Taylor Swift's hard‑won control over her music catalogue is facing an unexpected new twist in the US music industry, after a major publishing deal involving her longtime collaborators Max Martin and Shellback raised questions this week about who can profit from, and sign off on, some of her biggest hits.
Swift has spent years dragging her early recordings back out of corporate hands, re‑recording albums, hiring lawyers and turning legal wrangling into chart‑topping Taylor's Version releases. So any hint that parts of her creative empire might now be influenced by an outside investment firm, particularly days before her reported wedding to NFL star Travis Kelce at New York's Madison Square Garden, is bound to set off alarm bells among fans and industry watchers.
