Taylor Swift’s Masters Dispute With Big Machine Records
For Taylor Swift, the masters dispute with Big Machine Records was never just a business disagreement. It became a public fight over who controls an artist’s ea...
Big Machine
Big Machine Records was the Nashville label that first released Taylor Swift’s early albums and controlled their master recordings for years. Its ownership of those masters made the label central to one of the most closely watched music-rights disputes of the streaming era.
- Founded by Scott Borchetta in 2005; Swift signed with the label as a teenager.
- Released Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989 during her original contract.
- The label owned the masters to those recordings, not Swift.
- In 2019, the label was sold to Ithaca Holdings, changing control of the catalog.
- The masters dispute pushed public discussion of artist ownership into mainstream pop coverage.
