Why Don't Artists Like Taylor Swift Own Their Music Masters?

Taylor Swift has been re-recording old songs as a way to gain ownership of her music after Scooter Braun purchased them.

Over the past year, several musicians have made noise by either selling off or intentionally devaluing their master recordings. 

Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young are some of the biggest artists who made headlines for selling off their musical catalogs. On the other end of the spectrum, there's Taylor Swift who has topped the charts with the release of re-recordings of her old songs as a way to gain ownership of her music. 

So what does it mean to have ownership of a part or all of an artist's work?