whoever owns the masters gets paid every time nostalgia plays.
means holding the rights to an artist's back catalog of recordings or songs, entitling the owner to royalties whenever that music is streamed, licensed, or sold.
from traces back to old-school record deals where labels financed recordings in exchange for owning the masters outright, a norm dating to the vinyl era that artists spent decades fighting to reverse.
taylor swift masters — scooter braun sale in 2019 sparked her re-recording campaign
bob dylan sale — sold entire songwriting catalog to universal for over 300 million in 2020
michael jackson beatles — jackson bought atv catalog with beatles songs in 1985
hipgnosis songs fund — publicly traded fund that owned rights to thousands of hit songs