{"id":109756,"date":"2025-09-12T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballinatimes\/?p=109756"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:07:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:07:49","slug":"the-long-road-to-reclamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballinatimes\/living\/the-long-road-to-reclamation\/","title":{"rendered":"The long road to reclamation"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARTISTS meet their audience in unexpected and often profoundly moving ways.<\/p>\n

For singer-songwriter Pete Murray, at the tail end of the most mammoth 60+ date tour of his career, it happened two weeks ago on a street in Brunswick Heads.<\/p>\n

“We were taking photos, and a woman came up to me and she was just shaking \u2013 her fianc\u00e9<\/p>\n

had just passed away and they’d only buried him the week before,” Murray said.<\/p>\n

“They had gone to my Tweed show together a couple of months ago. They had a beautiful time, and they had a special bond with my songs.<\/p>\n

“She said she’s been listening to some of my songs to help her heal. I love that my music can do that for people.”<\/p>\n

The multi-platinum-selling artist has sold over 1.2 million albums since his 2001 debut, The Game.<\/p>\n

His 2003 sophomore album Feeler cemented his status, with hits such as Better Days and So Beautiful etched into the memories of a generation.<\/p>\n

The new record, Longing, is due out on October 3, with Murray offering fans the chance to win luxury accommodation, VIP tickets and a meet and greet with the artist at his Byron Shire show.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The singer-songwriter is passionate about reclaiming his music. Photo: DAVID COPE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite the hectic touring schedule and promoting a new record, Murray has carved out the time to ‘pull a Swifty’, as he describes the reclamation of his music from his former record company.<\/p>\n

With shades of Taylor Swift, who led the charge for contemporary artists wrestling to reclaim ownership of their work, the songwriter is determined to reimagine his ownership over his material.<\/p>\n

“I’ve actually paid all the money back to the label that I owed, but I will still never own those songs, Sony does \u2013 and they own most of the earnings from them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you’re a younger artist signing to a label, you don’t realise that the master is something that you really should have because it’s what you earn a royalty from.<\/p>\n

“A musician can’t tour all the time. You need downtime from performing to write songs, practice, record, and hone your craft \u2013 and royalties are what you live on.<\/p>\n

“I’ve re-recorded around 20 songs so far, the major ones that I thought I needed to do and that I think people want to hear.<\/p>\n

“My ambition is to make the new versions as good, if not better, and hopefully people will like them even more than the originals. That’s my goal.”<\/p>\n

Murray plays Hotel Brunswick on Friday, October 3.<\/p>\n

For information and tickets, visit petemurray.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARTISTS meet their audience in unexpected and often profoundly moving ways. For singer-songwriter Pete Murray, at the tail end of the most mammoth 60+ date tour of his career, it happened two weeks ago on a street in Brunswick Heads. “We were taking photos, and a woman came up to me and she was just […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":109757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-109756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe long road to reclamation - Ballina Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pete Murray reclaims his music rights, re-recording hits while gearing up for his new album and Byron Shire show this October.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballinatimes\/living\/the-long-road-to-reclamation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The long road to reclamation - 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