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Taylor Swift‘s cooked up a plan to get back at Scooter Braun for buying the rights to her early music — so SHE will own the new masters — but she’s got some legal hurdles to overcome first.
The singer told “CBS News Sunday Morning” — in an interview airing this weekend — she will rerecord her past songs she’d originally done while signed to Big Machine … the label Scooter bought a few months back.
As you know … Taylor was PISSED and went on a rant against Scooter for snapping up her early catalog — but her plan to cover her own songs won’t exactly hurt Scooter the way she thinks it will. Industry experts tell TMZ … every label, including Big Machine, has a rerecord clause in its contracts with artists. The clause prevent the artist from rerecording on another label, or on their own, and marketing those re-recordings.
Now, we’re told that clause usually has an expiration date. We don’t know when Big Machine’s clause expires, but even when it does … there’s another roadblock. Experts tell us it’s called an original production clause — and it prevents the artist from copying the OG version. So, when and if Taylor remakes her Big Machine tunes … she will have to deviate from the first versions.
Taylor’s revenge scheme has been pulled off before … most notably by Prince during his battles with Warner Bros. Records. However, in his case, the re-recordings ended up making the originals more valuable. In other words … Taylor could unwittingly end up putting more cash in Scooter’s pockets.
From what music industry experts are telling us, though, Scooter can’t be too concerned with Taylor’s plan because his $300 million investment in Big Machine has already been a boon. We’re told the company’s full catalog — not only Taylor’s songs — is now valued at close to $1 BILLION!!
So, Taylor WILL get something — she’ll own her new master recordings — but if she’s just doing it for revenge … it might not be a great play.