Such is the power of Taylor Swift, she makes headlines even when the breaking news in question actually dates back a number of years.
About that. As reported yesterday, news emerged from Universal Music Group that it will increase its share buyback authorisation and monetise a portion of the equity stake in Spotify. It follows the bid by Pershing Square that called for the Spotify stake to be sold. You can read about that here. In turn, the major confirmed it would sell half of its equity stake in Spotify with proceeds used for the share buyback and to be shared with artists.
As a reminder, UMG's Spotify stake is currently valued at €2.7 billion.
That a host of artists are set for a financial windfall, however, can be traced back to moves Taylor Swift made back in 2018.
As a quick recap, at the time Swift had just brokered a ground-breaking new record deal with Republic Records, one which contained a clause guaranteeing her ownership of her future masters – this was after her “worst case scenario” came to pass when her former label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, taking Swift’s first six albums with him. Of course we know how that saga ended: Swift not only ensured her future masters would belong to her, but eventually acquired her old ones in a landmark deal.
Also present in her Republic contract, however, was a stipulation that ensured Universal Music would share the spoils of its Spotify shares with its artists, without any payments counting against unrecouped balances.
Taking to Instagram at the time, Swift wrote: “They have generously agreed to this, at what they believe will be much better terms than paid out previously by major labels. I see this as a sign that we are headed towards positive change for creators – a goal I'm never going to stop trying to help achieve."
Echoing her sentiment at the time, Sir Lucian Grainge said: "I have such enormous respect for Taylor, in particular for her use of her hard-earned influence to promote positive change. Because of her commitment to her fellow artists, not only did she want to partner with a company that understood her creative vision and had the resources and expertise to execute globally on her behalf, she also sought a partner whose approach to artists was aligned with hers. With these shared beliefs, there is so much we can accomplish together, and all of us at UMG are enormously proud to be embarking on the next chapter of her career alongside her.”
When Swift graced the cover of Music Week in 2018, the superstar shed more light on her reasoning for the deal and what it meant to her that it got across the line.
“That’s important to me because that means they’re adopting some of my ideas,” Swift told Music Week’s Mark Sutherland at the time. “If they take me on as an artist that means they really thought it through. Because with me, come opinions about how we can better our industry.”
“I’m one of the only people in the artist realm who can be loud about it,” she added. “People who are on their fifth, sixth or seventh album, we’re the only ones who can speak out, because new artists and producers and writers need to work. They need to be endearing and likeable and available to their labels and streaming services at all times. It’s up to the artists who have been around for a second to say, ‘Hey guys, the producers and the writers and the artists are the ones who are making music what it is’. And we’re in a great place in music right now thanks to them.”
Swift also commented on her belief that the music industry needed to realigned in favour of creatives.
"In terms of the power structure, the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, the people who are breathing magic into our industry, need to be listened to." she said. "They’re not being greedy. This is legitimately an industry where people are having trouble paying their bills and they’re the most talented people we have. This isn’t them sitting in their mansions going, ‘I wish this mansion was bigger and I would like a yacht please’. This is actually people who are going to work every single day. I got into writing when I was in Nashville and it was very much like what I read about the Brill Building. You would write every day, whether you were inspired or not, and in the process I met artists and writers. Somebody would walk in and someone would say, ‘Oh, he’s still getting mailbox money from that Faith Hill cut a couple of years ago, he’s set’. That’s not a thing anymore. Mailbox money is a thing of the past and we need to remember that these are the people that create the heartbeat that we’re all dancing to or crying to.”
And that's how Taylor Swift news from 2018 is still making waves in 2026.
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