Taylor Swift Recounts The Life-Changing Call From Her Mother About Reclaiming Her Music
Taylor Swift finally told the story of how she found out that she gained the rights back to her first six albums.
In late May, Swift took to social media to announce that she holds the rights to Taylor Swift, Speak Now, Fearless, Red, 1989 and reputation. This meant that the "Fortnight" singer owns every single recording, music video, concert film and the art that comes with it.
Back in 2019, Swift revealed that she did not own the master recordings of her first six albums anymore because they were sold to music executive Scooter Braun when he acquired her former label, Big Machine Records. In response, she announced plans to re-record all six albums to reclaim control of her music. Between 2021 and 2023, the 35-year-old singer released "Taylor's Version" re-recordings of four out of six albums, each featuring "From the Vault" tracks, which are songs written and recorded during the original sessions but left off the albums at the time.
On Wednesday, the singer made a guest appearance on her boyfriend Travis Kelce's podcast New Heights, which he co-hosts with his brother and former NFL player, Jason Kelce, where she revealed her heartwarming reaction.
"I thought about not owning my music every day. It was an intrusive thought I had every day," Swift admitted. "A couple months after the Super Bowl in Kansas City, I get a call from my mom. She's like, 'You got your music!' I very dramatically hit the floor for real. Bawling my eyes out, weeping, like 'Really!?'"
Swift also recalled the moment when she told Kelce the exciting news.
"I said to myself, 'Go tell Travis in a normal way,'" she recalled. "He was playing video games, and he put his headset down. I was like, 'I got my music back!' and I was heaving crying."
The "Cruel Summer" singer regained ownership of her master recordings from Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm that bought them from Braun's Ithaca Holdings in 2020. They reportedly sold them back to Swift for a price close to the $360 million they originally paid, according to Billboard.
"This changed my life," Swift added.
It was also announced on Wednesday that Swift's new era and her twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released on all streaming platforms starting October 3. The record is set to have 12 songs, including a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter.
Fans can watch the latest New Heights podcast episode featuring Swift on YouTube, or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible and Wondery.Taylor Swift Recounts The Life-Changing Call From Her Mother About Reclaiming Her Music first appeared on Parade on Aug 14, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From otters to sourdough, everything we learned about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's romance on the 'New Heights' podcast
Swift appeared on the Aug. 13 episode of 'New Heights' alongside Kelce and his brother, Jason. They're not fighting the alchemy. Taylor Swift appeared on boyfriend Travis Kelce's podcast New Heights to talk about her new album The Life of a Showgirl, and over the course of the episode, also gave fans major insight into their relationship of more than two years. This is the first time that Swift has appeared on New Heights, which Kelce hosts with his brother Jason. But it's not surprising that Swift and Kelce flaunted their love on the mic: the two have hardly been shy about how much they care for each other, with plenty of paparazzi photos documenting their PDA at events like the U.S. Open and the Super Bowl. Just this week, Kelce gushed over his girlfriend in an interview for GQ. Swift, meanwhile, has brought Kelce into the fold on the Eras Tour, shouting him out as 'the guy on the Chiefs' in her song 'Karma' and even performing alongside him for a special version of 'I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.' Yet the New Heights podcast — the most-watched in the podcast's history at 10 million views on YouTube alone — gave nearly two hours of Swelce content, revealing more about their relationship than ever before. Here's what we learned: The friendship bracelet saga Swift and Kelce's romance began after the NFL player attended the Kansas City stop of the Eras Tour in July 2023. Kelce was enamored with Swift following her performance, and was disappointed that he couldn't meet up with her after the show in order to give her a friendship bracelet he made her — something he spoke about on New Heights back in July 2023. On her episode of New Heights, Swift teased that Kelce 'threw a tantrum' — despite not even reaching out to her management about securing a meeting. 'This dude didn't get a meet and greet and he's making it everyone's problem, that's what I thought at first,' Swift joked. But after the podcast aired, Swift said she started hearing from mutual friends that Kelce was actually a good guy, prompting her to schedule a meetup. 'I was like, if this guy isn't crazy — which is a big if,' she said, 'this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.' Kelce supported Swift when she got her masters back On New Heights, Swift spoke about her long journey to gain ownership over her masters, something that she's wanted for her entire music career. When she received the phone call from her mother Andrea Swift that said she was finally able to purchase her masters, Swift went to Kelce crying. Kelce, apparently, also had an emotional reaction. 'I started crying, too,' Kelce said on the podcast, to which Swift added, 'You were weeping.' 'I was just so happy for you, because I've seen, I've seen how you make music. I've seen how you make these videos,' he explained. Swift loves to bake for Kelce — and the whole family Swift joked that she gets into a new baking obsession 'every six months' — and that the Kelce family reaps the benefits. She sent Kelce sourdough loafs while the athlete was at training camp, and also made a funfetti sourdough bread for Kelce's brother and New Heights co-host Jason Kelce's four daughters. 'We put sprinkles in everything when we hang out,' Swift said. 'She's a loafer for life now,' Kelce joked. Kelce loves otters The couple admitted that the internet can be a tough place, given how many people want to weigh in on their lives — but it's also a beautiful one, because 'Travis shows me videos of otters on his Instagram algorithm,' Swift said. 'I want a wild otter so bad,' Kelce said. Kelce's heard the 'bangers' on Unsurprisingly, Kelce has already heard The Life of a Showgirl, and loves the new album, which he called a 'complete 180' from a lot of the songs on her previous album The Tortured Poets Department. 'I've been fortunate enough to hear every single song on here, so I know they're all 12 bangers,' he said. 'It's a lot more upbeat, and it's a lot more like fun pop, like excitement.' Swift and Kelce tune out the noise around their relationship While many people have commented — and speculated — about the state of her and Kelce's romance, Swift told Jason on the podcast that she tries to stay tuned out of the noise online. 'Anything you feed your brain, it will internalize,' Swift said. 'Anything you feed the internet, it will kill. I've been in the music industry for 20 years — it's pretty hard to hurt my feelings.' Kelce admitted he was worried about some of the 'wacko theories' that emerged when they first started dating, and was concerned it could 'screw up' his romance with Swift. 'Her being so calm, cool, collected and so just real and understanding about everything that's going on really made me grow up real fast in that, in that aspect of things,' he said. Swift also shared that Kelce's ability to laugh off comments online has helped her shake them off, too. 'I think the fact that you genuinely find a lot of online discourse to be truly hilarious, that changes things for me,' she said. 'If he's seeing things and he thinks it's funny and it doesn't even affect his day at all, that's really completely bled into the way that I metabolize these things.' Solve the daily Crossword


Forbes
3 minutes ago
- Forbes
‘Highest 2 Lowest': Are Rotten Tomatoes Reviews High On Denzel Washington Film?
Highest 2 Lowest —Denzel Washington's latest film with director Spike Lee — is new in theaters this weekend. How are Rotten Tomatoes critics reacting to crime drama? Rated R, Highest 2 Lowest opens in limited release on Friday. The official summary for the film reads, 'When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the 'best ears in the business'' is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. 'Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City.' Highest 2 Lowest, which staged its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes International Film Festival in May, also stars Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera and Wendell Pierce. As of Thursday, Rotten Tomatoes critics have collectively given Highest 2 Lowest a 92% 'fresh' rating based on 92 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for the film reads, 'Spike Lee and Denzel Washington remix a classic with vibrantly contemporary results in Highest 2 Lowest, a swaggering thriller that lovingly showcases New York City.' The RT audience summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings is still pending. What Are Individual Critics Saying About 'Highest 2 Lowest'? Steve Pond of The Wrap is among the top critics on RT who gives Highest 2 Lowest a 'fresh' review on RT, writing, 'Highest 2 Lowest is a mixture of gleaming, professional filmmaking and curious choices. It's a showcase for a classic powerhouse, [Denzel] Washington, and an upstart one, A$AP Rocky.' Robert Daniels of is also high on Highest 2 Lowest, writing in his 'fresh' RT review summary, 'Unabashedly epic, fearlessly funny, and proudly Black, Highest 2 Lowest might derive from a Japanese filmmaker. But its soul clearly resides in [Spike] Lee." Also alluding to Spike Lee's direction of Highest 2 Lowest in his RT review summary is David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter, who writes, 'The director is in the role of the flashy, panache-y showman here, and he plays it to perfection, delivering a big, highly polished chunk of movie that's pure enjoyment.' Lindsey Bahr of The Associated Press also gives the film a 'fresh' review on RT, but has some reservations, writing, 'Highest 2 Lowest may not reach the heights of some of Lee's best films, but it's the kind film that makes you hope Lee and Washington have more to make together.' John Bleasdale of Time Out is one of the two top critics on RT who have given Highest 2 Lowest a 'rotten' rating to date, writing, '[Spike] Lee has made stunningly good crime thrillers – Clockers and 25th Hour – but like his protagonist, here he appears to be struggling to stay relevant and still use his own unique voice.' Tim Grierson of Screen International is the other top critic on RT who gives Highest 2 Lowest a 'rotten' rating, writing, 'Ultimately, the picture's energetic swirl comes across as slightly hollow, its barrage of themes and impulses never finding harmony.' Highest 2 Lowest opens in limited release in theaters on Friday.


USA Today
4 minutes ago
- USA Today
Should 'New Heights' YouTube glitch concern NFL ahead of Chiefs-Chargers Week 1 game?
Taylor Swift's appearance on the "New Heights" podcast led to more than 1 million concurrent viewers on YouTube. The video feed on the platform abruptly ended about one hour and 45 minutes into the stream, which left many confused, since the show had a timestamp of more than two hours. The issue was resolved, but with the NFL and YouTube streaming the Week 1 game in Brazil between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 5, it begged the question: should the NFL be concerned about YouTube's capability to stream a game to a worldwide audience that will command far more than one million viewers at once? It's not an unfamiliar situation for the league. Last season, as the first-ever NFL games aired live on Netflix set for Christmas Day approached, the streaming service also faced questions about the streaming capabilities in the wake of the issues viewers experienced during the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight. Netflix had roughly one month to figure out the issues and largely aced the test, with hardly any complaints throughout the two games (and a Beyoncé live halftime performance). YouTube does provide the NFL Sunday Ticket Package and many people watch the league through YouTubeTV. But those are premium, subscription-based services with a number of viewers the company – owned by Google – is now accustomed to. (The tech issues for Sunday Ticket during the 2023 season certainly irked fans.) The scale of the Chiefs-Chargers game will exponentially increase the viewership numbers compared to those products, especially since the game is free to watch. A spokeswoman from Google confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that it was not a YouTube issue that led to the glitch. After the calamities of the Paul-Tyson fight, Netflix addressed its issues in connecting its backup servers – utilized to account for the heightened traffic on the platform – with the countless internet service providers (ISPs) throughout the world. Worth noting is that millions of people will be using YouTube simultaneously not for the purposes of watching the AFC West matchup, which could also strain streaming capacity. The NFL would not have handed out exclusive rights to YouTube – financial terms have not been disclosed but its almost certainly in the nine-figure range after NBCUniversal paid more than $100 million to air the first-ever game in Brazil in 2024 on Peacock – if the league didn't think the company could pull it off without issue. Ultimately, YouTube corrected the "New Heights" issue and fans had their "Tayvis" moment. But come Week 1, the company won't have that leeway.