Can we talk about Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the Billboard awards last night?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't listen to her speech. If she cast it as men taking advantage of women, perhaps she should read the history of the Beatles catalog.

Unfortunately, musicians aren't necessarily talented business people, and even when they are, they may make deals that weigh out differently early in their career vs later in their career.

How old was she when she made the deal? Did she agree to this as a teenager or a 25 year old?

My understanding is this is her early work. Are you suggesting her wealthy, educated parents who set her up to be a star did not appropriately protect her interests in the way that she would have protected them? That's possible. It's also possible they made deals that they deemed reasonable early in her career, that now that she's a star appear less appealing. I wonder how many young artists who don't have wealthy, educated parents to bankroll and educate them feel about the decisions they and their legal representatives made early in their careers. And whether female artists are disproportionately affected by bad deals.

In any case, Taylor Swift has the money and the power to address whatever wrongs she feels were done to her. Both individually - e.g. buying back her catalog - and more broadly - e.g. setting up a non-profit that would represent young artists for a cut of their earnings over a designated period of time, ensuring that all rights to their work returns to them eventually while also providing the non-profit with a revenue stream. And Taylor Swift and any other artists who feel wrongly done by (Paul McCartney certainly wasn't thrilled) could provide money to make this happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She creates contracts now that not only keep her own interests in mind but make sure sing writers, procurers, etc get a fair deal since they have no bargaining power.

She strikes me to be a decent person who isn't interested in steamrolling the "little guys".

Not everyone at her level is like that. Love Taylor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't listen to her speech. If she cast it as men taking advantage of women, perhaps she should read the history of the Beatles catalog.

Unfortunately, musicians aren't necessarily talented business people, and even when they are, they may make deals that weigh out differently early in their career vs later in their career.

How old was she when she made the deal? Did she agree to this as a teenager or a 25 year old?

My understanding is this is her early work. Are you suggesting her wealthy, educated parents who set her up to be a star did not appropriately protect her interests in the way that she would have protected them? That's possible. It's also possible they made deals that they deemed reasonable early in her career, that now that she's a star appear less appealing. I wonder how many young artists who don't have wealthy, educated parents to bankroll and educate them feel about the decisions they and their legal representatives made early in their careers. And whether female artists are disproportionately affected by bad deals.

In any case, Taylor Swift has the money and the power to address whatever wrongs she feels were done to her. Both individually - e.g. buying back her catalog - and more broadly - e.g. setting up a non-profit that would represent young artists for a cut of their earnings over a designated period of time, ensuring that all rights to their work returns to them eventually while also providing the non-profit with a revenue stream. And Taylor Swift and any other artists who feel wrongly done by (Paul McCartney certainly wasn't thrilled) could provide money to make this happen.

I am suggesting that Taylor, at the age of 16, would have benefited from having the counsel of someone who was actually experienced in the industry. Taylor's parents adore their daughter and she would never have gotten to where she is now without their love, support, intelligence and determination. Her parents were not music industry insiders. I don't think either one of them is an attorney although her dad is very knowledgeable in financial/investment matters. There may have been some sort of lingo in the contract that none of the Swifts understood. The fact that Taylor seems to be legitimately blindsided by the sale of her songs indicates that she had no idea that she agreed to anything like that.

It's not cool to trick people like that.