Taylor Swift announced on social media the shocking news that she has not renewed her contract with Big Machine Records on Nov. 19 and is now with Republic Records under Universal Music Group.
2006 was the start of Swift’s contract with Scott Borchetta’s music label, Big Machine Label Group. Borchetta found Swift performing in The Blue Bird Café in Nashville, Tennessee and was the first artist to be signed to Big Machine.
After six chart topping albums and countless awards, 2018 marked Swift’s 12th and last year with Big Machine. After her major transition from country to pop, Swift became the first pop artist on the country label.
Taylor’s most recent album, Reputation, was her last under contract with the label. By Nov., Swift had the option to stay with Borchetta and Big Machine along with renewing her deal or to seek out a new contract with a different label.
Big Machine, a label that has artists such as Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, and Thomas Rhett, heavily negotiated earlier this year with Swift in an attempt to have her stay.
Swift’s leave will definitely take a toll on Big Machine as a company. So far in 2018, Swift’s year-to-date sales and streaming come out to be 34.6 percent of Big Machine’s market share. Due to her major contributions to the company and the brand she has created, Swift had major leverage in this negotiation.
Swift made the game changing decision and announced her statement on social media along with pictures of herself with UMG Chairman/CEO Sir Lucian Grainge and Republic Records CEO/Co-Founder Monte Lipman. With her new contract, Swift now owns all of her master recordings, which lacked in her previous contract and future negotiations with Big Machine.
Swift has been very vocal on how she is driven to change the music industry for the better. In her post she stated, “As part of my new contract with Universal Music Group, I asked that any sale of their Spotify shares result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable.” This was most likely a deal breaker for Swift.
The artist also hinted at a seventh album that should be coming in the near future leading to fans to absolute excitement.
With this new deal, there’s excitement for all the Swifties.
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