Taylor Swift Buys Back Rights to Her First Six Albums Years After Scooter Braun Drama
Taylor Swift has announced that she has acquired her catalog for her six first albums in a deal with Shamrock Capital, re-uniting the superstar with her work six years after the original sale to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings sparked one of the most infamous disputes in the modern music business.
On Friday, the singer-songwriter shared a handwritten letter to her fans on her website, revealing the big news. Financial details of the acquisition weren't disclosed.
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'Hi. I'm trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow. A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news. All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiiiis close , reaching out for it, only for it to fall through. I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled then yanked away. But that's all in the past now,' Swift wrote. 'I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: All of the music I've ever made… now belongs… to me.'
The news follows a years-long feud with Scooter Braun after he originally acquired Big Machine Records and her catalog of master recordings at the time. Ithaca sold Swift's catalog to Shamrock in 2020 for a reported $300 million. In the letter, Swift said she was 'endlessly thankful' to Shamrock for making the deal.
'This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what was to me: my memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams,' Swift wrote.
When reacting to the news of Braun's acquisition back in 2019, Swift described the sale as her 'worst case scenario' and revealed that she asked Big Machine's Scott Borchetta for years 'for a chance to own' her work, but had instead only been given 'the opportunity to sign back up at Big Machine Records and 'earn' one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.'
'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 said at the time. 'Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy… Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.'
Since the Big Machine purchase and Swift deal to Shamrock, Braun sold his Ithaca to Hybe, home to BTS, and he became the CEO of Hybe America, subsequently stepping away from artist management. On Friday, Braun told The Hollywood Reporter that he's 'happy for her.'
The singer confirmed in 2019 that she would re-record her songbook to own her masters. She has since re-recorded and released Fearless (Taylor's Version), Red (Taylor's Version), Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version). The Taylor's Version strategy became immensely successful, as each release became major moments themselves, with 1989 (Taylor's Version) outselling the original album in first week sales and becoming one of the best-sellers of the year. The only two albums left in her catalog yet to be released as a re-recording are Reputation and her debut album.
In her letter Friday, Swift said she had already completely re-recorded her debut album, but that 'I haven't even re-recorded a quarter' of Reputation (Taylor's Version).
'There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch,' Swift wrote. 'I've already completely re-recorded my album, and I really love how it sounds now. Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about. But if it happens, it won't be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.'
Her later albums beginning with 2019's Lover and onwards have been released through Universal Music Group's Republic Records, with Swift owning the rights to the master recordings.
'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' Swift wrote Friday. '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.
'Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion,' Swift continued. 'You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted, and ended us up here. Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.'Best of The Hollywood Reporter
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