These ladies are winning big time, and starting with Taylor Swift, who rocked the internet this weekend with the news that she successfully won back the master recordings of her first six studio albums.

Fans of the pop megastar know that this issue has been a huge one for Swift, originating from when media venture capitalist Scooter Braun’s purchase of Big Machine Records in 2019, and with it, the rights to Swift’s first six albums. 

Denied the chance to buy back her work, Swift has since embarked on the gargantuan task to re-record six of those albums as “Taylor’s Version,” complete with bonus tracks and expanded album art that her loyal fandom supported, essentially diminishing the value of the originals. 

Braun later sold the masters to Shamrock Capital in 2020. Shamrock Capital, a private equity firm specializing in media, entertainment, and communications, ultimately struck a deal with Swift for her to purchase her original catalog directly. 

Music publishers and the music industry would refer to this landmark case for years to come, as the intricacies of it are a study that involves artist contracts, artist intellectual property rights, and artist ownership, butted against record label investments in an artist and music catalog rights. 

But yeah, Taylor Swift is happy that the original recorded masters of “Taylor Swift,” “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red,” “1989,” and “Reputation” are back where they belong: in the loving bosom of its creator.  Lorde keeps popping up in places.

The Grammy-winning music artist just released a new single titled “Man Of The Year.” Here, Lorde starts low-key, with a lone bass-synth etching out a quarter-note rhythm that eventually blossoms into a controlled sonic rage with more synths entering the aural picture. 

The serene juxtaposed against the seeming din at the outro underscores Lorde’s theme of self-realization as she sings “gliding through on my bike, gliding through/ like new from my recent ego / sirens sing overnight, violent sweet music / you met me at a really strange time in my life / take my knife and I cut the cord / my babe can’t believe I’ve become someone else, someone more like myself.”  

This stirring number, alongside the rising club track “What Was That,” she released in April, is all in preparation for her upcoming new album called “Virgin.” Apropos, since it’s been a moment since the album “Solar Power” of 2021. Just a few days ago, Lorde surprised fans when she crashed a Lorde-themed club party in Sydney.

Then there are the pop-up events at a YMCA bathroom in Auckland, New Zealand, and Washington Square in New York, where you know that Lorde is building up to something big.Los Angeles-based band HAIM is coming out with a good and catchy four-song EP, “Take Me Back.”

The sister-trio act, composed of Este on bass-guitar-vocals, Danielle on drums-guitars-vocals, and Alana on keyboards-guitars-vocals, sounds as sunny as the state they hail from. “Take Me Back” is my first taste of the sounds of HAIM (stylized from ‘hyim’, which means life in Hebrew), and I’m hooked! Sisters Danielle, Este, and Alana hail from a musical family and are proficient in their instruments and their social media.

Tunes like “Down To Be Wrong” emit a positive vibe through their alt-pop flavor. Meanwhile, numbers like “Relationships” and “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out” show off Haim’s varied sonic leanings and milieu.