Preceding the 2024 Super Bowl, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will. There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”
The 2018 Music Modernization Act updated decades-old legislation from 1976 and 1998, meaning it was a massive advance for creatives in the digital age. Guidelines and statutes protecting artists and providing them with fair income and representation in the world of streaming music were largely absent from anything prior. This act created a licensing collective, protected pre-1972 recordings, and allowed transparency in royalties and fair compensation for songwriters, essentially inflating the take-home for artists and writers.
The corporate media acted as if Trump’s claim were ridiculous. Left-wing articles were quick to discredit his claim and take the former president out of the equation entirely, with one Variety piece quoting an attorney who said, “Someone should ask him what the bill actually accomplished,” as if Trump was not aware of what he had signed into law.
Others in the industry took a much different view of the process. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Sam Moore said during the
