Taylor Swift’s record contract could lead to millions of dollars being paid to artists as UMG prepares to sell half of their equity stake in Spotify.
When Swift signed her contract in 2018, she negotiated a clause stating that any sale of UMG’s Spotify shares would result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable.
Her “non-recoupable” clause ensures that artists receive that money even if they still owe advances to the label that signed them.
(https://t.co/a6vxKX98qo)
Universal Music is selling $1.4 billion in Spotify shares. It paid nothing for them. Spotify handed the shares over in 2008 just for letting Spotify play music, and the deal was set up so almost none of that money would ever reach the artists who made the music. Taylor Swift's 2018 contract changed that.
Back in 2008, Spotify was a small Swedish startup that needed songs to play. The big record labels had the songs. They had no reason to hand them over cheap, so the two sides cut a deal. Spotify gave them shares. The labels gave Spotify the right to play their music. Universal walked away with 5%. That stake later grew to 7% when Universal bought EMI and rolled EMI's 2% into its own. Then it drifted back to 3% as Spotify took on more investors and shrank everyone's slice. At today's prices, 3% of Spotify is worth about $2.7 billion. Universal sat on those shares for 18 years and never sold a single one. Until yesterday.
Most artists never see royalty money. When a label signs you, it pays you an advance to live on while you make the album. It also covers your studio time, your music videos, your marketing, your tour. All of those costs go on a tab. The label keeps every dollar your music earns until you clear that tab. Berklee, the music school in Boston, says as many as 96% of major-label artists never earn enough to clear it. They stay in the red their entire careers.
Sony moved first in 2018. It sold half its Spotify shares for $768 million and paid $250 million directly to its artists in cash, no matter how much each one still owed. Warner followed a few months later. It sold all of its Spotify shares for $504 million and said $126 million would go to its artists too. Warner played it differently. Most of that money went to pay down what those artists already owed, instead of putting fresh cash in their pockets.
Taylor Swift was negotiating her own deal with Universal that same year. She refused to sign unless Universal put the Sony version of the rule in her contract. Cash to artists, no matter what they owed. She wrote at the time that the clause "meant more to me than any other deal point." Universal had said publicly in March 2018 it would share Spotify money with artists. But it had not put the cash-not-credit rule in writing. Swift's contract, signed eight months later, did.
Universal is finally selling. Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash are about to land in artists' bank accounts, including artists who have spent years or decades in the red and would otherwise get nothing from a sale like this.
Most of those artists have never met Taylor Swift. All of them benefit from a single line she insisted on eight years ago.
Seems like the perfect time for women to start an anonymous website where they can name the men who assaulted them — and I bet we could get over 62 million names VERY quickly.
WE NEED TO BECOME THE BEAR, LADIES
I saw a protest women and young girls were doing in Paris. They were encouraging women to bleed everywhere. On the bus seats, train, restaurants, liters everywhere that men also frequent to advocate for free sanitary pads. Till it starts inconveniencing them, they won’t create a budget for it.
So you’re telling us that if JUNGWON, JAY, JAKE, SUNGHOON, SUNOO, and NI-KI ever dare to release solo work, their only fate is exile from the group? What kind of cruel, threatening message is that to the others? That anyone bold enough to pursue their own artistry will be cast aside, betrayed by the very people who claim to “support” them? That the blood, sweat, and soul they poured into building this group means nothing if they want to grow as artists?
You claim this was all HEESEUNG’s choice, that you “respected his decision.” But how can it be a choice when you left him with no options? When the only way for him to follow his passion, his music, his artistry, was to be ripped away from the group he devoted his entire life to? You trapped him. You forced his hand. And yet you have the gall, the unthinkable audacity, to pretend he walked away willingly, twisting it as if this was HEESEUNG being “selfish,” as if pursuing his dreams and staying true to his artistry is some crime.
You do not deserve any of them.
Not HEESEUNG.
Not JUNGWON.
Not JAY.
Not JAKE.
Not SUNGHOON.
Not SUNOO.
Not NI-KI.
You are nothing but cowardly, greedy, shameless leeches, betraying the very people who built your useless company with their sweat, their talent, and their hearts. You try to paint the victim as the villain, but the world sees your cruelty for what it is. History will remember your selfishness, but it will never forgive it.
If you released that article thinking it would stop us, thinking it would silence us, you only made one thing certain. We will fight even harder. We will fight for ENHYPEN, all seven of them, and we will not stop until they are treated with the respect, freedom, and dignity they deserve.
ENGENEs, move and sign the petition: https://t.co/nELJr3VGFq
Taylor has once again changed the game and all artists will now follow this formula eventually not posting music videos on YouTube at all.
I’m predicting an insane boost in streams.
I hereby invite you to a *dazzling* soirée, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl: Oct 3 - Oct 5 only in cinemas! You’ll get to see the exclusive world premiere of the music video for my new single “The Fate of Ophelia”, along with never before seen behind-the-scenes footage of how we made it, cut by cut explanations of what inspired this music, and the brand new lyric videos from my new album The Life of a Showgirl ❤️🔥
Looks like it’s time to brush off that Eras Tour outfit or orange cardigan… Tickets are on sale now. Dancing is optional but very much encouraged 💃
Showtimes may vary, so check your local listings. Tickets are limited https://t.co/iK2QuvEqEK
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
🚨BREAKING: Fox & Friends just trashed Jimmy Kimmel for “crossing the line” - WHILE Brian Kilmeade, the same guy who said homeless people should be “killed,” SAT RIGHT THERE ON THE COUCH.
This is hypocrisy at its most extreme. Are they all this evil??
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” has officially concluded after three seasons.
Here are all of the Taylor Swift songs featured in the series:
1. Lover
2. Cruel Summer
3. False God (x2)
4. The Way I Loved You (Taylor’s Version)
5. This Love (Taylor’s Version)
6. Hey Stephen (Taylor’s Version)
7. Invisible String
8. Sweet Nothing
9. Delicate (Taylor’s Version)
10. Snow on the Beach ft. Lana Del Rey
11. Bigger Than the Whole Sky
12. exile ft. Bon Iver
13. You’re Losing Me
14. Robin
15. loml
16. cardigan
17. You’re On Your Own, Kid
18. How Did It End?
19. I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
20. the 1
21. dress
22. Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)
23. august [Season 2 trailer]
24. Back to December (Taylor’s Version) [Season 2 trailer]
25. Daylight x Red (Taylor’s Version) mashup [Season 3 trailer]
🚨| The Life of a Showgirl announcement breaks record for most viewed Instagram video in 24 hours with 134 MILLION views, surpassing Billie Eilish’s HMHAS teaser in just 15 hours!