Sara Weiss
The now infamous feud between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun thrust the legal concepts of ownership and copyright into popular culture. The conflict boils down to a fight between recording labels and musicians over ownership of the musician’s master recording.[1] In line with the recording industry’s customary practices, Swift contracted away the rights to her masters to the record label, the record label was then sold to Braun, and, as a result, Braun assumed the rights to Swift’s master recordings.[2] Although prior to the sale of the record label Swift had attempt to regain possession of the rights to her masters, she rejected the contractual offers from the recording company that would permit her to buy or earn back the rights and walked away from her rights to the master recordings.[3]
The legal answer to this conflict is relatively straightforward as a matter of contract law; Braun legally owns the rights to the masters. However, the legal answer misses the nuances of the human dimensions of ownership. While legal cases are often bled dry of the emotional and human elements of the disputes, there are lurking power dynamics in ownership disputes that become more apparent when the fight (although lacking in legal merit) plays out in the court of public opinion. The dispute between Swift and Braun highlights the power imbalance between artists (even superstars like Swift) and record labels, and it also highlights the industry pressures that could coerce a lesser known artist to remain silent about their grievances over how their rights and work are treated.[4] The more human elements of the dispute pose a policy question for the law: who does copyright (and ownership of the attendant exclusive rights) really benefit – the individual artists or the larger industry? The Swift-Braun feud highlights that the scales may tip in favor of the industry.
However, The Internet, traditionally viewed as the foe of copyright owners and their rights, may be disrupting this power imbalance. Maggie Rogers, a tremendously talented and heartfelt singer-songwriter, recently played two back-to-back sold out shows at Radio City in New York.[5] Besides her spectacular talent and superb stage presence, Rogers is unique because she owns the rights to her master recordings, which she then leased to the record label that issued her album.[6] The Internet played a role in allowing Rogers, a relatively new artist, to attain a position so many artists covet at the beginning of their careers. After being serendipitously discovered by Pharrell Williams in her senior year of college, she became a viral sensation when the video of her encounter with Pharrell was posted online.[7] In numerous interviews, Rogers has recounted the overwhelming and painful impact overnight Internet stardom had on her personal life.[8]However, when the bidding war between the record labels for her next record ensued, Rogers came armed with industry knowledge to assert her place and retain the rights to her master recordings.[9] Despite the hardships the Internet exposure has posed for her personal life,[10] the Internet played a role in creating bargaining leverage allowing her to translate her amazing talent into legal rights.
Although the Internet is a well-known impediment to artist’s rights, it is also an engine for democratization and equality. At the same time that the Internet wreaks havoc on the balance within preexisting industries, it also has the potential to grant more bargaining power to artists so that they retain more legal rights to their works. Thus, it is the disruptive force of the Internet that holds the promise of purposing copyright and its legal protection toward protecting artists, not just industries.
[1] Emma Lord, Taylor Swift’s Feud With Scooter Braun May Have Changed the Music Industry, Bustle.com (August 27, 2019), https://www.bustle.com/p/taylor-swifts-feud-with-scooter-braun-may-have-changed-the-music-industry-18538527; Jem Aswad and Chris Willman, Taylor Swift’s Masters, Scooter Braun’s ‘Bullying’: Inside the Big Machine-Ithaca Deal, Variety.com (June 30, 2019), https://variety.com/2019/music/news/taylor-swifts-masters-scooter-brauns-bullying-inside-the-big-machine-ithaca-holdings-deal-1203256640/.
[2] Jem Aswad and Chris Willman, Taylor Swift’s Masters, Scooter Braun’s ‘Bullying’: Inside the Big Machine-Ithaca Deal, Variety.com (June 30, 2019), https://variety.com/2019/music/news/taylor-swifts-masters-scooter-brauns-bullying-inside-the-big-machine-ithaca-holdings-deal-1203256640/.
[3] Emma Lord, Taylor Swift’s Feud With Scooter Braun May Have Changed the Music Industry, Bustle.com (August 27, 2019), https://www.bustle.com/p/taylor-swifts-feud-with-scooter-braun-may-have-changed-the-music-industry-18538527, Jem Aswad and Chris Willman, Taylor Swift’s Masters, Scooter Braun’s ‘Bullying’: Inside the Big Machine-Ithaca Deal, Variety.com (June 30, 2019), https://variety.com/2019/music/news/taylor-swifts-masters-scooter-brauns-bullying-inside-the-big-machine-ithaca-holdings-deal-1203256640/.
[4] Emma Lord, Taylor Swift’s Feud With Scooter Braun May Have Changed the Music Industry, Bustle.com (August 27, 2019), https://www.bustle.com/p/taylor-swifts-feud-with-scooter-braun-may-have-changed-the-music-industry-18538527
[5] Chuck Arnold, NYU alum Maggie Rogers Graduates to Radio City Headliner, Nypost.com (September 26, 2019), https://nypost.com/2019/09/26/nyu-alum-maggie-rogers-graduates-to-radio-city-headliner/
[6] Brooke Mazurek, Maggie Rogers: How a 20-Page Business Plan Took Her From NYU to ‘SNL,’ Billboard.com (January 11, 2019), https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8492852/maggie-rogers-nyu-snl-light-on-interview
[7] Alex Pappademas, Maggie Rogers Went Viral. Then She Had to Become Herself Again, NYTimes.com (January 17, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/maggie-rogers-heard-it-in-a-past-life.html
[8] Alex Pappademas, Maggie Rogers Went Viral. Then She Had to Become Herself Again, NYTimes.com (January 17, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/maggie-rogers-heard-it-in-a-past-life.html
[9] John Seabrook, Maggie Rogers Wants to Keep It Real, Newyorker.com (April 29, 2019), https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/maggie-rogers-wants-to-keep-it-real
[10] John Seabrook, Maggie Rogers Wants to Keep It Real, Newyorker.com (April 29, 2019), https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/maggie-rogers-wants-to-keep-it-real; Alex Pappademas, Maggie Rogers Went Viral. Then She Had to Become Herself Again, NYTimes.com (January 17, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/maggie-rogers-heard-it-in-a-past-life.html