This summer has been a whirlwind for me. After reclaiming the rights to my award-winning bookย Chained Birds, I took the leap into indie publishing. Itโs been a liberating experienceโone thatโs pushed me to explore new platforms and opportunities, like making my audiobook available on Spotify. Yes,ย Chained Birdsย is now streaming on the same platform whereย Taylor Swiftโsย chart-topping hits live. And while Iโm not exactly shaking off an arena full of fans, I canโt help but feel a connection to Taylorโs journey.
Let me explain.
Fighting for Creative Rights: The Taylor Swift Connection
If youโve followed Taylor Swiftโs career, you know sheโs more than just a pop superstar and theย number one streaming artist on Spotify (she just hit over 109 billion streams). Sheโs a fierce advocate for artistsโ rights. Years ago, she famously stood up to Spotify, pulling her music from the platform because of concerns over unfair royalties. It was a bold move, sparking conversations about how creators were compensated in the streaming era.
Fast-forward to today, and Taylorโs music is back on Spotifyโbut on her terms. This year, she won her years-long, very public fight to reclaim the rights to all of her music. Her strategy involved re-recording and re-releasing the โTaylorโs Versionโ of her early albums, and her victory is a masterclass in creative ownership for artists everywhere.
Taylor’s Battle
Taylor began her battle for control of her music catalog in 2019 when her former record label, Big Machine Records, was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. The sale included the master recordings of her first six albumsโmusic that defined her careerโwithout her consent. Despite attempts to negotiate, Taylor was only offered the chance to “earn back” one album at a time by recording new ones, a deal she called unfair and unacceptable
Rather than backing down, Taylor took a groundbreaking approach. Leveraging her publishing rights as the songwriter, she began re-recording her early albums and releasing them as โTaylorโs Version.โ This strategy not only allowed her to reclaim control and devalue the original masters but also gave her Swifties fans a fresh reason to celebrate her music. The re-recordings, which include unreleased โFrom the Vaultโ tracks, were wildly successful, often outselling the originals.
At the end of May 2025, Taylor announced she had finally acquired her original mastersโa victory for herself and a watershed moment for creators everywhere.
Learning from Taylor
What strikes me most about Taylorโs story is how she turned a moment of loss into an opportunity for creative reinvention. She didnโt just re-record her albums; she added unreleased tracks, connected with her fans in new ways, and sparked a larger conversation about artistsโ rights.
I took a page from this. After Swift’s May announcement that she’d regained control of all of her music, I opened a dialogue with my former publisher, WildBlue Press, to have my Chained Birds rights reverted to me. I think my request took the press owners by surprise, but in the end, we worked out a deal and had an amicable split. Reasons I wanted my rights back included disappointing sales, lack of marketing and interest, etc.โtypical grievances for authors who go this route. (I wrote about this friendly divorce in my first Substack newsletter last month.)
After my rights reversion was complete in July, I followed Taylor’s lead and re-released an “Author’s Cut” version of Chained Birds with new features. The eBook and print versions now contain over 20 new photos, sketches, and prison artwork, offering readers a value-add that wasn’t there before. Additionally, at the end of all new editions of Chained Birds, I’ve included a sneak peek of my next true crime book, The Jacklighterโsomething that couldn’t have happened (like being on Spotify) if I hadn’t taken back control of my work. I’ve already heard from some new readers who appreciate this extra material, most of which is artwork created by Kevin Sanders, the federal inmate at the heart of the story.
A Final Note
Obviously, I’m not in Taylor Swift’s league, but I do feel a similar sense of triumph in regaining my rights as an artist. Every time someone listens to Chained Birds on Spotify or picks up a copy, itโs a reminder that I took back control of my creative work and gave it a new life.
As Taylor said in a letter posted to her websiteย in May, โAll of the music Iโve ever made โฆ now belongs โฆ to me.โ
I may only have one book under my belt (for now!), but I know exactly how she feelsย ๐ฅน
Carla Conti is a journalist and the award-winning author of Chained Birds: A Crimemoir. Her next true crime book, The Jacklighter, is set for release in 2026. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who supports her true crime habit.
