Taylor Swift announces she has acquired the rights to all of her music
The 35-year-old confirmed she will release Taylor's Version re-recordings of her self-titled and Reputation albums, and also announced she has purchased the rights to all of her concert films, music videos, album art and photography, as well as unreleased songs, in an announcement on her website on Friday.
In the announcement, the singer said: '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 this 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 and then yanked away. But that's all in the past now.
'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.
'And all my music videos, all the concert films, the album art and photography, the unreleased songs, the memories, the magic, the madness, every single era, my entire life's work.
'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it.
'To my fans, you know how important this has been to me – so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released four of my albums, calling them Taylor's Version.
'The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music.
'I can't thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never my owned until now.'
The singer added that the process of gaining ownership of her work was 'honest, fair, and respectful' and said she was 'endlessly thankful' to private equity firm Shamrock Capital, which offered her the deal.
Swift also spoke about plans to release re-recordings Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version), her debut originally released in 2006, and Reputation (Taylor's Version), which was originally released in 2017.
The singer announced plans to re-record all her songs in 2019 following a dispute with retired talent manager Scooter Braun after he acquired the recordings of her first six studio albums when he bought her former label.
Though the masters changed hands again after a deal with Shamrock Capital, Swift continued with a bid to regain ownership of the music by creating new versions of the songs.
She has been re-recording of all of her albums, re-releasing them as 'Taylor's Version'.
To date Swift has released new versions of her previous albums Fearless (2008), Red (2012), Speak Now (2010) and 1989 (2014).
She has released other albums including Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Evermore (2020), Midnights (2022) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024).
Braun gained ownership of some of Swift's back catalogue in 2019 when his holding company, Ithaca Holdings, acquired her former label, Big Machine Label Group.
Swift signed with Big Machine, founded by former Universal executive Scott Borchetta, in 2005 and moved to Universal Music Group in November 2018 in a deal ensuring she maintained the rights to her work.
When Braun acquired her masters, Swift said she was 'sad' and 'grossed out' and accused the 43-year-old of being behind 'incessant, manipulative bullying'.
Braun sold the recordings to Shamrock Capital in 2020 and reports in the US suggested the deal was worth more than 300 million dollars.
Swift said before negotiations could start, Braun's team wanted her to sign an 'ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word' about him 'unless it was positive'.
She said at the time: 'So I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, and they've never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off.'
It was at this stage she confirmed she had begun the process of re-recording her old music, in a bid to gain control, saying 'it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling'.
A master recording is the original recording of a song and whoever owns it earns revenue through avenues including streaming and use in TV, film and adverts.
Swift is known for hits including Bad Blood, Love Story and Anti-Hero and has had four number one singles in the UK chart and 13 number one albums – meaning she draws level with Elvis Presley as the international artist with most UK chart-topping albums.
In December 2024 Swift finished her world wide Eras Tour with one last performance at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada.
She started her mammoth string of dates in March 2023 and travelled to UK cities including Liverpool, Cardiff and London, where she made history as the first solo artist to perform at Wembley Stadium eight times on a single tour.
Also in 2024 she became the most decorated artist in Billboard Music Awards history, with an overall haul of 49 awards, and released chart-topping album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Earlier in the year, she was crowned the global recording artist of the year for a fifth time by the IFPI – which represents the recorded music industry worldwide – after breaking records, selling out arenas and topping charts the year prior.
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Irish Examiner
14 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
‘Feels bigger than herself': the importance of Taylor Swift's latest victory
It goes without saying, but Taylor Swift has scored a lot of victories in the past few years. There was, first and foremost, the blockbuster Eras Tour, which became the bestselling concert tour of all time and a certifiable cultural era in itself. She released the bestselling concert film of all time, with a distribution model that upended the theatrical market. There was yet another album of the year Grammy. She turned the Super Bowl into the ultimate rom-com. Even with mediocre critical reviews, her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department, set more streaming records than I can count. Read More Taylor Swift announces she has acquired the rights to all of her music All of these were beyond impressive, if at times threatening overexposure and annoyingly at odds with her self-styled narrative as an underdog – the emotionally astute lyricist battling against a sliding scale of villains, from careless boys, bitchy girls and heartbreak to gossip, criticism and misogynistic double standards. Often, the targets are petty; I never want to hear a Kim Kardashian reference again. But on Friday, with the announcement that she purchased the master recordings of her first six albums, Swift notched arguably the most significant victory of her career, over the one remaining foe worthy of her stature: the artist-devaluing practices of the music industry. For those who do not follow what has become canon in Swift's massive fandom, ownership of her masters has been the animating force behind the last six years of Swift's career, ever since Scooter Braun, most famous as the music manager behind Justin Bieber, purchased them from Swift's former label Big Machine Records for $300m in 2019. Like virtually all young artists, Swift had signed a deal that did not entitle her to ownership of her recordings, just royalties from their sales. The deal 'stripped me of my life's work', Swift wrote at the time, and left her catalog 'in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it'. (Braun used to manage longtime Swift antagonizer Kanye West.) Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour. Picture: Charles McQuillan/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management For the following six years, even after Braun sold the catalog to private equity group Shamrock Capital for $360m, Swift re-recorded each album under the moniker 'Taylor's Version', a business masterstroke that at once devalued the originals, ginned up nostalgia and set the stage for the Eras Tour. The ownership of her master recordings, as well as her all her music videos, concert films, album art, photography and unreleased songs, is, in Swift's own words, deeply meaningful on a personal level. 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,' she said in a handwritten letter posted on her website to announce the acquisition. '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, the daughter of a Merrill Lynch stockbroker and forever a savvy dealmaker, also thanked Shamrock Capital for being 'the first people to ever offer this to me' and praised the private equity firm for being 'honest, fair, and respectful'.) But it is also a victory that, for once in this era, feels bigger than Swift herself. Swift owning her masters is a small step toward transparency and artistic integrity in the music industry, and one made possible by her immense wealth and power. The fact that we're even talking about ownership of master recordings, that millions of music listeners now question the business standard of recording industry contracts, is a testament to the power Swift can wield when she chooses a worthy target, even if that target often takes direct form in the figure of Braun (who, for what it's worth, said he's 'happy for her'.) 'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' Swift wrote. '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.' This is Swift in her best crusader mode – grounded in the work, clear-eyed on the stakes, speaking as a songwriter in perhaps the one arena where she remains an underdog with something to fight for. Though often overshadowed by gossip and her personal life, in ways both self-inflected and expected by a culture that loves to see women fail, her flexing of her exceptional clout over the music industry for artists rights is one of her most enduring fights. It dates back at least to an open letter to Apple Music withholding her album 1989 from the company's streaming service because it would not pay royalties to artists during the service's first three months. (Apple quickly caved.) 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It's the most strident and fair she's ever sounded, and it holds up. Even if the purchase of her masters feels a bit like settling out of court before the full trial – the re-record project remains unfinished – this is the win that could have the most salient downstream effect for both artists and people who appreciate music. Similar to how her criticism of Ticketmaster, and fan frustration over the experience of buying tickets for the Eras Tour, led to efforts to reform ticket transparency and break up the Live Nation monopoly, this is power appropriately applied upward. 'Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion,' she wrote to her fans. 'You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here.' 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Taylor Swift and Dakota Johnson enjoy night out with rarely-seen brothers Austin and Jesse in NYC
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Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
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Taylor Swift makes major announcement about her music in emotional statement
Taylor Swift has shared a major announcement about her music with her fans. The singer-songwriter issued an emotional statement today describing the news as her "greatest dream come true," whilst thanking her fanbase for their support. Taylor, 35, has shared that she now owns "all of the music" that she's ever made, including unreleased songs. It comes following years of her releasing re-recorded versions of albums from earlier in her career following a dispute over her back catalogue, which has previously made headlines. The Grammy Award winner also teased in the message on her website that re-recorded versions of her debut album Taylor Swift, from 2006, and Reputation, which came out in 2017, could still be released. She suggested that will be "when the time is right" and said they will be a "celebration". It comes after the superstar brought her record-breaking Eras Tour to Ireland last June, playing to hundreds of thousands of fans during a three-night sting in Dublin's Aviva Stadium. Sharing the news today, Taylor told fans: "All of the music I've ever made ... now belongs ... to me." She said it includes all her music videos, concert films, album art and photography, and unreleased songs. She added: "The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life's work." She said: "I'm trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slidehow. 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 this 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 and then yanked away. But that's all in the past now. I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening." Taylor added: "To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it." She said that fans know how "important" it has been to her, "so much so" that she's released re-recorded versions of four albums. She continued: "The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned the Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. I can't thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now." The artist said: "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. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me." Taylor said it had been a "business deal" to the company - who are understood to have most recently owned her masters - but she felt as though they "saw it for what it was" to her. She explained in the statement: "My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams." She also shared an update on Reputation (Taylor's Version), which fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of. Taylor said she hasn't "even re-recorded a quarter of it" yet. She didn't rule out finishing the new version though. Taylor said that album was "so specific" to a particular time in her life, adding that she "kept hitting a stopping point" when she tried to remake it. She said: "All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief." She shared: "To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it." Taylor said that she "kept putting it off" but suggested that there "will be a time," if fans want it, for the unreleased Vault tracks "to hatch". Taylor added: "I've already completely re-recorded my entire debut 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". She said it wouldn't be from a "place of sadness and longing" though now, with it instead "a celebration now". She concluded by writing: "I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their own master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen." Taylor thanked fans for their support and said: "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." The dispute over the master recordings attracted attention after now retired artist manager Scooter Braun got the rights to Taylor's first six albums in 2019 when his company Ithaca Holdings bought her former record label Big Machine Label Group. Taylor had moved away from the label, which reportedly owned the rights to her first six albums, the previous year and joined Universal Music Group. It was then announced in 2020 that her master recordings had been sold to investment firm Shamrock Holdings.
