From our archive: Taylor's version (part two)

来自我们的档案:泰勒版本(第二部分)

Money Talks from The Economist

2024-12-27

47 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Taylor Swift's rise to the top of the music industry has not been without controversy. A dispute with her old record label could have derailed the singer's career—but instead, she used it to propel herself to superstardom. In the second of two special episodes from August 2024, “Money Talks” host Alice Fulwood gets the inside story of the battle to acquire the rights to Swift's first six albums. Then she finds out how the artist used the story of the dispute to remake the music industry to her advantage. Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: Tim Ingham, the founder of Music Business Worldwide; Kristelia García of the Georgetown University Law Center; Michael Schill of the Darden School of Business; and Bill Werde, former editorial director of Billboard magazine, current director of the Bandier Program at Syracuse University and author of the “Full Rate No Cap” newsletter. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
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单集文稿 ...

  • Hi, it's Mike here.

  • This is part two of our Taylor Swift double bill,

  • which I've dug out from the archive as a festive treat.

  • Part one is available just above this in the feed.

  • Have a good Christmas, and we'll be back next week.

  • You know, we're about to go on a little adventure,

  • you and I. That adventure is going to span 18 years of music,

  • and we're going to be doing this on Arrow.

  • In June, I flew to Paris to see what is perhaps the greatest show on earth.

  • The Ears Tour, which includes tracks written throughout Taylor Swift's career,

  • is expected to gross more than $2 billion.

  • It's hard to point to any one factor alone that has enabled Swift to elevate herself to the pinnacle of the music industry.

  • But a good candidate is the devotion she inspires in her fans.

  • How she engages with them is something she's thought a lot about,

  • as she told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

  • The first time that I started dropping sort of cryptic clues and things in my music was when I was 14 and 15 putting together my first album.

  • And I wanted to do something that incentivized fans to read the lyrics.

  • Swiftie's now obsessed over these so-called Easter eggs,

  • buried in album booklets and music videos,

  • where she hides references to everything from future releases to ex-lovers.