In December 2023, world-famous young American singer Taylor Swift was voted “person of the year” by Time magazine. This is the first entertainer in the world to receive this title, which was previously reserved for world-famous politicians or technocrats. Also on this occasion, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organization) emphasized that Taylor Swift is also an “intellectual property rights superstar”…
In other words, she is a “example” for other artists to learn to protect their intellectual property rights (IP).
Specifically, Taylor Swift has registered the trademark “Swifties” (a word for Taylor Swift fans – she has a huge fan base around the world). She also registered more than 300 trademarks, including about 200 in the US, protecting the use of her real name (Taylor Alison Swift), performance name (Taylor Swift), initials (TS), even her name. her two cats “Meredith” and “Olivia”, the name of the tour “The 1989 World tour”, the names of some famous songs “Shake it off”, “I’ll write your name” or even her signature. Miss.
In particular, the dispute between Taylor Swift and record label Big Machine Records led to her re-producing a new recording to ensure artist rights, showing that Taylor Swift truly deserves to be a “star” in… the industry. IP.
The above dispute began when Taylor Swift ended her contract with Big Machine Records at the end of 2018. Not only is she a singer but also a talented musician, she owns the copyright to the lyrics, The melodies and melodies of the songs are in the first six albums, from “Taylor Swift” (2006) to “Reputation” (2017) – works that brought fame to Taylor Swift.
However, when signing a contract with Big Machine Records in 2005, the contract stipulated that the said record label owned the copyright to the master recordings of these first six albums. , not Taylor Swift. At the end of 2018, before leaving Big Machine Records, Taylor Swift tried to negotiate with Big Machine Records to buy back the copyright, but she was unsuccessful. Big Machine Records sold all assets, including copyrights to the master recordings of six albums, to her former manager Scooter Braun, owner of Ithaca Holdings Company. The copyrights to the master recordings were then sold to an investment company, Shamrock Capital, for no less than $300 million.
Therefore, Taylor Swift cannot use the master recordings, license them or have any control over these works, nor can she benefit from the expensive transfers mentioned above. To be able to use recordings of her own vocals, Taylor Swift is forced to buy back the copyright from Shamrock Capital or apply for a license from this company.
However, as the author of the rhythm and melody of the song as well as the lyrics, Taylor Swift has the right to perform these songs, as well as create new versions of these songs, according to the contract. her contract with Big Machine Records.
Again, when a new song comes to the audience, we often simply recognize that the song belongs to the singer performing the song. However, from a legal perspective, there can be many people who own the song. For example, the author of a song’s lyrics (perhaps the author of a poem set to music, or simply the person who writes the lyrics for the music in collaboration with a musician) owns the copyright to the lyrics (which is considered a literary work). The musician (the musician who creates the music and the arrangement (in many cases may also be the lyricist)) owns the copyright to the music (which is considered a musical work). In addition, there is also the producer who is the owner of the rights to the audio or video recording, or the singer performing the song who has ownership rights to the performance, audio or video recording of the performance…
Copyright is an extremely important foundation in the music industry, considered the “golden egg” of many countries, such as the US, Korea… Copyright of each related party, author of lyrics Music, producers, and performers are all specifically regulated in copyright law. Other arrangements between the parties will be made on a contractual basis, based on the principle of freedom of agreement. For example, when writing lyrics and music, a song only owns copyright to the music and lyrics. Once the exploitation rights of the work are sold to the producer of the audio or video recording of the song, only the producer has the right to own and exploit this audio or video recording (make copies, distribute copies). to audiences, broadcasting, licensing, etc.). If you want to own an audio or video recording of a song, you need to negotiate a contract with the producer to allow the creation of a new version of the song, to produce a new audio or video recording.
Returning to Taylor Swift’s dispute over the master recordings of her first six albums, since the contract limits with her old company expired, this talented singer decided to record them. re-recorded the six albums mentioned above, to become the true owner of these new recordings. To date, she has released three out of six albums, and a fourth recording will be available to the public soon. For these new recordings, Taylor Swift not only owns the copyright to the lyrics and music, but she also holds the producer’s related rights to the recordings, which can completely determine their use. use and exploit these works.
In recent years, this young singer has repeatedly spoken out about protecting the intellectual property rights of musicians. In fact, it is often easy for producers to “hold the reins” in negotiating contracts with artists, and therefore many artists are exploited unfairly, disproportionate to the effort they put in. In 2020, she wrote the song “My Tears Ricochet” which includes lines like “And when you can’t sleep at night/You listen to my stolen melodies.”
From the example of Taylor Swift, other artists can see the importance of intellectual property rights, as well as careful negotiation and protection of the artist’s personal interests when signing contracts with record labels. Taylor Swift, thanks to her outstanding personal success, the dispute with Big Machine Records could not end her career. This is also partly thanks to the fact that Taylor Swift has effectively developed her personal brand, giving her a solid position in the entertainment industry, as well as in the marketplace.
