fun listening to the new albums and detecting the subtle changes that only Swift's most dedicated fans would pick up on, she didn't even realize she'd lost the experience of listening to the originals. Well, all of them except Reputation. Unlike Tanagretta, Marcum didn't stop listening to the beloved record, and, despite what Antonoff implied in his X post, she doesn't have any guilt about it. 'I did not feel bad about listening to Reputation and giving Scooter Braun a quarter or whatever it is,' Marcum says. She recognizes that at the end of the day, 'what we're really talking about is two billionaires fighting while some people can't even put food on the table.' Some critics and fans couldn't help but note the sheer excess of Swift's campaign, pointing to the multiple color variants of each rerecording and an endless stream of exclusive merch that rolled out with each Taylor's Version release. 'Are we buying into capitalism at points? For sure. I'm under no false pretenses about that,' Marcum says. Yet those very sales are what boosted the value of Swift's rerecordings, undercut the value of the originals and ultimately enabled Swift to buy back her masters for $360 million. And Marcum views Swift's victory as an important one for artists, if only because it exposed how unfair the music industry is to the actual musicians. 'I know it's the way of the world right now,' says Marcum, 'but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right.' For Marcum and others, Swift's rerecording campaign remains a matter of right vs. wrong, of David taking on Goliath and fighting for the underdog, even though Swift bought her masters back and stands to profit massively in the end. But that doesn't matter to Cairo. She still values everything she learned about contracts and the music industry from the experience and views it as just one of several lessons Swift has taught her about ethical consumption. At the two Eras tour shows she attended, for instance, she made sure to buy the merchandise from opening acts Gracie Abrams and Paramore, respectively, because she remembered Swift saying earlier in her career how important merch sales are to new artists. Swift helping her fans better understand how the music industry works and actually motivating them to care is nothing short of game-changing, says Light. Even the pop star herself acknowledges the significance. In a letter she published on her website after news broke that she bought her 'entire life's work,' she wrote, 'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen. Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared.' 'For whatever reason, Prince was not able to do that,' Light says. 'And if younger artists are signing smarter deals because of what came out of all this, that's a significant impact.' Solve the daily Crossword
Reuters
21-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Universal Music confidentially files for US IPO
July 21 (Reuters) - Universal Music Group disclosed on Monday it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, amid growing investor optimism for IPOs. The terms of the offering were not disclosed.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mariah Carey Hints at New Music With 16th Album Coming Soon
Mariah Carey Hints at New Music With 16th Album Coming Soon originally appeared on Parade. IT'S TIIIIIIIIMMMEEE! Mariah Carey has been hinting at a new studio album for a couple of years now. But on Friday, she teased that her 16th studio album will be arriving "soon." Last month, the 56-year-old singer-songwriter released the lead single for her 16th album, "Type Dangerous," which was teased several days before its release. The song samples Eric B. and Rakim's hip-hop classic, "Eric B. Is President." Carey took to social media to drop a subtle hint that new music is coming. On her X account, she posted a montage filled with news clips, fan tweets and interviews about the upcoming album. Then, the screen goes white, and "MC 16" and "Soon" appear on the screen. "'Soon!' #MC16," the "Fantasy" singer wrote as her caption. In the teaser, the Grammy-winning singer highlighted a 2023 interview with Entertainment Tonight where she said she has "about 10 songs" and "there's a lot of material." The "Vision of Love" singer also featured a clip from Apple Music's 10th Anniversary Celebration interview that took place on June 30, where she mentioned that "we got some Mariah ballads, yes." Carey is still one of the best-selling artists of all time. Known for her five-octave range, songwriting talent and chart dominance since the 1990s, the singer has easily earned her place as a star in the music industry. In recent years, Carey has focused on celebrating her legacy by releasing anniversary and deluxe editions of past albums of The Emancipation of Mimi, Rainbow, Merry Christmas, Music Box and Butterfly. These re-releases include rare tracks, live recordings, a capella versions and remixes, giving longtime fans a nostalgic look back while keeping her iconic catalog fresh and accessible. While most details are still under wraps and there is no official release date yet, it's clear that the Lambily won't have to wait much longer. With a new era on the horizon, fans are eager to see what Carey has in store. But one thing is for sure, our Songbird Supreme isn't done making magic just Carey Hints at New Music With 16th Album Coming Soon first appeared on Parade on Jul 18, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 18, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Travis Scott's ‘JackBoys 2' Tops Chart, Ends Justin Bieber's Six-Album Streak of No. 1 Debuts
Travis Scott came out on top in a stacked week of new releases on Sunday, as his latest album JackBoys 2 debuted atop Billboard's 200 Albums chart, beating out Justin Bieber's surprise release Swag, as well as Let God Sort 'Em Out, Clipse's first album in over 15 years. JackBoys 2, considered a compilation album with his Cactus Jack label, marks Scott's sixth album to top the Billboard chart (that's four solo records as well as the original JackBoys compilation album). It opens with 232,000 units and was buoyed by strong traditional sales, selling 160,000 copies, Billboard reported. More from The Hollywood Reporter Billie Eilish Reveals 3D Collaboration With James Cameron Is in the Works Astronomer CEO Andy Byron Resigns After Getting Caught on Coldplay Kiss-Cam Tyler, the Creator Reveals New Album Drops Monday Scott ends Morgan Wallen's I'm The Problem's two-month streak atop the albums chart since that record debuted in May. (Luminate reported last week that I'm The Problem is the biggest album in the U.S. through the first half of 2025.) The chart news marks the first time Bieber hasn't opened at No. 1 in his 15-year career, ending a six-album streak of No. 1 debuts that began with his first record, My World 2.0, back in 2010. Despite that streak ending, Swag had a more than respectable opening, debuting with 163,000 overall units on 198.77 million streams, per Billboard. Notably, Swag's debut was carried almost entirely by streams, with physical sales set to be included on a later chart after his physical units are shipped out. Swag appears to have netted Bieber another hit with 'Daisies,' which topped both Apple Music and Spotify's daily U.S. charts this past week. It's a potential contender for a No. 1 debut on the Hot 100 chart, in close competition with Alex Warren's 'Ordinary,' which has spent the past six weeks atop the chart. The New Hot 100 chart will release on Monday. Other than Bieber, Clipse earned 118,000 equivalent units with Let God Sort 'Em Out, debuting at No. 4 on this week's chart. Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rakim Responds to Kendrick Lamar's ‘Chains & Whips' Name-Drop: ‘I Salute You, King'
Rap's professor emeritus Rakim responded to Kendrick Lamar name-dropping him on his 'Chains & Whips' guest verse from the Clipse's new album Let God Sort Em Out. In the verse, Lamar suggested he might consider splitting his riches with the rapper thanks to his influence over the modern rap scene. 'The things I've seen under my eyelids/ Kaleidoscope dreams, murder, and sirens,' Lamar rapped. 'Let's be clear, hip-hop died again/ Half of my profits may go to Rakim.' More from Billboard aespa Blast Baddies in Video For 'Dark Arts' Single Collab with KRAFTON's PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Battle Royale Game Joyner Lucas Replies to Skepta With Fiery 'Nobody Cares' Diss Track: 'We Don't Play Your S-t in the States' Watch a Tween Justin Bieber Predict His Pivot to R&B in 2008 Interview Rakim took to his Instagram over the weekend to post a video of Lamar driving his Porsche with his verse playing and expressed his appreciation for the acknowledgement. 'I salute you king,' he wrote. 'Thanks for the illest shout I heard in a long time, and keep up the incredible work my brother, you ain't no joke!!!! Peace and blessings to you and yours.' This isn't the first time the rap legend saluted Kendrick. During an interview with Billboard last year, he was asked about Lamar's battle with Drake and showed love to both of them for stepping into the ring and keeping it hip-hop. 'You know, a lot of people in that position won't accept no challenge, because they got too much to lose,' he said. 'So, it was dope that these brothers put the mainstream success down and said, 'Yeah, let's do it.'' Rakim continued, adding that the battle helped define the difference between 'real hip-hop' and more modern, popular versions of the artform. 'Younger artists now know that there's a difference. A lot of them didn't even understand that,' he said. 'They just listened to the majority, not knowing that a lot of people don't categorize what they were hearing as real hip-hop. The battle was very needed for the genre. I tip my hat to them brothers. Let's just hope that it stays to the music.' In related Drake and Kendrick news, the former just finished headlining London's Wireless festival for three days, while the latter is in the midst of the European leg of his Grand National Tour with SZA. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
