June 2, 2025 • 6 mins
In this fiery and thought-provoking episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray dive headfirst into the swirling controversy surrounding Taylor Swift’s battle for her masters—and the billion-dollar business of music ownership.KT kicks things off with a deep dive into the latest twist in the Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun saga, revealing how Swift is reclaiming her legacy by re-recording her early albums. But is it a bold act of artistic justice—or a calculated business move wrapped in fan-fueled outrage?🔥 Key Moments & Themes:
“Taylor Grift strikes again.” — KT’s music industry friend, sparking a hilarious and heated back-and-forth.🎧 Whether you're a Swiftie, a skeptic, or just love a good debate, this episode is packed with sharp insights, unexpected laughs, and the kind of real talk that only Ben, Skin, KT, and Krystina can deliver.
- KT’s friend drops the mic with the line: “Taylor Grift strikes again.” Is it fair? Or just fan-baiting?
- A heated debate over whether Swift could’ve bought her masters all along—and why she didn’t.
- The ethics of billionaires in music: “Being a billionaire and still being that into making money is a sickness.”
- A fascinating comparison to NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki, who gave up millions for loyalty—and may now regret it.
- A heartfelt discussion on wealth, legacy, and giving back, featuring stories about Mort Meyerson, Barry Diller, and the Walton family.
“Taylor Grift strikes again.” — KT’s music industry friend, sparking a hilarious and heated back-and-forth.🎧 Whether you're a Swiftie, a skeptic, or just love a good debate, this episode is packed with sharp insights, unexpected laughs, and the kind of real talk that only Ben, Skin, KT, and Krystina can deliver.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is The Ben and Skin Show, ninety seven point
one The Eagle. We're gonna move sports to the bottom
of the hour here coming up in about fifteen minutes
or so.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
But Katie, let's keep music news going. What you got
over there.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
So this was this report on Friday, and I know
that we're on the Eagle, so a lot of people
probably don't care, but I.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Do think it's interesting in terms of music.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
All Right, Taylor Swift is getting her best, just get
her master's back from her first five or six albums.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, So just so people know, what masters refer to
is the original recordings, and why that should matter to
you is like you can think of a cover song
that's a new master recording. You can go re record
a song any number of times and create quote unquote
new masters. But when a record company releases something, they
release recordings that they refer to as the master recordings.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Ownership of her work basically for those six albums. And
I think Big Machine Records, which the Scooter Broun is
the name that you might have heard before here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
He's the guy who worked.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
With Kanye Bieber to that that was one of his
big ones. Yeah, and Taylor and Scooter bron have had
some beef for a long time, but surely Taylor's beef
turns into like a million people's beef because of her fans.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
So I'm trying to read you a couple of text
messages from a music friend of mine. Okay, he texted
me that, I said, Taylor Grift strikes again.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Okay, all right, I think, all right, I think our
listeners actually will like her being called Taylor Griff.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
And I said, are you saying she could have bought
these masters the whole time? So the company that bought
the Masters was Shamrock. Shamrock was started with the nephew
of Walt Disney, Roy Disney. Okay, so he's got some loot.
So he has over three hundred million dollars he bought that.
(01:53):
Taylor Shift has clearly over three hundred million dollars, right, Okay,
so that's my point. I said, So she could have
bought them this whole time. Question Mark, this guy knows
way more about this stuff than I need.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
He said, one hundred percent. That's what Scooter Braun has
been saying this whole time. But her fans aren't having it.
And I have seen this out there before, Like Scooter
Braun didn't do anything wrong here, he's just doing business.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, he's doing business a lot of and and it's
the type of business you're doing. This is why Prince
was at war with the record labels and why he
wrote slave across his face. He was like, why did
you Why do you own something I created? I created that,
Why do you own it? What's reasonable? And again, different,
different people could have a different idea of what's quote
(02:41):
unquote reasonable. And I'm sure I don't know Taylor's exact position,
but she's like, why should I have to pay you
three hundred million dollars for something I recorded that You've
made millions and millions of dollars off of what is fair?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
What is the principle here? You know what I'll do.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'll just re record all of it and tell my
fans to listen to that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And she did, and she did.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
He said this as a music nerd, this is truly
wild s. I can't wait to read the book on this.
Her main motivation has always been Spie though, and that's
what you do when you can't rely on talent, You
make it a storyline.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
This guy's going hard on Taylor, I would disagree that
Taylor doesn't have to.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I would too. I would too.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And then later he did say that she is a
talented songwriter. Yeah, and backpedal off that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And by the way, when you have fu money, you
can take spite to a whole new level.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right and well, and that's the biggest f you was like,
you know what, keep them.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I'm going to prove that I can rewrite the same
exact song and then make more off of it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And it's not even rewrite it, it's just re recording,
recording it. Go back into the studio and re record.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
It's pretty badass.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, now I can trying to pin him down on this,
give me to tell me a little bit more, putting
him in a place to give me some really juicy answers. Yep,
And he said the business griff Side is the most
insane to me. Being a billionaire and still being that
into making money is a sickness. She still charges her
fan it's like one hundred dollars for a hoodie and
fifty for an album. If I were her, I'd be
selling that s for one dollar profit. And then he
(04:06):
sends me a link to a website called the Tortured
Poets Department variant tracker, which is her latest album, right,
and how many variants of that release it has, because
it'll get released and then it'll get re released, and
she knows that her fans will go get that absolutely.
And that's why I've always struggled with determining the business
of the band and what a band is like the
(04:26):
head of the band in her situation. But she's got
a team, and it's hard to know. And some mans
have a little more control over how they do things,
and some just say, I don't care. I do what
I do and let the label handle it. And I
just think it's interesting thing. I don't know that I
have a hard opinion. I don't know enough about.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It to know.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I think it's interesting too. Like I'll give you an example.
One of the reasons that and this is my opinion.
I've not been told this, Okay, this is my opinion.
One of the reasons everybody loves Dirk so much is
he gave up like a hundred million dollars maybe more
to stay a Maverick.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I'm willing to.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Bet Dirk's not happy he did that because now he's
in a later stage of his life, and he's a businessman,
and he's an investor, and he's all kinds of different things.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's like the whole Luca thing.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
When Luca got traded, he lost out on about seventy
million dollars he won't be able to recoup.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And people are like, well, he's already rich. Who cares.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, you can buy a lot of things with seventy
million dollars and can turn that into five hundred min
You know. It's like that idea that being rich is
a sickness.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
But let's talk about this. Maybe we'll talk about this later.
Our friend Sarah Heppela wrote a great article about mort Myerson.
You've been to the Myerson the Symphony, and he's talking
about I wish the billionaires in this city would give
back more to the city. Yeah, it's interesting. That's a
big problem with humanity right now, in my opinion. If
that guy was talking about by earlier Barry Diller. Barry
(05:55):
Diller is a billionaire. Have y'all ever been to the
high Line in New York?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I haven't.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
It's incredible. He just donated it to the city of
New York. It's this incredible. They turn an old elevated
subway thing into a thing that you could walk through
New York with all these gardens.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
We have been there.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yes, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It's so cool. He said, I'm a billionaire. Why don't
I give something like this to the community in which I.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Was just a big wage gap? Yeah? Right, the extreme on.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
It's crazy if you had all that money, think about
all the things Like, I don't know a lot about it,
but I know the Walton family have created all these
amazing bike trails and parks in the state of Arkansas.
They've made so much money off Walmart or whatever. Yeah, anyways,
I do think it's a fascinating conversation. I'm with you.
It's the Ben and Skin Show ninety seven point one
The Eagle. Let's do sports. Coming up next, we'll get
(06:46):
to the uh. We'll talk about this idea of a
sports institution going away and why I was pissed off
about it. We'll do all that next on The Eagle.
It is The Ben and Skin Show, ninety seven point
one The Eagle. We're gonna move sports to the bottom
of the hour here coming up in about fifteen minutes
or so.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
But Katie, let's keep music news going. What you got
over there.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
So this was this report on Friday, and I know
that we're on the Eagle, so a lot of people
probably don't care, but I.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Do think it's interesting in terms of music.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
All Right, Taylor Swift is getting her best, just get
her master's back from her first five or six albums.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, So just so people know, what masters refer to
is the original recordings, and why that should matter to
you is like you can think of a cover song
that's a new master recording. You can go re record
a song any number of times and create quote unquote
new masters. But when a record company releases something, they
release recordings that they refer to as the master recordings.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Ownership of her work basically for those six albums. And
I think Big Machine Records, which the Scooter Broun is
the name that you might have heard before here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
He's the guy who worked.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
With Kanye Bieber to that that was one of his
big ones. Yeah, and Taylor and Scooter bron have had
some beef for a long time, but surely Taylor's beef
turns into like a million people's beef because of her fans.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
So I'm trying to read you a couple of text
messages from a music friend of mine. Okay, he texted
me that, I said, Taylor Grift strikes again.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Okay, all right, I think, all right, I think our
listeners actually will like her being called Taylor Griff.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
And I said, are you saying she could have bought
these masters the whole time? So the company that bought
the Masters was Shamrock. Shamrock was started with the nephew
of Walt Disney, Roy Disney. Okay, so he's got some loot.
So he has over three hundred million dollars he bought that.
(01:53):
Taylor Shift has clearly over three hundred million dollars, right, Okay,
so that's my point. I said, So she could have
bought them this whole time. Question Mark, this guy knows
way more about this stuff than I need.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
He said, one hundred percent. That's what Scooter Braun has
been saying this whole time. But her fans aren't having it.
And I have seen this out there before, Like Scooter
Braun didn't do anything wrong here, he's just doing business.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, he's doing business a lot of and and it's
the type of business you're doing. This is why Prince
was at war with the record labels and why he
wrote slave across his face. He was like, why did
you Why do you own something I created? I created that,
Why do you own it? What's reasonable? And again, different,
different people could have a different idea of what's quote
(02:41):
unquote reasonable. And I'm sure I don't know Taylor's exact position,
but she's like, why should I have to pay you
three hundred million dollars for something I recorded that You've
made millions and millions of dollars off of what is fair?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
What is the principle here? You know what I'll do.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'll just re record all of it and tell my
fans to listen to that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And she did, and she did.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
He said this as a music nerd, this is truly
wild s. I can't wait to read the book on this.
Her main motivation has always been Spie though, and that's
what you do when you can't rely on talent, You
make it a storyline.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
This guy's going hard on Taylor, I would disagree that
Taylor doesn't have to.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I would too. I would too.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And then later he did say that she is a
talented songwriter. Yeah, and backpedal off that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And by the way, when you have fu money, you
can take spite to a whole new level.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right and well, and that's the biggest f you was like,
you know what, keep them.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I'm going to prove that I can rewrite the same
exact song and then make more off of it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And it's not even rewrite it, it's just re recording,
recording it. Go back into the studio and re record.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
It's pretty badass.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, now I can trying to pin him down on this,
give me to tell me a little bit more, putting
him in a place to give me some really juicy answers. Yep,
And he said the business griff Side is the most
insane to me. Being a billionaire and still being that
into making money is a sickness. She still charges her
fan it's like one hundred dollars for a hoodie and
fifty for an album. If I were her, I'd be
selling that s for one dollar profit. And then he
(04:06):
sends me a link to a website called the Tortured
Poets Department variant tracker, which is her latest album, right,
and how many variants of that release it has, because
it'll get released and then it'll get re released, and
she knows that her fans will go get that absolutely.
And that's why I've always struggled with determining the business
of the band and what a band is like the
(04:26):
head of the band in her situation. But she's got
a team, and it's hard to know. And some mans
have a little more control over how they do things,
and some just say, I don't care. I do what
I do and let the label handle it. And I
just think it's interesting thing. I don't know that I
have a hard opinion. I don't know enough about.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It to know.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I think it's interesting too. Like I'll give you an example.
One of the reasons that and this is my opinion.
I've not been told this, Okay, this is my opinion.
One of the reasons everybody loves Dirk so much is
he gave up like a hundred million dollars maybe more
to stay a Maverick.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I'm willing to.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Bet Dirk's not happy he did that because now he's
in a later stage of his life, and he's a businessman,
and he's an investor, and he's all kinds of different things.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's like the whole Luca thing.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
When Luca got traded, he lost out on about seventy
million dollars he won't be able to recoup.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And people are like, well, he's already rich. Who cares.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, you can buy a lot of things with seventy
million dollars and can turn that into five hundred min
You know. It's like that idea that being rich is
a sickness.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
But let's talk about this. Maybe we'll talk about this later.
Our friend Sarah Heppela wrote a great article about mort Myerson.
You've been to the Myerson the Symphony, and he's talking
about I wish the billionaires in this city would give
back more to the city. Yeah, it's interesting. That's a
big problem with humanity right now, in my opinion. If
that guy was talking about by earlier Barry Diller. Barry
(05:55):
Diller is a billionaire. Have y'all ever been to the
high Line in New York?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I haven't.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
It's incredible. He just donated it to the city of
New York. It's this incredible. They turn an old elevated
subway thing into a thing that you could walk through
New York with all these gardens.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
We have been there.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yes, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It's so cool. He said, I'm a billionaire. Why don't
I give something like this to the community in which I.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Was just a big wage gap? Yeah? Right, the extreme on.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
It's crazy if you had all that money, think about
all the things Like, I don't know a lot about it,
but I know the Walton family have created all these
amazing bike trails and parks in the state of Arkansas.
They've made so much money off Walmart or whatever. Yeah, anyways,
I do think it's a fascinating conversation. I'm with you.
It's the Ben and Skin Show ninety seven point one
The Eagle. Let's do sports. Coming up next, we'll get
(06:46):
to the uh. We'll talk about this idea of a
sports institution going away and why I was pissed off
about it. We'll do all that next on The Eagle.
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