Scootergate

This is an excerpt from the weekly entertainment industry newsletter The 11th Hour Dispatch. Subscribe to get analysis like this, live and in color in your inbox every Friday night.

On Sunday, a bomb went off in the music industry. A holding company run by Scooter Braun — the man you have to thank for Justin Bieber — acquired Big Machine Label Group, which meant he acquired all of the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first six albums. Swift took to Tumblr like she’s me in my college dorm in 2013 and called the deal her “worst case scenario.”

And before you get on your high horse and scream “She’s richer than Ellen!!! She could have just bought the albums, brat!!!” like a damn lunatic, you…need to chill. While she could have earned rights to her masters, yes, she only could have done that by signing another deal with Big Machine, which founder Scott Borchetta was likely going to sell to someone either way. It’s why she ultimately chose to leave for a new deal with Universal Music Group, as she would have more control over her own career and work. She never had the chance to outright buy the rights to her master recordings. I wrote about why I think the deal could be a good thing for the future of artists’ rights over on our sister site Karma. Sneak a peek and let me know if you wanna fight.