Nicole Lappin

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4,192 appearances 114 recordings 2 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 9 Dec

Nicole Lappin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 2.

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Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin · Taylor’s Version: The Million-Dollar Plot Twist · 5 Jun 2025 podcast

And whoever owns the master recordings also has the exclusive rights to publicly perform the recording. This is why Taylor would later say that Big Machine Records wouldn't allow her to perform her own songs from her earlier albums at the American Music Awards. Swift was not consulted on this sale.

In a statement posted at the time, she said, quote, for years I asked, pleaded for the chance to own my work. 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, end quote. That feels pretty predatory, right?

It's like telling an author, yeah, you could have your previous book back, but only if you agree to write a sequel and then give us that sequel, too. So she walked away from that offer and she made her feelings very, very clear. This deal, she said, stripped me of my life's work.

In 2020, an investment firm called Shamrock Capital bought Swift's catalog from Braun and paid reportedly more than $300 million for it. And remember, just one year earlier, Braun had paid $300 million for all of Big Machine, not just for Taylor's Masters.

She said that Shamrock gave her an opportunity to partner, but she rejected it once she found out that Shamrock's agreement with Braun allowed him to profit from her catalog for many years. She said Braun's ability to profit from her work was, quote, a non-starter. Taylor's next move was pretty genius.

She did something that very few artists have ever tried to do, and no one has done with such success. She started re-recording her old albums. The goal was to offer fans an alternative to the originals, versions that she owns. These are the albums she released under the same name, just with that Taylor's Version edition in parentheses.

She released Fearless, Taylor's Version in 2021, then Red, Taylor's Version, then Speak Now in 1989.

each one was a massive success 1989 taylor's version had an even bigger opening week than the original did according to billboard it debuted with the equivalent of 1.65 million album sales in the u.s making it the biggest week of her career at the time the tortured poets department has since topped it so this does sound genius And kind of like copyright infringement.

You might wonder how Taylor can re-release the same music, same song titles, and not get sued by the people who own her masters. Well, here's where music industry standards get really interesting. Typically, every song recorded by an artist signed with a label in the U.S. anyway has two copyrights.

The master recording, which is the aspect we've been talking about, and then there's a second copyright, the composition, which covers lyrics and music. So Taylor did own the composition rights for her first six albums, which allowed her to legally release her own versions of her back catalog. The next album that was on deck for re-release was the Reputation album.

Taylor has been teasing this for a hot minute now, and as of late last month, the first Taylor's version of a song off the Reputation album was included in a Handmaid's Tale episode. But honestly, we don't really need a Reputation re-release anymore now because Taylor owns all of her masters. On May 30th, Taylor announced that she bought back her masters from Shamrock Capital.

She wrote to her fans a play on her own lyrics in a very Taylor way. She said, quote, I can't thank you enough for helping me reunite with this art that I have dedicated my life to but have never owned until now. The best things that have ever been mine finally actually are. She now owns her original recordings, music videos, concert films, album art, photography, and even unreleased songs.

The price was not disclosed, but sources told The New York Times that she paid close to what Shamrock had initially paid Braun. Beyond the catalog, Taylor owning her masters means that she'll bring in even more revenue from her work. Already, Taylor is number 21 on the Forbes ranking of the richest self-made women with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion.

Billboard estimates that the masters of Taylor's first six albums made Shamrock Capital $60 million a year on average. If that trend continues, we can definitely expect Taylor's net worth to go up to nearly $1.7 billion, which would tie her with Kim Kardashian on the Forbes list.

now this story is incredible but it's also incredibly rare not every artist gets to do what taylor just did jojo for example the artist who became super famous for her song too little too late in 2006 signed to blackground records when she was a teenager the label withheld her music and wouldn't allow her to release new material

She ended up re-recording her early work two years before Taylor made a cool. But without the platform or the fan base that Taylor Swift has, her re-recordings didn't make the same kind of splash. Still, it was a statement. But examples of this go back farther. The Beatles' catalog has changed hands a bunch of times.

In the 1980s, Michael Jackson outbid Paul McCartney for ownership of their publishing rights. McCartney didn't regain control until 2017 after a legal battle and the expiration of copyright terms. So Taylor's success here is not just a personal victory. It is a business case study.

Her ability to create economic leverage through the Heiress Tour, re-recordings, and sheer fan loyalty made it possible for her to reclaim her art. But let's just double-click on the tour for a second. The Heiress Tour reportedly sold over $2 billion in ticket sales across 149 shows. It caused a Ticketmaster meltdown, sparked a bracelet economy, and it turned Swift into the GDP of a small country.

With that kind of momentum, she didn't just revisit the past. She bought it. And she did what very few artists ever get the chance to do. She beat the system. So whether you're an artist, an entrepreneur, or an investor, there's a lesson here. Owning your work is everything.

If you're working on your own business, negotiating a contract, or deciding how to monetize your creativity, remember Taylor. Read the fine print, push for ownership, and never be afraid to bet on yourself. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. There are ways you can invest in your favorite artists right now while also empowering them to keep creative control.

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