Taylor Swift has not become the biggest celebrity on the planet by playing it safe. Rather, her career has been a series of enormous risks that have paid off in seemingly the best possible way. Her risk-taking nature didn’t start when the checks started to roll in, instead, it started before she even signed a record deal. Particularly, when she denied her first ever record deal.
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Like everyone else, Taylor Swift moved to Nashville as a spry dreamer just looking to get her foot in the door. Though, when she got that opportunity, she turned it away because as an artist she knows exactly what she was worth. Funny enough though, the record label she turned down was the biggest in Nashville—RCA Records.
Taylor Swift Knew She Was Worth More Than a Developmental Deal
When Taylor Swift was 14-years-old she impressed the executives at RCA Records. Though, she seemingly didn’t impress them enough, as Swift was not given the deal she thought she deserved. She told NBC in an interview, “They said that they wanted to sign me to a development deal” and “You know, they don’t wanna sign you to an actual record deal or put an album out on you. They wanna watch your progress for a year.”
Given the volatility of these types of deals, Taylor Swift knew this deal was not for her and she also knew that if she walked, she’d surely get a better offer. Regarding her denied offer, Swift also divulged, “They wanted to shelf me” and “Keep me in development till I was probably about 18. So I walked away from the biggest record label in Nashville.”
This of course did not deter Swift from pursuing her dreams, as after she denied RCA’s deal, she met and signed with the then start-up record label, Big Machine Records. Swift recalled about executive Scott Borchetta, “He didn’t have a name for it. He didn’t have a building for it. And he didn’t have a staff for it. But he had a dream, and would I go on board” and “I went with my gut instinct which– which just said, say yes.”
So, at 15-years-old, Taylor Swift signed with the label and stayed with them for 13 years. During her time with the label, she released her hit songs “Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops On My Guitar,” and “Love Story.” She left the label in 2018.
Photo by Kevin Winter/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
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