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Another musician gets screwed


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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/30/entertainment/taylor-swift-scooter-braun-songs/index.html

 

I don't like Taylor Swift music but I respect the person/artist. I certainly respect her fans who do like the music.

 

Like so many others, she signed a deal that ended up with her losing ownership of what she created. The devil's bargain. If she hadn't signed the deal maybe she would not have made it big?

 

The Music Business.

 

Zip

 

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The older I get, the less supportive of intellectual property rights I become, particularly with popular music. Taylor didn't invent I, IV, V, mVI, or breakup songs. She got rich and famous doing something that millions of people do for free in their spare time. So she signed a lousy contract: live and learn.

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The older I get' date=' the less supportive of intellectual property rights I become, particularly with popular music. Taylor didn't invent I, IV, V, mVI, or breakup songs. She got rich and famous doing something that millions of people do for free in their spare time. So she signed a lousy contract: live and learn.[/quote']

 

Wow.

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The older I get' date=' the less supportive of intellectual property rights I become, particularly with popular music. Taylor didn't invent I, IV, V, mVI, or breakup songs. She got rich and famous doing something that millions of people do for free in their spare time. So she signed a lousy contract: live and learn.[/quote']

 

Adults understand this. It's pretty simple and effective.

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I just read about this... and I really wonder how she is “getting screwed” here. She still gets paid for her sales and songwriting, regardless of who owns the label, right? That was the deal she negotiated and signed... and AFAIK, there was never any suggestion or promise that she would eventually be able to buy the label and publishing company and thus retake control of not only the writer’s share, but also the publishing... or am I missing something here?

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WTF are you talking about?

 

You read contracts. You then choose to abide by what is in the contract or negotiate. Once you come to terms with the other party, you sign the contract. You then abide by the contract. If someone violates the contract, the other party can sue.

 

i.e. I'm not seeing anyone getting screwed here. Yet...

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You read contracts. You then choose to abide by what is in the contract or negotiate. Once you come to terms with the other party, you sign the contract. You then abide by the contract. If someone violates the contract, the other party can sue.

 

i.e. I'm not seeing anyone getting screwed here. Yet...

 

I agree with this.

 

I thought you were agreeing with Jasaoke's lack of support for intellectual rights which is a bit off-base.

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The older I get' date=' the less supportive of intellectual property rights I become, particularly with popular music. Taylor didn't invent I, IV, V, mVI, or breakup songs.[/quote']

 

You can't copyright a chord progression, or even an overall lyrical theme, such as "breakups."

 

 

She got rich and famous doing something that millions of people do for free in their spare time. So she signed a lousy contract: live and learn.

 

She got rich and famous by working at it harder and arguably doing it better than millions of people who do it for free in their spare time - at least by the standards of the people who make the value determinations when they purchase and stream the works they like.

 

You're certainly entitled to your POV, but I wouldn't expect to get a lot of agreement with this post of yours... not on a musician's website.

 

 

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The older I get' date=' the less supportive of intellectual property rights I become, particularly with popular music. Taylor didn't invent I, IV, V, mVI, or breakup songs. She got rich and famous doing something that millions of people do for free in their spare time. So she signed a lousy contract: live and learn.[/quote']

 

Do you have any music online, that I can copy?

 

:D

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Ummm….yeah. Not really seeing the big "screwover" here. The contract she signed is the one she signed and she's, by all accounts, doing pretty well under the terms. In the history of "musicians who have signed bad contracts", this doesn't even come close.

 

Could this be just another publicity move by TS? She's very good at those things.

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Ummm….yeah. Not really seeing the big "screwover" here. The contract she signed is the one she signed and she's, by all accounts, doing pretty well under the terms. In the history of "musicians who have signed bad contracts", this doesn't even come close.

 

Could this be just another publicity move by TS? She's very good at those things.

 

If you read her Istagram message or however it got out it`s pretty overly dramatic. Especially if you read about how she got in the business in the first place.

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If you read her Istagram message or however it got out it`s pretty overly dramatic. Especially if you read about how she got in the business in the first place.

 

Where I can empathize with her and part from the "you read the contracts before you sign them" criticism is that when people are starting out and willing to do just about anything for success, the labels and managers have a huge advantage and can easily convince people to sign contracts they later regret. It's not like Taylor Swift at 15 or anyone else first starting out has much leverage to be able to negotiate a contract most favorable to them.

 

Swift's complaint here seems to be less that she signed a bad contract than it is that her albums, which she was planning to buy back from the label one at a time as she delivered them a new one are now in the hands of someone she has a bad history with.

 

Understandable. And, knowing TS, she'll probably turn the whole incident into a couple of mega-hit singles. :)

 

 

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She didn't get screwed in any way. Every musician including myself knows,we would sign anything EVEN IF WE TOTALLY understand what we are signing. Why? Because we want to be guitar slinging stars (well at least I did in the 70's). And then, when the artist/band gets huge, they break their contract and do what they want. It' always been that way. And now Taylor is calling the guy all kinds of names, i think she is breaking the law at this point.....she's trying to bully him while she's calling him a bully. She has a habit of doing that.

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The older I get' date=' the less supportive of intellectual property rights I become, particularly with popular music. Taylor didn't invent I, IV, V, mVI, or breakup songs. She got rich and famous doing something that millions of people do for free in their spare time. So she signed a lousy contract: live and learn.[/quote']

 

Agree. The coattails of the folks who brought us popular progressions are shredded by usurpers of their creativity. But, that's just an allusion to an ethic that's overshadowed and sold out by copyright laws. Besides that, do we really know who to credit those progressions to if their antiquity is not a matter of record? We don't. The blues can't be nailed down and that's a recent musical development. All the bluesmen of old borrowed, stole and sold each others work. The so-called "blind" bluesmen you know full well had to hear it to play it and make it their own.

 

But, that's just music making.

 

Business is universal and music is just another market. If the pretty lady is singing the blues I hope she's paid her ASCAP and BMI dues.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/30/entertainment/taylor-swift-scooter-braun-songs/index.html

 

Like so many others, she signed a deal that ended up with her losing ownership of what she created. The devil's bargain. If she hadn't signed the deal maybe she would not have made it big?

 

This is a pretty standard arrangement for a new, unsigned artist. The artist gets a record, the label could lose money on it, or make money on it. Whether or not she owns the material (does anyone as successful in the music business as she is actually own everything?), she's still getting paid when those records are sold. I suppose if she were to have full ownership she could re-release the albums on her own label and keep a larger portion of each sale. Or she could have done that in the beginning and maybe would still be singing in coffee houses for tips.

 

And you could do worse than having a label manager with Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande in his stable. My heart doesn't bleed for her. She's doing OK.

 

 

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[h=2]"Another musician gets screwed" Another false alarm. Crying victim? Very ingenuous coming from someone of that statue. Maybe she should advocate reading contracts instead of playing the victim card. [/h]

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