Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Music Attorney Donald Passman on AI, Streaming’s Future, Catalog Sales and the State of the Industry
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music If there is a bible for the music industry, it’s Donald Passman’s book, “All You Need to Know About the Music Business.” Since the first edition came out more than 30 years ago, it has guided countless musicians and executives, and has prevented many of them from making decisions they’d later regret.
Considering the deep detail Passman gets into about contracts, royalties and other complicated business arrangements, his tone is remarkably conversational, and he makes sure readers don’t miss the important stuff: The section on business managers begins with him saying “Listen to me!!!” in italics with several exclamation marks.
Passman, of course, is one of the most successful and experienced attorneys in music business history, with a client list that over the years has included Taylor Swift, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Adele and many more, but the book is definitely what he’s best known for.
This makes him a rare atuhrotiy on the state of the music industry today, and in the conversation below, he gives concise analysis of multiple aspects of the music busines: AI and the threat it brings to intellectual property, catalog sales, new models for streaming services and lots more.
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