Taylor Swift regains ownership of masters in landmark deal
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually pretty reserved about it,” Swift said in a message.
WASHINGTON — Taylor Swift has regained control over her full music catalog.
The pop superstar shared a heartfelt message on her website Friday announcing that she has regained full ownership of her master’s recordings, music videos, concert films, album art, photography and unreleased songs. The deal, made with Shamrock Capital, marks the end of a years-long battle over the rights to many of her early albums.
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually pretty reserved about it,” Swift said in the message on her website. “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy.”
Swift thanked Shamrock Capital, the Los Angeles-based investment firm that most recently owned her masters, for offering them back to her. She joked that her first tattoo “might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however, sources told Billboard that the price was close to the $360 million Shamrock paid in 2020 when it acquired the rights from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
Braun initially purchased Swift’s masters in 2019 when he purchased Big Machine Label Group, the label that released her first six albums.
Swift said she had not been informed of the sale and expressed her frustration that Braun was who owned her music.
“I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she wrote in a 2019 Tumblr post.
She added she had previously tried to buy her masters and own her work, but was only offered the chance to “earn” them back one at a time by signing a new deal with Big Machine, which she declined.
“This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge,” Swift said in a 2020 statement, when Shamrock acquired her catalog from Braun. While the firm expressed interest in working with her, Swift declined, citing Braun’s continued financial involvement in the deal.
Instead, Swift began releasing re-recordings of her albums, referring to each project as “Taylor’s Version.” Starting with “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021, she also released new versions of “Red,” “Speak Now” and “1989,” with many outperforming the original albums in sales and streaming.
To date, only two albums remained unreleased as re-recordings, her 2006 self-titled debut and her 2017 “Reputation” project.
While fans had been speculating that Swift would soon release “Reputation (Taylor’s Version),” Swift revealed in Friday’s message that she hasn’t “even re-recorded a quarter of it.” She did, however, confirm that she has completed the re-recording of her debut album and shared that she may release it one day if fans are interested, along with unreleased tracks from “Reputation.” But this time, the release won’t be “from a place of sadness and longing” but as a “celebration.”
Since leaving Big Machine, Swift has also released five studio albums under Republic Records – “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department.”
While Swift may finally own her music, her public battle for her ownership has had a lasting impact on the music industry’s conversations of artists’ rights.
“Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen,” Swift wrote.