Zara Larsson bought her own masters after seeing what happened to Taylor Swift.
Zara Larsson decided to take control of her music after seeing what happened to Taylor Swift
The 26-year-old pop star decided to purchase the official original recordings of her work in 2022 because she had watched 'Anti-Hero' songstress Taylor, 34, end up re-recording her earlier albums when label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine records to Scooter Braun.
Speaking on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show', Zara said: "I started out...when I first got signed and started performing and stuff, I didn't write my songs. That was something I did first with 'Never Forget You' with MNEK and before that, I started releasing songs when I was 15, so I had a catalogue already.
"Even songs I didn't write were just such a huge part of my identity as an artist. We all saw what happened to Taylor."
The investment firm Shamrock Capital now owns Taylor's original masters but in re-recording her first six albums with the subtitle 'Taylor's Version' and with different artwork, she has essentially regained control of the licensing of her songs for commercial use by devaluing the originals.
Unlike Taylor, the 'Lush Life' hitmaker was given the chance to buy her own masters by Swedish producer Ola Håkansson, who insisted he would "never" want to take the chance away from her.
She added: "Ola Håkansson, who ran the company who sold it to me was like 'I would never want to be that person, if you want to own them, then I would never ask someone else. If you want them, I would like for you to have them. It is the right thing to do and it's so rare for artists to have that control of their own work and art. Shoutout to Ola!"
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