text | Music Herald, author | Li Qinyu, editor | Fan Zhihui
After 5 years, Taylor Swift has shown another wave of operations to the industry.
After 10 weeks of muting TikTok, Taylor Swift's song unexpectedly returned to TikTok, which immediately caused a lot of carnival among overseas users.
Although Taylor Swift's Universal Music Group and TikTok have not directly responded to the reasons, it is not difficult to see that Swift has made her own rules.
So, how did this happen? What does it mean for the two major platforms?
platform war, Taylor Swift is the only beauty
Although Universal Music Group is still trying to compete with tiktok by removing works from the shelves, 8 days before the release of taylor swift’s 11th studio album "the tortured poets department", its Many works have miraculously returned to normal on TikTok. The incident of
dates back to February this year.
In the "match of the century" between Universal Music Group and TikTok, Universal Music has successively removed approximately 3 million songs with recording copyrights and nearly 4 million songs with agency songwriting copyrights from TikTok. As a social media platform with more than 1 billion users, TikTok has now taken on the important work of promoting music and promoting the direction of music trends.
There is no doubt that this move has a direct impact on musicians and creators who rely on TikTok for music distribution.
Faced with the removal of music from the shelves, TikTok began to explore new sources of music, including free music and self-created versions, to maintain user demand and platform influence. While netizens were still discussing that this "match of the century" was likely to be a lose-lose situation in the short term, Taylor Swift acted fiercely and came back with her work. On April 11th, Return to tiktok platform.
As of April 16, you can see on the tiktok platform, taylor swift's "lover", "1989 (taylor's version)", "red (taylor's version)", "fearless (taylor's version)", " Many tracks included in albums such as "folklore" can now be played and used normally.
This move makes Taylor Swift the only artist under Universal Music who can still play her works normally on TikTok even though Universal Music has not yet reconciled with TikTok. There is a sense of deja vu, "You two can fight if you like, don't hinder my sister from pursuing her career."
is copyrighted, it is willful
Unfortunately, the works of other Universal Music artists such as drake, ariana grande and camila cabello are still muted on tiktok.
Why is it that among the superstars of Universal Music Group, Taylor Swift’s works are uniquely able to return to TikTok?
has to start with the protracted war between Taylor Swift and her old club 5 years ago.
In June 2019, Justin Bieber's agent Scooter Braun acquired Taylor Swift's former company Big Machine for US$300 million, thus obtaining the master tape copyright (ie, recording copyright) of its 6 studio albums.
Taylor Swift later condemned the acquisition on social networks. She said she was not informed by Big Machine that the company would be acquired and that she had been trying to buy her master tapes for years but had no chance unless she signed another contract requiring her to make six more under the company. album in exchange for the first 6 master tapes. Facing the threat from her former employer, American singer Kelly Clarkon left a message under her post and made some suggestions to encourage her to remake the album controlled by her former company.
In August 2019, Taylor Swift adopted her suggestion and announced that she would officially re-record her six early studio albums. She said, "Artists should have their own works."
In the following years, Taylor Swift successively released He has released remastered versions of his previous 6 albums. The albums and songs are marked with "remastered versions" (taylor's version), indicating that the works are different from the old versions, and they have all achieved unprecedented success. This move by ensures that Taylor Swift fully controls the recording copyright of the new master tape and the license for commercial use of the work, thereby bypassing the owner of the old master tape and reducing its commercial value.
A more interesting episode. In September 2021, "Wildest Dreams" released by Taylor Swift in 2015 suddenly became popular on TikTok. The old version has a cumulative play count of 735,000 on spotify, setting a record for a song to be played on the platform in a single day. Quantity record. The next day, the number of views exceeded 750,000.
html On September 17, Taylor Swift posted a short video on her personal tiktok account, revealing the re-recorded version of the song, with the attachment "Since you want to hear me perform "Wildest Dreams" using slow zoom special effects, then come on," and said If everyone thinks it's okay, the entire song will be released later, hinting that a remastered version of the song will be released. Finally, the remake was released on major streaming platforms an hour later. In just 4 hours after the song was released, it was played more than 2 million times on spotify, easily breaking the record set by the old version a day ago.I have to say that this style of kicking the lame man's other good leg has directly shaped Taylor Swift into a model artist who is not controlled by others and firmly holds the music copyright in his own hands.
On the other hand, after ending the cooperation with the former company Big Machine, Taylor Swift signed a record deal with Universal Music Group for US$200 million in November 2018. This time, Taylor Swift has a greater say.
According to billboard reports, the contract given by Universal Music includes the five albums Taylor Swift will release in the future, and the recording copyright of all music released within the scope of the contract will belong to her. This also clears the way for his works to return to TikTok.
Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, Universal Music has tried to dissuade and negotiate Taylor Swift’s “disruptive behavior” of listing TikTok during the commercial war, but Taylor Swift still insisted on reinstating the listing. In view of the fact that the contract was written in black and white, Universal Music could only adopt the attitude of "I don't want to respect it, but I can only understand it" towards this operation.
Based on the above two points, and the fact that this incident happened to happen a week before the release of Taylor Swift's 11th studio album, foreign media "variety" speculated that tiktok may have "reached a strategic agreement with Taylor Swift."
It can be seen that Taylor Swift can smoothly bypass Universal Music this time and return directly to TikTok, which is inseparable from the forward-looking and independence that she maintains in her works.
Business thinking is the last lesson for musicians
Copyright incidents like this abound. For example, Soda Green was recruited by the former boss to become the Yuding family, and the trainees’ stage names belong to the company under the virtual asset inheritance system, etc.
The most surprising thing is that in January this year, Deng Ziqi’s former company Hummingbird Music issued a copyright statement, claiming that it was the exclusive owner of the recording, lyrics and music copyrights of a total of 103 songs produced and released by Deng Ziqi from 2008 to 2018 during the contract period. The statement emphasized that "without the permission of our company, any unit or individual is prohibited from using the musical works listed below for cover, reproduction, performance, Internet dissemination and other commercial purposes."
To put it simply, Deng Ziqi will probably no longer be able to sing his 103 early works including "Bubble" due to copyright issues, nor will he be able to obtain the income generated by these songs in the future. (For details, you can read the previous article: Can Deng Ziqi no longer be able to sing "Bubble"?). Some fans of
also suggested that with Deng Ziqi’s current influence and popularity in the Chinese music scene, why can’t he remake his previous works and release them again like Taylor Swift? And this issue is also the biggest difference between the two incidents. Comparing
, it can be seen that Taylor Swift fought for a clause similar to the validity period of copyright protection when signing the contract in the early stage, and the copyright of lyrics and music has always been in her own hands. She only handed it over to Sony Music Copyright Management Company as an agent and did not sell it outright to the relevant company, so this is why She announced in 2019 that she would be remaking her early albums.
Deng Ziqi’s case is still going on, and the detailed evidence has not been made public. According to the current known situation analysis, there may have been relevant clauses such as song “buyout” in the early stage. In addition, the vague concept led to asymmetric information between the two parties, making Deng Ziqi likely to lose his money. It’s not just the recording copyright, but also the lyrics and music copyright, which makes it impossible to reproduce it.
Through domestic and foreign cases on music copyright, it can be said that the most important business lesson for musicians after entering the industry is the word game in the copyright agreement. This is often the first social lesson for newcomers.
When signing contracts with platforms and record companies in the early stages, you need to pay attention to key words such as "exclusive", "exclusive", "permanent", and "50 years" in the contract. If you really can't understand the contract, it is best to find a professional lawyer. consult.
In addition, musicians also need to pay attention to whether there are exaggerated false investments and liquidated damages in the contract. Be careful that they have not yet become 2.08 million, but they have become a stepping stone for the company to become bigger and stronger. The chess game of
Capital is gradually growing as the territory of the business empire grows. As a musician who enters the game personally, he should establish business awareness early while maintaining his creative power and the quality of his works, in the hope that one day he can wash away his reputation and turn around. , don’t leave any regrets.
Conclusion
taylor swift's keen insight not only helped her find her own unique position in the music field, but also made her realize early that whether it is the CD era or the streaming media era, the essence of business is inseparable from value creation, meeting market demand and The most basic trading chips and win-win collaborative thinking.
Even in the face of copyright disputes with her old club and the obscenity of male colleagues, Taylor Swift can calm down and get back a win, providing the market with new options with a cleaner copyright background and higher quality works. Copyright disputes and fierce battles were resolved with one move and a lot of effort - although she has sacrificed a lot, her current posture is so free and easy.
Of course, while Taylor Swift continues to safeguard its own rights and interests, it is also committed to helping more musicians strive for the benefits they deserve, promoting the progress of the entire music industry, and demonstrating to peers what a qualified musician should have in the current era. Business literacy.
