Scott Borchetta took something of a career gamble when he quit the comfort of a senior vice president role at Universal Nashville in 2005 to set up his own label.

But any doubts about whether he had made the right decision were soon put to bed when the newly-launched Big Machine signed its first ever act: superstar-in-waiting Taylor Swift.

“That was a good day,” Borchetta remembers, talking to Music Week about first seeing and quickly signing the then 14-year-old after ...