Gregg Donovan,the co-owner of Wonderlick Entertainment,says music copyright is complicated because multiple people work on a song before it reaches the public. His label licenses music from Australian artists such as Montaigne,Josh Pyke,Paper Kites and Amy Shark.
"It's complicated because there are multiple different parties that need to be protected,"he said."It might not just be a single writer on a song – there might be co-writers. Then there's the performers who performed it in the studio."
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While he can understand that record labels want a return on their investment – after all,they sometimes spend years nurturing young singer-songwriters – Mr Donovan said he would like to see more artists own their master recordings outright and lease them to their label for a set period of time.
"[Their music] is their creative baby so to speak,"he said."They should be allowed to make the choices about where it goes,how it's played and who to. As a manager I never really understood those labels that tied up all those rights. Bob Dylan's manager said it best when he said,'If the birdie isn't happy the birdie won't sing.'
"There's nothing wrong with gatekeepers in certain industries. Artists will always need teams of people working around them. But we are seeing more control going to artists. A nice balance between art and business has always been a tricky thing to do."
Tim James,the general manager of Caroline Australia,works with the likes of singer-songwriter Alex Lahey and Australian psychedelic rock band Pond. He said traditional label arrangements have been around for a long time and many artists have been happy with them. He added it wasn't unusual for a musician's copyright to pass from one company to another.
Mr James said more and more artists,however,are finding that they don't need the traditional label arrangement and are instead looking for help with marketing and publicity once they're ready to release their music.
"Some artists are collaborative and want to work with a team and work with different songwriters and producers,"he said."A label relationship probably suits them better. For an artist that is totally self-sufficient and can record themselves and doesn't want to co-write,then you could do that yourself and there's a myriad of options for that now."
A spokesman for the Australian Recording Industry Association said the organisation did not have a stance on whether artists should own their master recordings.
"There is a no one-size fits all model,"the spokesman said."It varies from artist to artist and often evolves throughout an artist's career."
The owner of her former label,Borchetta,has since posted a lengthy blog outlining his account of events leading up to the sale of Big Machine Label Group,and Swift's back catalogue,to Braun,titledSo,It’s Time For Some Truth…
In it he published texts between himself and Swift and said he gave the singer plenty of notice regarding the deal.
"Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings,but every video,photograph,everything associated to her career. She chose to leave,"he wrote.