In a recent interview with The Guardian, the "Deja Vu" singer revealed that she retained control of her master recordings when she signed a recording contract last year.
Interviewer Laura Snapes made a point to note that Rodrigo was "inspired by Swift's fight to own her music."
Rodrigo began planning a solo music career in early 2020 after "All I Want," a song she had written for her character to sing on the show, charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and caught the attention of label executives.
Much like Swift was more than a decade ago, Rodrigo is a teenager poised on the brink of superstardom. But Swift has been open about the disadvantages of launching a music career so young.
As explained by The Guardian's Eamonn Forde, "It is a story as old as the record business: an artist with zero clout signs away ownership of their master recordings to a label for a shot at superstardom. The act becomes bigger than the label and naturally asks for its masters back. The label then taps at the contractual clause that says it owns them in perpetuity."
"Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and 'earn' one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in," she wrote in a 2019 Tumblr post. "I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, [CEO] Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future."
"I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past," she continued. "Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums."
The "Lover" songstress has been vocal about this struggle every step of the way, largely to warn young artists like Rodrigo against similar traps.
"Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create," she wrote on Tumblr. "And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make."
Rodrigo's debut album "Sour," which she owns, will be released on May 21.
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