This is the emotional reason why Taylor Swift sends Kelly Clarkson flowers after every release

Like everyone involved in the music industry, Taylor Swift knows that it’s not always plain sailing. She’s been through tough times as well as the good and for that reason, is grateful to one particular person for helping her navigate a very difficult period in her career.

Taylor Swift and the cut-throat music industry

The music business is notoriously exploitative, no matter who you are. In June 2019, Ithaca Holdings LLC, owned by Scooter Braun, announced a $300 million takeover of Big Machine Label Group, Swift’s first record label, who she signed with in 2005.  The move meant that Ithaca Holdings would own the rights to Taylor’s entire back catalog – every song she had released on her first six studio albums, from her 2006 self-titled debut to 2017’s Reputation.

At the time, the singer expressed her feelings about losing the rights to her own songs on her Tumblr page: “For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, [Big Machine founder] Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.

I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums. Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. This is what happens when you sign a deal at 15 to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept“.

Kelly Clarkson comes up with a solution for Taylor Swift

However, there was something she could do about it that would ensure she wouldn’t lose out completely. And a few words of advice from Kelly Clarkson helped Taylor out of a fix. Posting a tweet in July 2019, Clarkson suggested that Taylor should re-record and re-release her old material.

Big Machine owned the master tapes of the original recordings of her first six albums but when Swift signed a new contract, she made sure that she had control and ownership of her future masters.  That is precisely what Swift has done since moving to a new label (Republic), faithfully reproducing her old songs in the popular, new “Taylor’s version” releases.

And she’s eternally grateful to Clarkson for guiding her in that direction, and remembers to send her a thank you gift every time she puts out a new record.  “You know what’s so funny? She just sent me flowers,” Clarkson exclusively revealed to E! News. “She’s so nice. She did. She was like, ‘Every time I release something’—‘cause she just did 1989. I got that really cute cardigan, too. I love how kind she is though. She’s a very smart businesswoman. So, she would have thought of that. But it just sucks when you see artists that you admire and you respect really wanting something and it’s special to them. You know if they’re going to find a loophole, you find a loophole. And she did it and literally is, like, the best-selling artist I feel like of all-time now“.