I just saw the speech again, this time with my mom, and she was so impressed by what Taylor said. She works in tax, and explained to me what Taylor talked about private equity. I’ll try to explain what she told me for those who, like me, don’t know much about the technicality of it all. English is not my first language, so bear with me if there’s something I miss.
So basically private equity is a type of investment in which a group of investors buys something (an enterprise, for example), and seeks to restructure it or promote it before selling it AGAIN at a bigger profit than the one they bought it for.
So it’s like when farm producers buy a cow and make it eat and eat in order to make it fatter so that they can sell it at a higher price than they bought it for. So basically, these investors don’t care about what they buy, they just use it to gain more money, it’s what they do.
What Taylor said in her speech was that a group of investors - Carlyle Group & the others she mentioned - basically bought her whole catalog as if it were real estate. Because for them it is: it’s an opportunity to make money out of her catalog, and then sell it to whoever wants to pay the price. And they hope that price is much, much higher than what they bought it for. So this will not stop here.
Her music, her rights to music, are intangible assets. They literally bought these intangible assets that are the product of her whole career, of her dedication and effort and most importantly, of her artistry, just to make a profit out of it.
Just yesterday, we saw a headline on Billboard from Carlyle Group’s Co-CEO Kewsong Lee, a man I believe has never composed a single lyric or song in his whole life, saying Taylor’s catalog will be a “successful investment”. Because that’s what it is to them. Nothing more.
There’s no love for music there. There’s no consideration, no humanity, just business. And they are just trying to make her music’s worth grow and grow just to sell it to the highest bidder. It’s a horrible situation, and Taylor’s warning other artists before it happens again.
I really hope this reaches a resolution soon. Taylor’s smart and she has a great willpower to always fight through whatever happens to her, so I’m praying she’ll get her art back. But while she doesn’t, we have to speak up. We have to tell this to everyone.
We have to fight for her music, we have to make people open their eyes to what is happening in the music industry. That’s our role, and I hope from our side we can help her. She needs us now.
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