title: Trout

text: Trout who swim the streams love to feed on land animals, aquatic life, and flies. Most of their diet comes from macroinvertebrates, or animals that do not have a backbone like snails, worms, or insects. They also eat flies, and most people who try to use lures to fish trout mimic flies because they are one of trout's most fed on meals. Trout enjoy certain land animals, including insects like grasshoppers. They also eat small animals like mice when they fall in. (Although only large trout have mouths capable of eating mice.) They consume a diet of aquatic life like minnows or crawfish as well. Trout have a diverse diet they follow; they have plenty of different oppositions.


title: Trout

text: As a group, trout are somewhat bony, but the flesh is generally considered to be tasty. The flavor of the flesh is heavily influenced by the diet of the fish. For example, trout that have been feeding on crustaceans tend to be more flavorful than those feeding primarily on insect life. Additionally, they provide a good fight when caught with a hook and line, and are sought after recreationally. Because of their popularity, trout are often raised on fish farms and planted into heavily fished waters, in an effort to mask the effects of overfishing. Farmed trout and char are also sold commercially as food fish. Trout is sometimes prepared by smoking.


title: Trout

text: While trout can be caught with a normal rod and reel, fly fishing is a distinctive method developed primarily for trout, and now extended to other species. Understanding how moving water shapes the stream channel makes it easier to find trout. In most streams, the current creates a riffle-run-pool pattern that repeats itself over and over. A deep pool may hold a big brown trout, but rainbows and smaller browns are likely found in runs. Riffles are where fishers will find small trout, called troutlet, during the day and larger trout crowding in during morning and evening feeding periods.


title: Trout

text: Fishing for trout under the ice generally occurs in depths of 4 to 8 feet. Because trout are cold water fish, during the winter they move from up-deep to the shallows, replacing the small fish that inhabit the area during the summer. Trout in winter constantly cruise in shallow depths looking for food, usually traveling in groups, although bigger fish may travel alone and in water that's somewhat deeper, around 12 feet. Rainbow, Brown, and Brook trout are the most common trout species caught through the ice.


title: Trout

text: Salmonid populations in general have been declining due to numerous factors, including invasive species, hybridization, wildfires, and climate change. Native salmonid fish in the western and southwestern United States are threatened by non-native species that were introduced decades ago. Non-native salmonids were introduced to enrich recreational fishing; however, they quickly started outcompeting and displacing native salmonids upon their arrival. Non-native, invasive species are quick to adapt to their new environment and learn to outcompete any native species, making them a force the native salmon and trout have to reckon with. Not only do the non-native fish drive the native fish to occupy new niches, but they also try to hybridize with them, contaminating the native gene construction. As more hybrids between native and non-native fish are formed, the lineage of the pure fish is continuously being contaminated by other species and soon may no longer represent the sole native species. The Rio Grande Cutthroat trout ("Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis") are susceptible to hybridization with other salmonids such as rainbow trout ("Oncorhynchus mykiss") and yield a new "cut-bow" trout, which is a contamination of both lineages’ genes. One solution to this issue is implemented by New Mexico Game and Fish hatcheries: stock only sterile fish in river streams. Hatcheries serve as a reservoir of fish for recreational activities but growing and stocking non-sterile fish would worsen the hybridization issue on a quicker, more magnified time scale. By stocking sterile fish, the native salmonids can't share genes with the non-native hatchery fish, thus, preventing further gene contamination of the native trout in New Mexico. Fire is also a factor in deteriorating Gila trout ("Oncorhynchus gilae") populations because of the ash and soot that can enter streams following fires. The ash lowers water quality, making it more difficult for the Gila trout to survive. In some New Mexico streams, the native Gila trout will be evacuated from streams that are threatened by nearby fires and be reintroduced after the threat is resolved.


title: Trout

text: Climate change is also dwindling native salmonid populations. Climate change continually affects various cold-water fish, including trout. With an increase of temperature along with changes in spawning river flow, an abundance of trout species are effected negatively. In the past, a mere 8 °F increase was predicted to eliminate half of the native brook trout in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Trout prefer cold water (50-60 °F) streams to spawn and live, but warming water temperatures are altering this ecosystem and further deteriorate native populations.


title: Biofuel

text: Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), biofuels are mostly used for transportation, but can also be used for heating and electricity.


title: Biofuel

text: Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic or industrial biowaste. The greenhouse gas mitigation potential of biofuel varies considerably, from emission levels comparable to fossil fuels in some scenarios to negative emissions in others. See the biomass article for more on this particular subject.


title: Biofuel

text: The two most common types of biofuel are bioethanol and biodiesel. The U.S. is the largest producer of bioethanol, while the EU is the largest producer of biodiesel. The energy content in the global production of bioethanol and biodiesel is 2.2 and 1.8 EJ per year, respectively.


title: Biofuel

text: In 2021, worldwide biofuel production provided 4.3% of the world's fuels for road transport, and a very small amount of aviation biofuel. By 2027 worldwide biofuel production is expected to supply 5.4% of the world’s fuels for road transport and 1% of aviation fuel. The International Energy Agency (IEA) wants biofuels to make up 64% of the world demand for transportation fuels by 2050, in order to reduce dependency on petroleum. However, the production and consumption of biofuels are not on track to meet the IEA's sustainable development scenario. From 2020 to 2030 global biofuel output has to increase by 14% each year to reach IEA's goal.


title: Biofuel

text: First-generation biofuels are fuels made from food crops grown on arable land. The crop's sugar, starch, or oil content is converted into biodiesel or ethanol, using transesterification, or yeast fermentation.


title: Biofuel

text: Second-generation biofuels are fuels made from lignocellulosic or woody biomass, or agricultural residues/waste. The feedstock used to make the fuels either grow on arable land but are byproducts of the main crop, or they are grown on marginal land. Second-generation feedstocks include straw, bagasse, perennial grasses, jatropha, waste vegetable oil, municipal solid waste and so forth.


title: Biofuel

text: Algae can be produced in ponds or tanks on land, and out at sea. Algal fuels have high yields, can be grown with minimal impact on fresh water resources, can be produced using saline water and wastewater, have a high ignition point, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Production requires large amounts of energy and fertilizer, the produced fuel degrades faster than other biofuels, and it does not flow well in cold temperatures. By 2017, due to economic considerations, most efforts to produce fuel from algae have been abandoned or changed to other applications.


title: Biofuel

text: This class of biofuels includes electrofuels and solar fuels. Electrofuels are made by storing electrical energy in the chemical bonds of liquids and gases. The primary targets are butanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen, but include other alcohols and carbon-containing gases such as methane and butane. A solar fuel is a synthetic chemical fuel produced from solar energy. Light is converted to chemical energy, typically by reducing protons to hydrogen, or carbon dioxide to organic compounds.


title: Biofuel

text: Fourth-generation biofuels also include biofuels that are produced by bioengineered organisms i.e. algae and cyanobacteria. Algae and cyanobacteria will use water, carbon dioxide, and solar energy to produce biofuels. This method of biofuel production is still at the research level. The biofuels that are secreted by the bioengineered organisms are expected to have higher photon-to-fuel conversion efficiency, compared to older generations of biofuels. One of the advantages of this class of biofuels is that the cultivation of the organisms that produce the biofuels does not require the use of arable land. The disadvantages include the cost of cultivating the biofuel-producing organisms being very high.


title: Biofuel

text: The following fuels can be produced using first, second, third or fourth-generation biofuel production procedures. Most of these can be produced using two or three of the different biofuel generation procedures.


title: Biofuel

text: Biogas is methane produced by the process of anaerobic digestion of organic material by anaerobes. It can be produced either from biodegradable waste materials or by the use of energy crops fed into anaerobic digesters to supplement gas yields. The solid byproduct, digestate, can be used as a biofuel or a fertilizer. When and other impurities are removed from biogas, it is called biomethane.


title: Biofuel

text: Biogas can be recovered from mechanical biological treatment waste processing systems. Landfill gas, a less clean form of biogas, is produced in landfills through naturally occurring anaerobic digestion. If it escapes into the atmosphere, it acts as a greenhouse gas.


title: Biofuel

text: Syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and various hydrocarbons, is produced by partial combustion of biomass, that is, combustion with an amount of oxygen that is not sufficient to convert the biomass completely to carbon dioxide and water. Before partial combustion, the biomass is dried, and sometimes pyrolysed. The resulting gas mixture, syngas, is more efficient than direct combustion of the original biofuel; more of the energy contained in the fuel is extracted.


title: Biofuel

text: Syngas may be burned directly in internal combustion engines, turbines or high-temperature fuel cells. The wood gas generator, a wood-fueled gasification reactor, can be connected to an internal combustion engine.


title: Biofuel

text: Syngas can be used to produce methanol, dimethyl ether and hydrogen, or converted via the Fischer–Tropsch process to produce a diesel substitute, or a mixture of alcohols that can be blended into gasoline. Gasification normally relies on temperatures greater than 700 °C.


title: Biofuel

text: Lower-temperature gasification is desirable when co-producing biochar, but results in syngas polluted with tar.


title: Biofuel

text: Biologically produced alcohols, most commonly ethanol, and less commonly propanol and butanol, are produced by the action of microorganisms and enzymes through the fermentation of sugars or starches (easiest), or cellulose (which is more difficult).The IEA estimates that ethanol production used 20% of sugar supplies and 13% of corn supplies in 2021.


title: Biofuel

text: Ethanol fuel is the most common biofuel worldwide, particularly in Brazil. Alcohol fuels are produced by fermentation of sugars derived from wheat, corn, sugar beets, sugar cane, molasses and any sugar or starch from which alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, can be made (such as potato and fruit waste, etc.). The ethanol production methods used are enzyme digestion (to release sugars from stored starches), fermentation of the sugars, distillation and drying. The distillation process requires significant energy input for heat (sometimes unsustainable natural gas fossil fuel, but cellulosic biomass such as bagasse, the waste left after sugar cane is pressed to extract its juice, is the most common fuel in Brazil, while pellets, wood chips and also waste heat are more common in Europe) Waste steam fuels ethanol factory – where waste heat from the factories also is used in the district heating grid.


title: Biofuel

text: Ethanol can be used in petrol engines as a replacement for gasoline; it can be mixed with gasoline to any percentage. Most existing car petrol engines can run on blends of up to 15% bioethanol with petroleum/gasoline. Ethanol has a smaller energy density than that of gasoline; this means it takes more fuel (volume and mass) to produce the same amount of work. An advantage of ethanol () is that it has a higher octane rating than ethanol-free gasoline available at roadside gas stations, which allows an increase of an engine's compression ratio for increased thermal efficiency. In high-altitude (thin air) locations, some states mandate a mix of gasoline and ethanol as a winter oxidizer to reduce atmospheric pollution emissions.


title: Biofuel

text: Ethanol has roughly one-third lower energy content per unit of volume compared to gasoline. This is partly counteracted by the better efficiency when using ethanol (in a long-term test of more than 2.1 million km, the BEST project found FFV vehicles to be 1–26% more energy efficient than petrol cars, but the volumetric consumption increases by approximately 30%, so more fuel stops are required).


title: Biofuel

text: Methanol is currently produced from natural gas, a non-renewable fossil fuel. In the future it is hoped to be produced from biomass as biomethanol. This is technically feasible, but the production is currently being postponed for concerns that the economic viability is still pending. The methanol economy is an alternative to the hydrogen economy to be contrasted with today's hydrogen production from natural gas.


title: Biofuel

text: Butanol () is formed by ABE fermentation (acetone, butanol, ethanol) and experimental modifications of the process show potentially high net energy gains with biobutanol as the only liquid product.


title: Biofuel

text: Biobutanol is often claimed to provide a direct replacement for gasoline, because it will produce more energy than ethanol and allegedly can be burned "straight" in existing gasoline engines (without modification to the engine or car), and is less corrosive and less water-soluble than ethanol, and could be distributed via existing infrastructures. DuPont and BP are working together to help develop butanol. "Escherichia coli" strains have also been successfully engineered to produce butanol by modifying their amino acid metabolism. One drawback to butanol production in "E. coli" remains the high cost of nutrient rich media, however, recent work has demonstrated "E. coli" can produce butanol with minimal nutritional supplementation.


title: Biofuel

text: Biobutanol is sometimes called biogasoline, which is not correct, as it is chemically different, being an alcohol, not a hydrocarbon, like biogasoline.


title: Biofuel

text: Biodiesel is the most common biofuel in Europe. It is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is a liquid similar in composition to fossil/mineral diesel. Chemically, it consists mostly of fatty acid methyl (or ethyl) esters (FAMEs). Feedstocks for biodiesel include animal fats, vegetable oils, soy, rapeseed, jatropha, mahua, mustard, flax, sunflower, palm oil, hemp, field pennycress, "Pongamia pinnata" and algae. Pure biodiesel (B100, also known as "neat" biodiesel) currently reduces emissions with up to 60% compared to diesel Second generation B100. , researchers at Australia's CSIRO have been studying safflower oil as an engine lubricant, and researchers at Montana State University's Advanced Fuels Center in the US have been studying the oil's performance in a large diesel engine, with results described as a "game-changer".


title: Biofuel

text: Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine and modified equipment when mixed with mineral diesel. It can also be used in its pure form (B100) in diesel engines, but some maintenance and performance problems may then occur during wintertime utilization, since the fuel becomes somewhat more viscous at lower temperatures, depending on the feedstock used.


title: Biofuel

text: In some countries, manufacturers cover their diesel engines under warranty for B100 use, although Volkswagen of Germany, for example, asks drivers to check by telephone with the VW environmental services department before switching to B100. In most cases, biodiesel is compatible with diesel engines from 1994 onwards, which use 'Viton' (by DuPont) synthetic rubber in their mechanical fuel injection systems. Note however, that no vehicles are certified for using pure biodiesel before 2014, as there was no emission control protocol available for biodiesel before this date.


title: Biofuel

text: Electronically controlled 'common rail' and 'Unit Injector' type systems from the late 1990s onwards may only use biodiesel blended with conventional diesel fuel. These engines have finely metered and atomized multiple-stage injection systems that are very sensitive to the viscosity of the fuel. Many current-generation diesel engines are made so that they can run on B100 without altering the engine itself, although this depends on the fuel rail design.


title: Biofuel

text: Since biodiesel is an effective solvent and cleans residues deposited by mineral diesel, engine filters may need to be replaced more often, as the biofuel dissolves old deposits in the fuel tank and pipes. It also effectively cleans the engine combustion chamber of carbon deposits, helping to maintain efficiency. In many European countries, a 5% biodiesel blend is widely used and is available at thousands of gas stations. Biodiesel is also an oxygenated fuel, meaning it contains a reduced amount of carbon and higher hydrogen and oxygen content than fossil diesel. This improves the combustion of biodiesel and reduces the particulate emissions from unburnt carbon. However, using pure biodiesel may increase NO-emissions


title: Biofuel

text: Biodiesel is also safe to handle and transport because it is non-toxic and biodegradable, and has a high flash point of about 300 °F (148 °C) compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which has a flash point of 125 °F (52 °C).


title: Biofuel

text: In France, biodiesel is incorporated at a rate of 8% in the fuel used by all French diesel vehicles. Avril Group produces under the brand Diester, a fifth of 11 million tons of biodiesel consumed annually by the European Union. It is the leading European producer of biodiesel.


title: Biofuel

text: Green diesel is produced through hydrocracking biological oil feedstocks, such as vegetable oils and animal fats. Hydrocracking is a refinery method that uses elevated temperatures and pressure in the presence of a catalyst to break down larger molecules, such as those found in vegetable oils, into shorter hydrocarbon chains used in diesel engines. It may also be called renewable diesel, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO fuel) or hydrogen-derived renewable diesel. Unlike biodiesel, green diesel has exactly the same chemical properties as petroleum-based diesel. It does not require new engines, pipelines or infrastructure to distribute and use, but has not been produced at a cost that is competitive with petroleum. Gasoline versions are also being developed. Green diesel is being developed in Louisiana and Singapore by ConocoPhillips, Neste Oil, Valero, Dynamic Fuels, and Honeywell UOP as well as Preem in Gothenburg, Sweden, creating what is known as Evolution Diesel.


title: Biofuel

text: Straight unmodified edible vegetable oil is generally not used as fuel, but lower-quality oil has been used for this purpose. Used vegetable oil is increasingly being processed into biodiesel, or (more rarely) cleaned of water and particulates and then used as a fuel. The IEA estimates that biodiesel production used 17% of global vegetable oil supplies in 2021.


title: Biofuel

text: As with 100% biodiesel (B100), to ensure the fuel injectors atomize the vegetable oil in the correct pattern for efficient combustion, vegetable oil fuel must be heated to reduce its viscosity to that of diesel, either by electric coils or heat exchangers. This is easier in warm or temperate climates. MAN B&W Diesel, Wärtsilä, and Deutz AG, as well as a number of smaller companies, such as Elsbett, offer engines that are compatible with straight vegetable oil, without the need for after-market modifications.


title: Biofuel

text: Vegetable oil can also be used in many older diesel engines that do not use common rail or unit injection electronic diesel injection systems. Due to the design of the combustion chambers in indirect injection engines, these are the best engines for use with vegetable oil. This system allows the relatively larger oil molecules more time to burn. Some older engines, especially Mercedes, are driven experimentally by enthusiasts without any conversion. A handful of drivers have experienced limited success with earlier pre-"Pumpe Duse" VW TDI engines and other similar engines with direct injection. Several companies, such as Elsbett or Wolf, have developed professional conversion kits and successfully installed hundreds of them over the last decades.


title: Biofuel

text: Oils and fats reacted with 10 pounds of a short-chain alcohol (usually methanol) in the presence of a catalyst (usually sodium hydroxide [NaOH] can be hydrogenated to give a diesel substitute. The resulting product is a straight-chain hydrocarbon with a high cetane number, low in aromatics and sulfur and does not contain oxygen. Hydrogenated oils can be blended with diesel in all proportions. They have several advantages over biodiesel, including good performance at low temperatures, no storage stability problems and no susceptibility to microbial attack.


title: Biofuel

text: A study led by Professor Lee Sang-yup at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and published in the international science journal "Nature" used modified "E. coli" fed with glucose found in plants or other non-food crops to produce biogasoline with the produced enzymes. The enzimes converted the sugar into fatty acids and then turned these into hydrocarbons that were chemically and structurally identical to those found in commercial gasoline fuel.


title: Biofuel

text: Bioethers (also referred to as fuel ethers or oxygenated fuels) are cost-effective compounds that act as octane rating enhancers. "Bioethers are produced by the reaction of reactive iso-olefins, such as iso-butylene, with bioethanol." Bioethers are created from wheat or sugar beets, and also be produced from the waste glycerol that results from the production of biodiesel. They also enhance engine performance, while significantly reducing engine wear and toxic exhaust emissions. Although bioethers are likely to replace petroethers in the UK, it is highly unlikely they will become a fuel in and of itself due to the low energy density. By greatly reducing the amount of ground-level ozone emissions, they contribute to air quality.


title: Biofuel

text: When it comes to transportation fuel there are six ether additives: dimethyl ether (DME), diethyl ether (DEE), methyl "tert"-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl "tert"-butyl ether (ETBE), "tert"-amyl methyl ether (TAME), and "tert"-amyl ethyl ether (TAEE).


title: Biofuel

text: The European Fuel Oxygenates Association identifies MTBE and ETBE as the most commonly used ethers in fuel to replace lead. Ethers were introduced in Europe in the 1970s to replace the highly toxic compound. Although Europeans still use bioether additives, the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 lifted a requirement for reformulated gasoline to include an oxygenate, leading to less MTBE being added to fuel.


title: Biofuel

text: Estimates about the climate impact from biofuels vary widely based on the methodology and exact situation examined.


title: Biofuel

text: In general, biofuels emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions when burned in an engine and are generally considered carbon-neutral fuels as the carbon emitted has been captured from the atmosphere by the crops used in production. However, life-cycle assessments of biofuels have shown large emissions associated with the potential land-use change required to produce additional biofuel feedstocks. A review of 179 studies published between 2009 and 2020 found that if no land-use change is involved, first-generation biofuels can—on average—have lower emissions than fossil fuels. However, there is an issue with competition with food. Up to 40% of corn produced in the United States is used to make ethanol, and worldwide 10% of all grain is turned into biofuel. A 50% reduction in grain used for biofuels in the US and Europe would replace all of Ukraine's grain exports. Also, several studies have shown that reductions in emissions from biofuels are achieved at the expense of other impacts, such as acidification, eutrophication, water footprint and biodiversity loss.


title: Biofuel

text: The use of second generation biofuels is thought to increase environmental sustainability, since the non-food part of plants is being used to produce second-generation biofuels, instead of being disposed. But the use of this class of biofuels increases the competition for lignocellulosic biomass, increasing the cost of these biofuels.


title: SimCity

text: SimCity is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, "SimCity", was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off ""Sim"" titles, including 2000's "The Sims", which itself became a best-selling computer game and franchise. Maxis developed the series independently until 1997, and continued under the ownership of Electronic Arts until 2003. EA commissioned various spinoffs from other companies during the 2000s, focusing on console and mobile releases. A 2013 EA-Maxis reboot was subject to what has been described as "one of the most disastrous launches in history", which may have triggered the 2015 shutdown of Maxis Emeryville and the end of the franchise.


title: SimCity

text: "SimCity" titles are real-time management and construction simulators. Across most titles, the player (acting as mayor) is given a blank map to begin and must expand the city with the budget provided. As the city matures, the player may be able to add government and other special buildings (such as a mayor's house or courthouse), depending on how large the city is. Proper management of the city requires citizens to be provided with basic utilities (electricity, water and sometimes waste management) along with public services such as health, education, safety, parks and leisure facilities. These are provided by building relevant buildings or infrastructure, with each building covering a circular "range" in its vicinity. Inadequate funding of these services can lead to strikes or even urban decline.


title: SimCity

text: The primary source of income is taxation, though some income can be generated by legalizing gambling or placing certain "special" buildings such as military bases or prisons. The player may make deals with neighbouring cities to sell or buy services, as long as a connection is made to the neighbour for that service, such as electricity cables. The player may have to deal with disasters, such as fires and tornadoes, or fictional crises such as monster attacks. "SimCity" titles are predominantly single-player games, with a few exceptions, including the "Network Edition" of "SimCity 2000", the Unix port of the original "SimCity", and "SimCity" (2013). "SimCity 4" provided a limited form of multiplayer gaming with the ability to share regional maps and cities with other players, allowing players to collaborate, but not to interact in real-time gameplay.


title: SimCity

text: Depending on the title, there may scenarios with city performance-related goals and time limits in which to complete them.


title: SimCity

text: Development of the original "SimCity" began in 1985 under game designer Will Wright, and the game was published in 1989. Wright was inspired by a map creation feature of the game "Raid on Bungeling Bay" that led him to discover that he enjoyed creating maps more than playing the actual game. While developing "SimCity", Wright cultivated a love of the intricacies and theories of urban planning and acknowledges the influence of Jay Wright Forrester's book "Urban Dynamics". In addition, Wright was inspired by reading "The Seventh Sally", a short story by Stanisław Lem from "The Cyberiad", published in the collection "The Mind's I", in which an engineer encounters a deposed tyrant, and creates a miniature city with artificial citizens for the tyrant to oppress.


title: SimCity

text: The first version of the game was developed for the Commodore 64 under the working title "Micropolis". The game represented an unusual paradigm in computer gaming, in that it could neither be won nor lost; as a result, game publishers did not believe it was possible to market and sell such a game successfully. Brøderbund declined to publish the title when Wright proposed it, and he pitched it to a range of major game publishers without success. Founder Jeff Braun of then-tiny Maxis agreed to publish "SimCity" as one of two initial games for the company. Wright and Braun returned to Brøderbund to formally clear the rights to the game in 1988, when "SimCity" was near completion. Brøderbund executives Gary Carlston and Don Daglow saw that the title was infectious and fun, and signed Maxis to a distribution deal for both of its initial games. With that, four years after initial development, "SimCity" was released for the Amiga and Macintosh platforms, followed by the IBM PC and Commodore 64 later in 1989.


title: SimCity

text: "SimCity" was released in 1990 on the ZX Spectrum 48K and 128K by Infogrames. The SNES port was very similar to the original edition but had some unique features, including Reward buildings, a Mario statue and possible attacks by a giant Bowser.


title: SimCity

text: The unexpected and enduring success of the original "SimCity", combined with other ""Sim"" titles' relative lack of success at the time, motivated the development of a sequel. "SimCity 2000" released in 1993 with an isometric view instead of overhead. Underground layers were introduced for water pipes and subways, along with many new buildings, more elaborate financial controls and many other improvements.


title: SimCity

text: Maxis was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1997, and the company would gain control of the "SimCity" brand. Will Wright continued to work at the company, moving on to work on "The Sims", with development on future "SimCity" titles being led by other Maxis staff such as Christine McGavran. The next title, "SimCity 3000" was released in 1999. It introduced many features, including waste management, agriculture, business deals and expanded inter-city relations. The game maintained the pseudo-isometric dimetric perspective of its predecessor, though the landscape became more complex and colorful.


title: SimCity

text: The Japanese exclusive "SimCity 64" was released in 2000 and featured the ability to view the city at night, pedestrian level free-roaming, and individual road vehicles and pedestrians (which could only be seen while in the free-roaming mode). Cities in the game were also presented in 3D hybrid graphics, a first for the franchise.


title: SimCity

text: "SimCity 4" was released on January 14, 2003. Among various changes, cities were now located in regions, which were divided into individual segments. Each region represents the metropolitan area of a city, while individual segment maps represented districts. The zoning system was updated, and buildings were classified into several wealth levels, types, and building size stages, which were affected by the region's population and condition. Urban decay and gentrification were simulated with buildings deteriorating or improving accordingly. Residents and neighbourhoods were transferrable between "SimCity 4" and "The Sims 2".


title: SimCity

text: After the release of "SimCity 4", EA had Tilted Mill Entertainment develop the next major title in the franchise, rather than Maxis. The group developed "SimCity Societies" (2007), which was significantly different from prior games, owing to a small-scale social engineering focus and less detailed simulation. Rather than placing zones, buildings were constructed individually for example, similar to Monte Cristo's game "City Life". Six "social energies", called societal values, allowed players to learn about the characteristics of the citizens. Cities behaviour responded to the energies the players chose and the reward system from "SimCity 2000" returned. The game was met with mixed reviews. Wright, at the time developing "Spore", later commented on the move away from Maxis: "I didn't have anything to do with that decision. Honestly, I didn't even play "Societies". I read some of the reviews of it, though."


title: SimCity

text: "SimCity DS", a heavily modified version of "SimCity 3000", was released that year. The game made use of the handheld's dual screen to display additional interfaces at once. System specific features were prominent, such as the microphone, which was used to blow out fires, and the touch screen, which was used to control the interface. A 2008 sequel introduced a challenge mode in which players guided their city through different historical periods. For instance, the player could create a medieval city, or a pre-historic city.


title: SimCity

text: On January 10, 2008, the source code of the original game was released under the free software GPL 3 license. The release of the source code was related to the donation of "SimCity" software to the One Laptop Per Child laptop, as one of the principles of the OLPC laptop is the use of free and open source software. The open source version was called "Micropolis", since EA retained the trademark "SimCity".


title: SimCity

text: "SimCity Creator" for the Wii was announced on February 12, 2008. The title featured the ability to directly draw roads and train tracks on the ground using the pointer function of the Wii Remote, as well as several customizable themes for the city's buildings. It was released worldwide in September 2008.


title: SimCity

text: The late 2000s and early 2010s also saw several games re-released for mobile devices. This included "SimCity 3000" (2008), "SimCity Deluxe" (2010), and "SimCity 4" for Blackberry playbook (2011).


title: SimCity

text: "SimCity"s sixth major release was announced on March 5, 2012, for Windows and Mac OS X by Maxis at the "game changers" event. Titled "SimCity", it was a dramatic departure from previous "SimCity" games, featuring full 3D graphics, online multiplayer gameplay, the new Glassbox engine, as well as many other feature and gameplay changes. Director Ocean Quigley discussed issues that occurred during the development of the title, which stemmed from two conflicting visions coming from EA and Maxis. EA wanted to emphasize multiplayer, collaborative gameplay, with some of the simulation work conducted on remote servers, in part to combat piracy. In contrast, Maxis wanted to focus on graphical improvements with the new title. Quigley described the resultant title as a poor compromise between these two objectives- with only shallow multiplayer features, and a small city size limit- one quarter of the land area of previous titles in the franchise.


title: SimCity

text: The game was released for Windows on March 5, 2013, and on Mac in August. Medium would later refer to the release as "one of the most disastrous launches in history". The game required a constant internet connection even during single-player activity, and server outages caused connection errors for many users. Multiplayer elements were "shallow at best", with departing players leaving abandoned cities behind in public regions. Users were unable to save their game- with the servers instead intended to handle this- and so when users were disconnected they would often lose hours of progress. The game was also plagued by numerous bugs, which persisted long after launch.


title: SimCity

text: The title was heavily criticized in user reviews, and developer plans for post launch updates were scrapped. EA announced that they would offer a free game from their library to all those who bought "SimCity" as compensation for the problems, and they concurred that the way the launch had been set up was "dumb". As a result of this problem, Amazon temporarily stopped selling the game in the week after release. The always-online requirement, even in single play, was highly criticised, particularly after gamers determined that the internet connection requirement could be easily removed. An offline mode was subsequently made available by EA in March 2014, and a mobile port entitled "" was released later that year.


title: SimCity

text: It has been suggested that the poor performance of "SimCity" was responsible for the 2015 closure of Maxis' Emeryville studios, and the end of the franchise.


title: SimCity

text: During the 1990s a large number of games were developed under the "Sim" nomenclature started by Maxis in 1989. This list includes only spin-offs that directly relate to "SimCity".


title: SimCity

text: "SimFarm" was released in 1993 for DOS, Windows, and Mac and is a spinoff of "SimCity". "SimFarm" focuses on developing a farm, allowing the player to plant crops and grow their farm.


title: SimCity

text: "Sim City: The Card Game" is an out-of-print collectible card game based on the video game "SimCity". It was released in 1995 by Mayfair Games. Several city expansions followed, adding location and politician cards from various cities including: Chicago, Washington, New York City, and Atlanta. A Toronto expansion was planned but never released. Allen Varney of "The Duelist" said it offers "fine solitaire play" and that the game eventually offered stand-alone city sets.


title: SimCity

text: "SimTown" is a 1995 video game published by Maxis, much like "SimCity" but on a smaller scale. "SimTown" allows the player to construct a town consisting of streets, houses, businesses and parks and control the people in it. "SimTown" was targeted more towards children.


title: SimCity

text: There are two modes of play: free mode and career mode. The free mode lets the player import and fly through imported "SimCity 2000" cities or any of the 30 cities supplied with the game. However, user cities sometimes need to be designed with "SimCopter" in mind, and most of the time the player must increase the number of police stations, fire stations, and hospitals to allow for speedier dispatches. The second mode—the heart of the game—is the career mode. This puts the player in the shoes of a pilot doing various jobs around the city. The game is notable for being the debut of the Simlish language.


title: SimCity

text: The game gained controversy when a designer named Jacques Servin inserted sprites of shirtless "himbos" (male bimbos) in Speedo trunks who hugged and kissed each other and appeared in great numbers from time to time. The easter egg was caught shortly after release and removed from future copies of the game.


title: SimCity

text: "Streets of SimCity" is a 1997 racing and vehicular combat computer game published by Maxis. One of the game's main attractions was the ability to explore any cities created in "SimCity 2000" by car in a cinematic style. The game, like "SimCopter", is in full 3D and the player's vehicle can be controlled using a keyboard, a joystick, or a gamepad. Another notable feature is the game's network mode, in which players can play deathmatches with up to seven other individuals. It is one of the few games in the Maxis series that Will Wright did not work on, and the last Maxis game to be developed and released without supervision by Electronic Arts (which acquired Maxis in 1997 and "assisted" development of Maxis games thereafter).


title: SimCity

text: Originating as a spinoff, "The Sims" quickly evolved into one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. Early releases retained a level of interconnectivity with "SimCity", such as the ability to transfer neighbourhoods from "SimCity 4" to "The Sims 2". A crossover title, "SimsVille" was earmarked for 2001 and would have allowed the player to build the city, as well as make sims and play them. The game was cancelled so that Maxis could focus on future "Sims" expansions, and development for "The Sims 2".


title: SimCity

text: The first two games were well received and sold well during the 1990s, with the franchise achieving a total of 5 million sales by 1999. "SimCity 2000" in particular was among the highest selling games of the 1990s, and in 2018 was featured at #86 of IGN's top 100 video games of all time."SimCity 4" (2003) marked the high point in the franchise's GameRankings score at 85. The 2013 reboot was very poorly received, with Green Man Gaming comparing its effect on the franchise to the destruction of the city of Pompeii.


title: SimCity

text: The cities presented in the franchise have been criticised for being unrealistic- lacking parking and cycle lanes for example. "SimCity" games are also built on the premise that simply adding police stations reduces crime nearby, which may not be the case.


title: SimCity

text: The franchise has been credited with inspiring a generation of urban planners, transport officials, and local government figures, who experienced the games at a younger age and took on those careers in later life. Various editions of the game have been used in education to simulate urban planning for students in elementary through college classes.


title: SimCity

text: While there were a handful of city-building games before 1989, "SimCity" popularized the genre and laid the groundwork for many titles inspired by it, including "" (2015), which was greenlit after the poor reception of the reboot. More broadly, the lack of a win condition in favor of open-ended play was a novelty at the time that gave rise to Maxis' "software toys" design concept, which influenced many other titles from the company.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Abominable is a 2019 computer-animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio, written and directed by Jill Culton and co-directed by Todd Wilderman, and stars the voices of Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, and Michelle Wong. The film follows a teenage girl named Yi, who encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, names him Everest and embarks on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with his family at the highest point on Earth along with her mischievous friends Jin and Peng, but the trio of friends will have to stay one-step ahead of Burnish, a wealthy man intent on capturing a Yeti, and zoologist Dr. Zara to help Everest get home.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on September 27 while Pearl Studio distributed the film in China. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $188 million worldwide. In Southeast Asia, "Abominable" has garnered controversy for a scene involving a map of the region with the Nine-dash line, a contested demarcation line used by China to lay claim over a portion of the South China Sea. Due to this, the film has been banned in several countries involved in territorial disputes with China over the South China Sea—namely, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: A follow-up television series, "Abominable and the Invisible City", was released on streaming service Peacock and Hulu in October 2022.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: A young Yeti escapes from a compound in Shanghai owned by wealthy businessman Mr. Burnish, who intends to use him to prove the existence of yetis to the world. Meanwhile, teenager Yi lives with her mother and Nai Nai (grandmother) in an apartment building. She leads a busy life, and neglects to spend time with her family and her friends, basketball fan Peng and his tech-savvy and popular cousin Jin. Yi is also a violinist, but has not played since her father's death, as he was a violinist, too.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: One evening, Yi encounters the Yeti near her cubby house on the roof of her Shanghai apartment building, and names him "Everest". While hiding him from Burnish Industries' helicopters, Yi gains his trust by feeding him Baozi and treating his wounds. Yi learns that Everest wants to reunite with his family on Mount Everest, while Everest learns about Yi's desire to travel across China - something her father had always wanted. When Burnish Industries' private security forces close in on Everest' hiding place, Everest flees with Yi. After narrowly escaping a Burnish helicopter at the Oriental Pearl Tower, Yi and Everest flee on a ship carrying red cola cans, followed by Peng and a reluctant Jin.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Yi, Everest, and the boys reach a port in southern China and travel on a truck. After their crate falls off the truck, they end up in a forest. There, Everest awes the humans with his mystical powers of stimulating growth among blueberry plants. Meanwhile, Mr. Burnish and zoologist Dr. Zara continue the hunt for Everest. Following Everest and his human friends' trail, they catch up with them in the Sichuan region, where Everest uses his power to cause a plant to grow to a gigantic size. While Yi, Everest, and Peng manage to escape on the wind-blown shoot, Jin is left behind and captured by Burnish Industries' Goon Leader.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Despite Dr. Zara's pretense of caring for animals, Jin learns that she is planning to hunt down the yeti to sell it. He also learns that the seemingly cold-hearted Mr. Burnish has a soft spot for animals, including Dr. Zara's pet albino jerboa Duchess. He manages to escape the camp, and pursues the others on foot. Meanwhile, Yi, Everest and Peng reach the Gobi Desert, where they befriend several tortoises, who gratefully accept their giant shoot. Later, they travel to a town on the banks of the Yellow River, where Burnish Industries corners them. Peng helps them escape by unleashing a yak stampede. With the help of Jin, they escape across the Yellow River to a field of yellow flowers, which Everest causes to move like waves, creating more distance from their pursuers.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Continuing their journey, which Yi realizes echoes her father's dream trip exactly, the humans and Everest eventually reach the Himalayas. While crossing a bridge, they are trapped on both sides by Burnish Industries' forces. However, Mr. Burnish experiences a change of heart after seeing Everest protecting the children, causing him to experience a flashback to his first encounter with a female yeti, which was protecting her young. Still seeking to sell Everest, Dr. Zara injects Mr. Burnish with a tranquilizer before tranquilizing Everest as well. When Yi tries to protect Everest, Dr. Zara throws her over the bridge, then departs the mountain with the captive Everest, Peng, and Jin in tow.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: However, Yi manages to cling on to a rope. She then uses her violin, which Everest has magically repaired, to summon ice. This reinvigorates Everest, who breaks free of his cage. Dr. Zara attempts to kill Everest and sell his parts instead, but the avalanche she causes knocks her and the Goon Leader off the cliffside to their demise.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: To protect Everest and the yetis from humanity, Mr. Burnish agrees to help Yi, Peng, and Jin keep his existence a secret. Yi, Peng, Jin, and Everest continue the journey to Mount Everest, where they reunite Everest with his family.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Returning home to Shanghai with the help of Mr. Burnish, Yi spends more time with her mother, grandmother, Peng, and Jin.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: "Abominable" was in development at DreamWorks Animation since 2010. For some time, Jill Culton was writing and directing the film, originally titled "Everest", which was about a little girl and a Yeti, but by 2016, she had left the project. She was then replaced by Tim Johnson and Todd Wilderman.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: In December 2016, DreamWorks announced that the film would be released on September 27, 2019, and that it would be co-produced by Oriental DreamWorks (now Pearl Studio), marking their second collaboration after "Kung Fu Panda 3". On February 2, 2018, it was announced that Culton had returned as the director, replacing Johnson who became an executive producer with Frank Zhu and Li Ruigang. On March 20, 2018, it was announced that Chloe Bennet has been cast in the lead role as Yi. On May 18, 2018, DreamWorks and Pearl Studio announced that the film has been retitled from "Everest" to "Abominable", and Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, and Tsai Chin were cast the following month.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: The film's music was composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams, who had previously collaborated with the studio on "Over the Hedge" and "Bee Movie", making this the first DreamWorks animated film to be composed by a Gregson-Williams since "Shrek Forever After", which was composed by his older brother, Harry Gregson-Williams. Also featured on the soundtrack is an original song titled "Beautiful Life" sung by American musician, Bebe Rexha. The film also featured a version of Coldplay's Fix You. The soundtrack was released digitally on September 13, 2019 by Back Lot Music.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: "Abominable" had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019. The film was released on September 27, 2019 in the United States and on October 11 in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures. Universal also handles worldwide distribution alongside various regional partners except for China, where the film was solely distributed by co-producer Pearl Studio, who (under their former name of Oriental DreamWorks) had distributed all of DreamWorks Animation's films in the country since the partnership began.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: "Abominable" was released on digital and Movies Anywhere by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on December 3, 2019, with Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD and DVD releases following on December 17. All releases included two short films like "Show and Tell", an short focusing on Everest showing the Yetis of the human life, animated by Company 3 Animation, and "Marooned", which had previously been screened at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival and as part of a cross-promotion between DreamWorks Animation and AMC Theatres. The 4K Ultra HD version additionally uses HDR10+, making it Universal's second animated film to use the format after "The Secret Life of Pets 2" and their sixth film overall.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: "Abominable" has grossed $60.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $127.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $188.7 million, against a production budget of $75 million.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $17–20 million from 4,200 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5.7 million on its first day, including $650,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $20.9 million, finishing first at the box office and marking the best opening for an original animated film of 2019. The film made $12 million in its second weekend, finishing second behind newcomer "Joker".


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "Working with admittedly familiar ingredients, "Abominable" offers audiences a beautifully animated and overall engaging adventure that the whole family can enjoy." On Metacritic, the film has an weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 4 out of 5 stars.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave "Abominable" two out of four stars, opining that it "lack[ed] the personality to distinguish it from superior animated films that cover most of the same ground." Similarly, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film 2.5 out of five stars, likening it to fellow DreamWorks film "How to Train Your Dragon" (2010). While praising Yi's violin music and the animated scenes featuring whooping snakes and Everest' visual wonders, he thought that "Abominable" failed to distinguish itself in a crowded market. Glenn Kenny of "The New York Times" praised the film for its "exceptionally watchable and amiable" story and animated visual effects.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Clarissa Loughrey of "The Independent" gave "Abominable" three out of five stars, describing the film as "occasionally original, but not quite daring enough." She also praised the director Jill Culton for writing Yi as a grounded and authentic female protagonist while avoiding forcing her to prove herself and shoe-horned romances. Nick De Semiyen of "Empire" magazine awarded "Abominable" three out of five stars. He praised the film for its first female animated film director Culton, female lead character Yi, and for embracing its Chinese milieu including Yi's grandma Nai Nai. However, he observed that the film brought nothing new to the animation medium but praised it for incorporating a reference to "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave "Abominable" two out of five stars, regarding the yeti as a bland character and observing the film's similarities to "How to Train Your Dragon" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial". By contrast, Simran Hans of "The Observer" gave the film a more favorable review, awarding it three out of five stars. She praised the film for its animation effects of the yeti's magical powers and also likened the film to "How to Train Your Dragon".


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: The film was banned in Vietnam on October 14, 2019, ten days after its release, due to the appearance of the Nine-dash line in a scene. The Philippines and Malaysia also reacted negatively to this scene. Filipino lawyer Jay Batongbacal requested that the film be banned, while the Philippines' Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr. thought it was better to cut the scene in question. On October 17, Malaysia ordered the scene be cut from the film through its film censorship board. However, after Universal refused to make the censor cut, the film was banned entirely in Malaysia. The following day, the Philippines' Movie and Television Review and Classification Board followed suit, also banning the film.


title: Abominable (2019 film)

text: On February 11, 2022, it was announced that Peacock had ordered a CG animated series from DreamWorks Animation Television serving as a follow up to the film, titled "Abominable and the Invisible City". The series will chronicle Yi, Jin and Peng learning more about Everest and the magical creatures of the world. "Spirit Riding Free" workers Jim Schumann and Katherine Nolfi will executive produce the series, Tiffany Lo and Ethel Lung will serve as story editors, Bennet and Trainor will reprise their roles of Yi and Jin from the film with Alan Cumming replacing Izzard as Burnish. The series was released on October 5, 2022 with 10 episodes on Peacock and Hulu.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: The Taylor Swift masters controversy refers to the dispute of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift with her former record label, Big Machine Records, its founder Scott Borchetta, and new owner Scooter Braun, over the ownership of the master recordings of her first six studio albums. It was a highly publicized conflict, drawing widespread attention and media coverage.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Swift signed a record deal with Republic Records in November 2018 after her Big Machine contract expired. Mainstream media reported in June 2019 that Braun has purchased Big Machine from Borchetta for US$330 million, funded by various private equity firms. Braun became the owner of all of the masters, videos and artworks copyrighted by Big Machine, including those of Swift's first six studio albums. In response, Swift stated she tried to buy the masters but Big Machine had offered unfavorable conditions, and that she knew the label would sell them to someone else but did not expect Braun as the buyer, recalling him being an "incessant, manipulative bully". Borchetta claimed that Swift declined an opportunity to buy the masters.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Consequently, Big Machine and Swift were embroiled in a series of disagreements leading to further friction; Swift alleged that the label blocked her from using her music for the 2019 American Music Awards and documentary "Miss Americana" (2020), while Big Machine released "Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008" (2020), an unreleased work by Swift, without her approval. Swift announced she would re-record the six albums to gain complete ownership over them. In October 2020, Braun sold the masters to the Disney family's investment firm, Shamrock Holdings, for $405 million on the condition that he keeps earning from the masters. Swift expressed her disapproval again, rejecting Shamrock's offer for an equity partnership, and began releasing the re-recorded music via Republic. She released "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)", the re-recordings of her albums "Fearless" (2008) and "Red" (2012), in 2021 to critical and commercial success, breaking multiple sales, streaming and chart records. One of the tracks—"All Too Well (10 Minute Version)"—became the longest song ever to top the "Billboard" Hot 100, giving Swift her eighth number-one song. "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" and "This Love (Taylor's Version)" have also been released. "Rolling Stone" reported Swift as the highest-paid female artist of 2021. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry ranked her as the global best selling soloist of 2021.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Various musicians, journalists, politicians and scholars supported Swift's stance, prompting a discourse on artists' rights, intellectual property, private equity, and ethics in the music industry. Publications described her response and move to re-record as influential measures, encouraging new artists to negotiate for greater ownership of their music. iHeartRadio, the largest radio network in the US, proclaimed it will replace the older versions in its airplay with Swift's re-recorded tracks. "Billboard" named Swift the Greatest Pop Star of 2021 for the successful and unprecedented outcomes of her re-recording venture. Braun has stated he regrets buying Swift's masters and Big Machine at-large, and subsequently sold his entire holding company, Ithaca, to Hybe Corporation.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: According to the U.S. copyright law, any music recording, vocal or instrumental, is subject to two types of copyrights: one that protects the specific audio file developed in a recording studio, known as the master, and the other protecting the musical work of the song before it became a recording. The master is the first recording of the music, from which copies are made for sales and distribution. The owner of the master, therefore, owns the copyright to all formats of the recording, such as digital versions for download or streaming, or physical versions like CDs and vinyl LPs. A party who wishes to use or reproduce a recording must obtain a copyright license authorized by the master-owner. Before the emergence of digital platforms, musicians relied on record labels to promote their music through means such as airplay or physical distributions to retailers. Labels would typically require artists to give them the rights to the masters "in perpetuity". On the other hand, owning the musical work is referred to as the publishing rights, which covers the lyrics before it became a sound recording—its melodies, sheet music, composition, and instrumental arrangements. Songwriters generally own the publishing rights, and are referred to as "publishers" of the music.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. In 2003, at age 14, she visited major record labels in Nashville, Tennessee, for record deals but was rejected. In 2004, Swift performed original songs at an RCA Records showcase, and received an artist development deal, following which she moved to Nashville and worked with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers. In 2005, she became the youngest artist (age 15) signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house, but left the Sony-owned RCA Records due to her concerns that "development deals may shelve artists". Later in 2005, Swift participated in an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Café, where she was noticed by a DreamWorks Records executive, Scott Borchetta, who had an idea of establishing his own independent record label. Eventually, Swift signed a 13-year recording deal with Borchetta's new Nashville-based label, Big Machine Records, as its first recording artist. The deal gave Big Machine the ownership of the masters to Swift's first six albums in exchange for a cash advance.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: From 2006 to 2017, Swift released six studio albums with Big Machine: "Taylor Swift" (2006), "Fearless" (2008), "Speak Now" (2010), "Red" (2012), "1989" (2014), and "Reputation" (2017), all of which were commercially lucrative and established Swift as one of the most successful music artists in history. Although Big Machine owned the masters, Swift retained the publishing rights to the albums due to her role as the main songwriter of all of the songs she had released under the label. This would allow her to re-record the songs in the future if she desired, as per the artist-label agreement that limits the artist from re-recording a song for a fixed period of time; Swift would not have been able to re-record her musical work had she not been a songwriter.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In August 2018, as per "Billboard", Swift's attorney Donald Passman and her management team proposed to Big Machine Label Group that the masters be sold back to Swift as their contract was nearing expiry; the label group responded that it would happen only if she renewed her recording contract with Big Machine, agreeing to create more albums under the label for the next decade. The two parties never arrived at an agreement.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Ultimately, Swift's contract with Big Machine Records expired in November 2018, following which she signed a new, global contract with Republic Records, a New York-based label owned by Universal Music Group. "Variety" reported that Swift's catalog constituted around 80 percent of Big Machine's revenue. Swift revealed a negotiation as part of her Republic contract—any sale of Universal's shares in Spotify, the largest on-demand music streaming platform in the world, resulted in equity shares for all of Universal's artists on a non-recoupable basis. The contract also allowed Swift to fully own the albums distributed by the label—both the masters and the publishing rights—starting with her seventh studio album, "Lover" (2019), and as reported by "Forbes", offered a royalty payment of 50 percent or more compared to the 10 to 15 percent Swift "likely" had been receiving from Big Machine.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Scooter Braun is an American media proprietor, talent manager and businessman known for managing the careers of music artists Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Kanye West, through his media company, SB Projects. In June 2019, "The Wall Street Journal", followed by other mainstream media, reported that Braun's holding company, Ithaca Holdings LLC., had fully acquired Big Machine Label Group by purchasing it for an estimated $330 million. The purchase encompassed all aspects of Big Machine's business, including its client roster, distribution deals, publishing rights and music masters, and was financed by American private equity companies such as the Carlyle Group, 23 Capital, and Soros Fund Management, all of whom owned a stake in Ithaca. In a joint announcement, the companies claimed that the buyout "creates one of the most powerful label, management, streaming, publishing and media companies by combining complimentary services, artists, executives and expertise". As part of the acquisition, the ownership of all of the masters and copyrights owned by Big Machine, including those of Swift's first six studio albums, transferred to Braun. Borchetta joined the Ithaca board of directors, acquiring a minority interest in Ithaca, and remained as the President and CEO of Big Machine.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: On June 30, 2019, Big Machine announced via social media that the label group had been acquired by Braun, following which Swift denounced the acquisition on Tumblr the same day. She stated that she had tried to buy her masters for years, but was not given a chance unless she signed another contract that would require her to create six more albums under the label in exchange for the masters of the first six, which she felt was "unacceptable". While she knew that Big Machine was for sale, she said she was unaware that Braunwhom she described as an "incessant, manipulative bully"would be the buyer: "Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it". She highlighted Braun's involvement in the creation of West's music video for his 2016 single "Famous", which she described as "a revenge porn music video which strips [her] body naked". Swift also claimed that Braun influenced Kim Kardashian, then-married to West, to orchestrate an "illegally recorded" snippet of Swift's phone call with West, and had "two of [Braun's] clients" collude to bully Swift online, referring to a FaceTime screenshot of Bieber, West and Braun, posted to Bieber's Instagram after Kardashian released the snippet. Swift accused Borchetta of betraying her loyalty for selling the masters to Braun despite being aware of Braun's role in bullying Swift. Passman argued that Borchetta never gave Swift "an opportunity to purchase her masters, or the label, outright with a check in the way [Borchetta] is now apparently doing for others".


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In response, Borchetta published a blog post titled "It's Time For Some Truth" on the Big Machine website. On June 25, 2019, Big Machine shareholders and Braun's Ithaca Holdings held a phone call regarding the transaction. While Swift's father Scott was one of the label's minority shareholders (4 percent), he did not join the call due to a "very strict" non-disclosure agreement. A final call was held on June 28, when Scott Swift was represented by a lawyer from Swift's management company, 13 Management. Borchetta said he texted Swift on June 29, claiming that she was aware of Braun's transaction beforehand. He denied that Swift had been hostile toward Braun, and posted a text message he alleged Swift had sent before signing to Republic Records; in the message, Swift said she would accept another seven-year contract with Big Machine on the condition that she took ownership of her audiovisual works. Borchetta agreed, but asked for a ten-year contract. The authenticity of the message has not been verified.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: On November 14, 2019, Swift accused Braun and Borchetta of preventing her from performing her older songs at the American Music Awards of 2019 and using older material for her 2020 documentary "Miss Americana". She said they were "exercising tyrannical control" over her music, and claimed Borchetta told her team that she would be allowed to use the music only if she agreed to not re-record "copycat versions" of her songs; Swift commented, "the message being sent to me is very clear. Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you'll be punished."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In response, Big Machine rejected Swift's claim, "we have worked diligently to have a conversation about these matters with Taylor and her team to productively move forward. However, despite our persistent efforts to find a private and mutually satisfactory solution, Taylor made a unilateral decision last night to enlist her fanbase." However, on November 18, the label issued a statement saying they had "agreed to grant all licenses of their artists' performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms" for the AMAs, without naming Swift. It also stated that Big Machine negotiated with the AMAs producer, Dick Clark Productions. To the contrary, Dick Clark stated they never agreed to issue any statement with Big Machine.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Swift's publicist Tree Paine released a statement the next day. Paine said Swift avoided performing her older songs at the Tmall Double Eleven Gala 2020, a Singles Day event in Shanghai, China, and sang only three songs from "Lover", because "it was clear that Big Machine Label Group felt any televised performance of catalog songs violated her agreement", attaching a screenshot of a portion of an alleged email from Big Machine that reads: "Please be advised that [Big Machine] will not agree to issue licenses for existing recordings or waivers of its re-recording restrictions in connection with these two projects: The Netflix documentary and The Alibaba 'Double Eleven' event." Paine also denied Big Machine's statement that said Swift "has admitted to contractually owing millions of dollars and multiple assets" to the label, and claimed the label is attempting to deflect from "the $7.9 million of unpaid royalties" that the label owes to Swift "over several years", as assessed by "an independent, professional auditor". Swift performed six songs at the 2019 AMAs on November 24, 2019, four of which were from her first six albums, and received the Artist of the Decade award.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In April 2020, Big Machine released "Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008", a live album of Swift's performances at a 2008 radio show. Swift said she did not authorize the release, and dismissed it as "just another case of shameless greed in the time of Coronavirus". "Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008" earned only 33 units in the US and did not chart anywhere. From August 2019 to January 2020, Big Machine released 4,000 vinyl LPs of each of the singles from "Taylor Swift" for the album's 13th anniversary, which was met with immediate backlash from Swift's supporters.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Swift's solution to her crisis was to create new recordings of all of the musical work in the six albums, using the publishing rights she retained, and to have the finished product sound as close to the original as possible. She announced in August 2019, on a special episode of "CBS News Sunday Morning" with American journalist Tracy Smith, that she would "re-record" and release the six albums to own the complete rights herself, as soon as her Big Machine contract allowed her to. By re-recording, Swift is technically covering her own songs as new recordings, resulting in new masters she fully owns, enabling her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use, known as synchronization, by evading the owners of the older masters and subsequently devaluing them.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In October 2020, Braun sold the masters, associated videos and artworks to Shamrock Holdings, an American private equity firm owned by the Disney estate, for a reported $405 million. Swift stated that she attempted to negotiate with Braun, but that he offered her a chance to buy the masters back only if she signed an "ironclad" NDA that only allowed her to speak positively about Braun during the process; she refused to sign the NDA. She also claimed that Braun mandated Shamrock not to notify her about the sale until it is complete, and that she further declined an offer by Shamrock to become an equity partner, on the grounds that Braun and Ithaca Holdings would continue to financially benefit from her work. Swift upheld her original decision and began the re-recording process in November 2020. In response, Shamrock released a statement: "We made this investment because we believe in the immense value and opportunity that comes with [Swift's] work. We fully respect and support her decision and, while we hoped to formally partner, we also knew [Swift's re-recording venture] was a possible outcome that we considered."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Swift began releasing her re-recorded music in 2021. The re-recorded albums and songs are identified by the note "(Taylor's Version)" added to all of their titles, to distinguish them from the older recordings.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In February 2021, Swift announced that she had finished re-recording her "Fearless" and released "Love Story (Taylor's Version)", a re-recording of the album's lead single "Love Story", on February 12. "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" was released on April 9 to rave reviews from music critics, who praised Swift's move to re-record her music, viewing it as an act of preservation of artists' rights. On September 15, following a viral TikTok trend involving "Wildest Dreams" (2015) that was gaining traction, the older recording of the song accumulated 735,000 plays on Spotify, marking the highest single-day streams ever for the song on the streaming platform. On September 17, Swift teased the re-recorded song's bridge as part of the said trend with a snippet on TikTok, captioning "if you guys want to use my version of wildest dreams for the slow zoom trend, here she is!". "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" was subsequently released to streaming platforms. Swift stated that she saw "Wildest Dreams" trending on TikTok and thought fans should have "[her] version" of the song. In its first four hours of availability, "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" amassed 2,003,391 Spotify streams, breaking the record the older "Wildest Dreams" had set a few days prior.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: On November 12, 2021, Swift released "Red (Taylor's Version)", the re-recorded issue of "Red", consisting of all 30 songs that were originally meant for the 2012 version. The album broke several sales, streaming, and chart records, and was met with widespread acclaim, becoming her highest rated album by critics on Metacritic. Its closing track, "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)", scored Swift the eighth "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one song of her career and garnered the "Guinness World Record" for the longest song ever to top the chart. The song's producer Jack Antonoff told "Rolling Stone" that a 10-minute-long song topping the Hot 100 teaches artists to "not listen" to what the industry has to say. "This Love (Taylor's Version)", a track from "1989 (Taylor's Version)", was released on May 6, 2022. In September 2022, Swift reportedly turned down an offer to headline the Super Bowl LVII halftime show (2023), refusing to play the show until her re-recording process is finished.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In October 2022, Swift released the Easter egg-laden music video of "Bejeweled", a track on her tenth studio album "Midnights". The video contains several hints to "Speak Now", and incorporates orchestral versions of its two tracks, "Enchanted" and "Long Live"; fans and media outlets surmised that the next release would be "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)".


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: On November 16, 2020, "Variety" journalist Shirley Halperin reported, "some insiders speculate the value [of Swift's masters] could be as high as $450 million once certain earn-backs are factored in". According to a November 2021 report by "Financial Times", Braun believed that Swift was "just bluffing" about re-recording. The newspaper stated that, after purchasing Big Machine, Braun began searching for buyers for the masters of Swift's back catalog, and that he and co-investors told potential buyers that Swift would not actually re-record the albums, calling her announcement an "empty threat"; Braun also told the buyers that Swift's posts about the dispute would only generate more publicity, boosting streams and downloads of the albums. "Financial Times" also alleged that the deal between Braun and Shamrock included "a post-purchase earnout to Braun and Carlyle Group, if sales and streams hit specific targets". On December 10, 2021, "The New York Times" published that the Carlyle Group contacted Braun and encouraged him to reach a ceasefire with Swift, such as a joint-venture partnership, to prevent her from re-recording, according to an undisclosed group of "four people close to the situation", three of whom said the firm was "unhappy to be dragged into the dispute in such a public way".


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: "Business Insider" reporter Anna Silman released an investigation exclusive in March 2022. Silman wrote that one of Swift's many reasons to detest Braun's procurement of the masters is his poor handling of the relationship between Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, the latter being one of Swift's closest friends and vice versa. Silman also stated that Braun controlled news stories of several media outlets and blogs. American rapper Lil Twist told Silman that Braun used tabloid websites such as TMZ and "Page Six" to plant negative stories about the rapper. Silman claimed that Braun refused to speak on the record, and that many others were afraid to go on record due to Braun's "rep for litigiousness". Additionally, she stated that Braun's lawyer, Marty Singer, threatened "Business Insider" several times over the investigation, claiming Silman is biased and has "deep ties to the Taylor Swift camp."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In April 2021, Braun merged Ithaca with South Korean entertainment company Hybe Corporation, which purchased Ithaca for a 100 percent stake through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hybe America. The deal, valued at $1 billion, brought the SB Projects and Big Machine rosters, including Bieber, Grande, Lovato, J Balvin, Thomas Rhett, Florida Georgia Line, and Lady A, together with K-pop acts like BTS, Tomorrow X Together, and Seventeen. Braun joined the board of Hybe. In a September 2022 interview with NPR's Jay Williams, Braun stated he regrets the way the Big Machine acquisition was handled, admitted he came from a "place of arrogance" when he assumed that he and Swift "could work things out", and that he learned "an important lesson". Braun also stated that he was forced to make the purchase under a "very strict NDA" and hence was not allowed to talk to anybody about it.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: The controversy was highly publicized, drawing reactions and critiques from across the internet. Swift's re-recordings were one of the most widely discussed and covered news topics of 2020–2021, and were described by media outlets as one of 2021's most prominent pop-culture events. "Evening Standard" called it "music's biggest feud", because "back catalogues regularly change hands behind the scenes, but almost never make headlines". Hashtags "#IStandWithTaylor" and "#WeStandWithTaylor" trended worldwide on Twitter following Swift's post. "Billboard" wrote, since the controversy, acts "lined up for Team Swift or Team Braun, creating the most public battle about an artists' masters in recent memory".


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Swift's response and social media posts sparked support from many of her contemporaries. Musicians who openly supported her include Dionne Warwick, Anne Murray, Cher, Gomez, Halsey, Iggy Azalea, Sara Bareilles, Lily Allen, Tinashe, Ella Eyre, Hayley Kiyoko, Camila Cabello, Jordan Pruitt, Brendon Urie, Kelsea Ballerini, JoJo, Azealia Banks, The Regrettes, Echosmith, Antonoff, Haim, Alessia Cara, Allie X, Hrvy, Gretchen Peters, Iza, Katy Perry, and Anita Baker, who agreed with Swift that artists should rightfully own their music. American musician Sky Ferreira supported Swift and told about her own battle over her masters: "the entertainment industry is filled with under qualified bullies & morons with way too much power for their own good." When questioned about his stance, English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran said "I have been speaking directly to [Swift], like I always do." American singer Kelly Clarkson, in a tweet, urged Swift to re-record the albums; "You should go in & re-record all the songs that you don't own the masters on exactly how you did them [...] I'd buy all of the new versions just to prove a point." Various other singers unfollowed Braun on their social media accounts. Beside musicians, celebrities like Cara Delevingne, Heidi Montag, Sara Sampaio, Martha Hunt, Gigi Hadid, Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Ruby Rose, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Khan, Mike Birbiglia, and Mamrie Hart also supported Swift via social media posts.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: A few musicians supported Braun, including Australian singer-songwriter Sia, American singer Ty Dolla Sign, and Braun's clients Bieber and Lovato. Lovato and Sia said they believe Braun is a "good man" and that his actions were not personal. American entertainer Todrick Hall, who was formerly a client of Braun, supported Swift and accused Braun of homophobia; Hall engaged in a back-and-forth argument with Lovato on Twitter. In an Instagram post, Bieber apologized to Swift for the FaceTime screenshot (with Braun and West) he posted in 2016 with a caption targeting her; however, Bieber defended Braun, saying Braun has supported Swift since she let Bieber be the opening act of her Fearless Tour and added "years have passed, we haven't crossed paths and gotten to communicate our differences, hurts or frustrations. So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on Scooter isn't fair." Bieber's wife Hailey called him a "gentleman" under the post, which prompted Delevingne to criticize the Biebers for what she considered as insincere amity. Grande, also a client of Braun, posted an Instagram story congratulating Braun on the purchase but deleted it after Swift posted her statement. David Geffen, a music executive whom Braun has often described as a mentor, supported Braun but said "only time will tell who made the wise decision".


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: On November 19, 2019, US senator Elizabeth Warren, who was one of the Democratic candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election, stated on Twitter that Swift is "one of many" whose work has been threatened by private equity firms, who keep "gobbling up more and more of our economy, costing jobs and crushing entire industries." Holding private equity firms accountable was a large part of Warren's presidential campaign. US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also sided with Swift. She tweeted: "Private equity groups' predatory practices actively hurt millions of Americans. Their leveraged buyouts have destroyed the lives of retail workers across the country, scrapping 1+ million jobs. Now they're holding [Swift's] own music hostage. They need to be reigned in."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: American businessman Glenn Youngkin was the former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, the major sponsor in Braun's purchase of Big Machine and Swift's masters. Youngkin contested in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election as the Republican candidate for the office of the Governor of Virginia. On October 6, 2021, ahead of the election, then-incumbent governor and Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe launched a series of negative advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and Google Search, tying Youngkin to the purchase. The ad included the slogan "#WeStandWithTaylor", a hashtag used by Swift's fans during the fallout of the dispute, and asked her supporters to vote for McAuliffe. Youngkin's spokesperson, Christian Martinez, stated "McAuliffe has reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he's rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks". Additionally, NPR highlighted a July 2021 report by "Associated Press" that claimed McAuliffe himself had invested a minimum of $690,000 in Carlyle between 2007 and 2016. McAuliffe's spokesperson, Renzo Olivari, confirmed that McAuliffe was a "passive" Carlyle investor by 2019, at the time of the sale of the masters, owned less than $5,000 in Carlyle stock.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Jared Polis, the 43rd Governor of Colorado, mentioned Swift's re-recording venture as a highlight of 2021 in his annual gubernatorial address to the state on January 14, 2022, and sang the chorus of "22 (Taylor's Version)" in reference to the new year of 2022.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Publications highlighted Swift's public opposition to the acquisition as trailblazing: while the issue of master ownership and the conflicts between record labels and artists such as Prince, the Beatles, Janet Jackson, and Def Leppard have been prevalent, Swift was one of the few to make it public. "Rolling Stone" journalists described the dispute as one of the 50 "most important moments" of the 2010s. Dominic Rushe of "The Guardian" said Swift's situation hinted at a change in the digital music era, where artists are more informed of their ownership and would not rely on record labels for marketing as heavily as in the past. Recognizing the visibility she brought to "one of the music industry's longest standing issues", "Pitchfork" critic Sam Sodomsky said Swift "is also so huge—not just an artist but a brand—that she can enact change by wielding the leverage of the reliability of her success", and that when she makes a statement, it is "financially lucrative for the industry to listen". "The Evening Standard" Katie Rosseinsky wrote, "it is not just another celebrity feud, this could have wide-reaching repercussions for the music industry."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: "The New York Times", "The A.V. Club" and MarketWatch felt Swift's criticism targeted private equity firms, highlighting her mention of the Carlyle Group in her social media posts. "The New York Times" said, "at a time of public outrage over corporate greed and a heightened awareness of gender-based power dynamics, the 29-year-old Ms. Swift was able to turn a commercial dispute into a cause célèbre." Meera Jagannathan of MarketWatch described the Carlyle Group as a "powerful and politically connected" firm based in Washington, D.C., whose investments constitute a global portfolio of 272 companies, including Supreme, Dunkin' Brands, and many aerospace and defense companies.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Critical commentary on Swift's decision to re-record remained favorable as well. "Variety" Chris Willman wrote that Swift's highly publicized move to re-record her back catalog would inspire other artists to "further deputize or weaponize fans in their own business disputes", unlike comparatively less successful attempts by her contemporaries to own their music. "The Atlantic" Spencer Kornhaber opined that the re-recordings have been "a dazzling victory lap", disproving industry observers who had doubted Swift. "Elle" Fawzia Khan and "The New Yorker" Carrie Battan hailed the "(Taylor's Version)" tag attached to the re-recorded music as genius re-branding of Swift's back catalog. Charlotte Richards, writing for "Money Marketing", said the situation helps understand "dangerous investing", such as Braun's. "The New Zealand Herald" reporter Lydia Burgham dubbed the move "ultimate middle finger to the bureaucracy of the music industry", while revealing how "even someone of Swift's star power cannot hold on to the rights to her recorded work." With the success of "Red (Taylor's Version)", Hannah Towey of "Business Insider" said "the "Taylor's Version" era is already sending shockwaves throughout the industry."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: "The Wall Street Journal" journalist Neil Shah wrote, for using her back catalog in mass media, such as for commercials and movies, Swift can shut out Shamrock and Braun by directly lending the concerned song to the third party, approving the copyright license herself. Kate Dwyer of "Marie Claire" said the re-recorded albums free Swift from the sexist tabloid scrutiny of her private life that overshadowed her past works, by re-introducing listeners and critics to the same songs but without "as much gender bias", and that the audiences who "didn't believe she was a feminist before (for whatever, sexist reason) can't deny the feminist undertones of becoming the industry spokesperson for artists' rights."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Various lawyers and law firms have published their analyses of the controversy. The majority highlighted the lack of legal grounds and that a lawsuit is not viable. Susan H. Hilderley, music attorney at University of California's Los Angeles School of Law, told "The Washington Post" that Swift not owning her masters is "nothing out of the ordinary". Hilderley noted Swift was an unknown artist when she signed her record deal and that signing off the masters to the record label is the "kind of terms" usually followed in artist-label agreements. In a similar vein, Erin Jacobson, a music attorney specializing in artist-label negotiations, said on CBC News that "the structure of a label owning the master has been in place for such a long time that a lot of people are just used to that". She affirmed that Swift has no legal recourse on the contract but can effect change in the music industry and benefit all artists. "The Hollywood Reporter" consulted music lawyers Howard King and Derek Crownover regarding the controversy; King said Swift would not sue Braun or the label because of the "personal" nature of the dispute—her predicament being not the sale itself but that Braun is the buyer—having no legal recourse. In agreement, Crownover said: "from the satellite view, I don't see any legal ramifications that could come of this, unless there were restrictions on the sale of the masters to third parties." James Jeffries-Chung of Norton Rose Fulbright asserted Shamrock cannot prevent Swift from re-recording her music by any legal measure since she is the publisher of her songs and that all they can hope is "listeners may be less interested in hearing modern takes of songs they enjoyed a decade ago and stick with the originals."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Many opined that Swift's moves will bring about systemic changes in the music industry and artist-label relationships. Meredith Rose, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge, wrote in her American Bar Association post that "if Swift—who is, without exaggeration, one of the biggest powerhouse pop stars of an entire generation—can't get her own masters back, who could? Turns out, almost nobody." According to Tonya Butler, professor and chair of the Music Business Management Department at Berklee College of Music, "regardless of the reasons why [Swift is] re-recording, whether it's spite or good business, the fact she is bringing to attention the re-recording restriction agreement alone makes the whole controversy valuable." McBrayer's Peter J. Rosene stated that each "Taylor's Version" album lowers the value of the master of its respective original held by Shamrock and predicted that the sales of the re-recordings "might, in fact, outperform the original albums." American author Steve Stoute said "you build it; we make you think that you own it; you act like you own it; but at the end of the day, we own it." He opined that Swift's dilemma is a "painful" illustration of the fundamental issue with the music business that has been following a "sharecropping" model. According to professor R. Polk Wagner of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Swift associating her lyrics with a range of goods and services through trademark applications represents her understanding that "she is bigger than the music". He added "it's more of a branding right, thinking of Taylor Swift as a conglomerate." Doug McMahon of Irish firm McCann Fitzgerald LLP opined that the controversy shows how "the bundle of related copyrights that exist in a piece of music can give rise to complex disputes" and upheld Swift's move to re-record as a "relatively novel solution", in regards to the copyright legislations in Ireland.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: At the 2019 "Billboard" Women in Music event, Swift was conferred the inaugural Woman of the Decade award for the 2010s. In her acceptance speech, Swift addressed Braun for the first time publicly, criticizing his "toxic male privilege" and the "unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying [artists'] music as if it's real estate—as if it's an app or a shoe line." She claimed that none of the investors "bothered to contact me or my team directly—to perform their due diligence on their investment; on their investment in me. To ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art, the music I wrote, the videos I created, photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs."


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: In December 2021, "Billboard" recognized Swift as "The Greatest Pop Star of 2021", saying she "rewrote industry rules and had one of the most impactful years of her storied pop career without even releasing an entirely new album." The magazine stated that the "unequivocal success" of "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)" prove the widespread acceptance of the recordings, which replaced the older versions as "the ones listeners will be digesting and caring about moving forward." The Recording Academy said the "Taylor's Versions" are a music trend that defined 2021. Swift and her re-recording venture were featured in a video montage by "Vox" summarizing major world events of the year. In 2022, "Rolling Stone" listed Braun's purchase of Swift's masters as one of the 50 worst decisions made in the music industry history.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: The re-recordings were widely successful. The original "Fearless" was charting at number 157 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart before the impact of "Fearless (Taylor's Version)", after which the original dropped 19 percent in sales and fell off the chart completely, while the re-recording debuted at number one. Ben Sisario of "The New York Times" opined that "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" "accomplished what appeared to be one of Swift's goals: burying the original "Fearless"." Swift was the highest paid female musician of 2021, owing to "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)", ahead of artists who released brand new albums that year. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported her as the world's best selling soloist and female artist of 2021. "Forbes" estimated her 2021 earnings to be US$52,000,000, and opined that Swift "recreating her catalog also sets [her] up for a potentially massive payday". Her publication rights over her first six albums were valued at $200 million in 2022.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: Swift has pointedly refused to authorize synchronization requests for the original versions of her songs, advising use of her re-recorded versions instead. American actor and Swift's brother, Austin, manages the licensing of her songs. A cover version of "Look What You Made Me Do" (2017), the lead single of "Reputation", was featured in the opening credits of an episode (aired May 24, 2020) of spy thriller series "Killing Eve". The artist credited as the performer of the cover, Jack Leopards & the Dolphin Club, had no documented existence before the song's release. It was fronted by an unnamed male vocalist, speculated by some media outlets to be Austin, and was produced by Jack Antonoff and Nils Sjöberg, the latter being a pseudonym of Swift. Because Swift could not re-record "Reputation" at the time the episode aired, some believed that the cover version was Swift's way of bypassing the potential issues that would arise with Big Machine over licensing the copyright to "Killing Eve." A copyright license is mandatory for using a song in a visual work; otherwise, the owner of the copyright is allowed to fine or press charges against the party who used the song unlicensed.


title: Taylor Swift masters controversy

text: The re-recorded tracks have been featured in various visual media: "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" appeared in an advertisement produced by American actor Ryan Reynolds for the dating app Match.com. "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" was extensively used in the trailers for the animated adventure film "Spirit Untamed" (2021) and in an episode of Netflix fantasy series "" (2022). The trailer for Amazon Prime Video romantic drama series "The Summer I Turned Pretty" (2022), posted on May 5, 2022, made use of parts of "This Love (Taylor's Version)". "Message in a Bottle" (2021) and the unreleased "Bad Blood (Taylor's Version)" are featured in animated superhero film "DC League of Super-Pets" (2022).