Taylor Swift re-records her own songs

In diesem Auszug aus der März-Ausgabe der Read On berichten wir von Taylor Swifts Vorhaben, fünf ihrer Alben neu aufzunehmen, nachdem sie 2019 die Rechte an den Originalsongs verlor. Anschließend gibt es zwei Übungsaufgaben zu Leseverstehen und Wortschatz.

After losing the rights to most of her music, Taylor Swift has decided to record five of her albums again.

*American English
By Tim Brown

1Taylor Swift has announced she has begun to re-record five of her previous albums. This is her way of regaining control of her music, which she lost in 2019, after the rights to the masters, or original versions, of her earlier works changed hands. She said it’s her way of escaping “the worst-case scenario”.

2Swift has been luckier than most artists because she has had a say in whether or not her songs are played in films and the like – but that is about it. She has no rights to the masters themselves, which means she may not be able to perform her own songs at concerts.

3 Most people may not know that many music artists do not own the rights to the songs they record. These songs are usually owned by the record labels themselves so that their investment in the artists pays off for them. There is tough competition among artists to find a record label that takes them on. Artists often don’t have any choice but to sign contracts that five their works away if they want to be successful.

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Vocabulary

0–1 to re-record neu aufnehmen – the rights to s.th. die Rechte an etw. – to announce bekannt geben – previous bisherige(r,s) – to regain wiedererlangen – work Werk – to change hands den Besitzer wechseln – to escape s.th. einer Sache entgehen

2 to have a say ein Mitbestimmungsrecht haben – the like dergleichen – …but that is about it … mehr aber auch nicht – perform aufführen

3 to own besitzen – record label Plattenfirma – to pay off sich bezahlt machen – toughhart – competition Konkurrenz – among unter  – to take on aufnehmen, h.: unter Vertrag nehmen – choice Wahl –to sign a contract einen Vertrag unterschreiben – successful erfolgreich

Exercises

Reading comprehension

Read the text and decide if the following statements are true, false or not in the text. Tick your answers.