James Sammataro, co-chair of the Media +Entertainment practice, was recently interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter on the public feud between Taylor Swift and her labels. According to THR, "The debate started with a Nov. 14 tweet from Swift, who called out Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta for allegedly restricting her from performing old songs at the ABC event honoring her as Artist of the Decade."
They go on to note that ..."(n)owadays, online platforms like Spotify and YouTube make it much easier for artists — especially established ones — to deliver to audiences. Stars like Swift can exploit social media to achieve effective promotion as well. In other words, the ability to create market substitutes may appear more threatening to record labels. In the old days, many of these labels would have gladly accepted a TV appearance from an artist as good promotion for old recordings."
In response, Sammataro notes much of the language has been boilerplate, and that he "see(s) broader blanket prohibitions coming."
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