Taylor: next time, read the contract you’re about to sign.
Had she read the contract and said, "Thanks but no thanks. I'll publish my own music." she might've been the next Ani DiFranco. Forty nine years old, 20 albums, and a net worth of $10 million. Maybe. If she was very, very lucky. Or she might've instead gone off to Ivy League, joined a sorority, graduated with a Mrs. Degree and married a hedge fund investor like all of her gentry class friends did.
But you can guarantee that if she had said no to that contract, she would not have become one of the biggest entertainers in the history of pop music.
That's the kafkaesque predicament she's found herself in. The contract that would make her famous would be the same contract that would eventually cause her to lose the rights to her songs.