Taylor Swift buys back early albums after yearslong crusade
SUPERSTAR singer-songwriter Taylor Swift re-acquired the rights to her first six albums, ending a long campaign to gain control of the music from her early years.
The deal announced on her website Friday marks the end of a battle between Swift, her former record label Big Machine Label Group, music manager Scooter Braun and the private equity firm Shamrock Capital, which had acquired the albums. After losing control of the master recordings of her earlier work, the singer re-recorded some of the songs in an effort to undercut the originals' popularity.
'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually to be pretty reserved about it,' she wrote in the statement. '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.'
While Swift wrote the songs on her first six albums, Big Machine owned the actual recordings that made her famous. The label sold those to Braun's Ithaca Holdings LLC in June 2019, as part of a larger deal. After Swift spoke out about her lack of approval of the deal, Ithaca Holdings sold those rights to Shamrock for about $300 million.
'We are thrilled with this outcome and so happy for Taylor!,' Shamrock posted on its Linkedin page. 'I am happy for her,' Braun said in a separate statement Friday.
Swift's re-recordings, dubbed 'Taylor's Version,' were massively successful and gave her fans the choice to side with her in a battle over the rights to her songs. She didn't share how much she paid to obtain ownership in this new deal.
The singer said she now controls all of her life's work, including photography, album art, videos and unreleased songs.
'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' she 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.' –BLOOMBERG
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Taylor Swift buys back early albums after yearslong crusade
SUPERSTAR singer-songwriter Taylor Swift re-acquired the rights to her first six albums, ending a long campaign to gain control of the music from her early years. The deal announced on her website Friday marks the end of a battle between Swift, her former record label Big Machine Label Group, music manager Scooter Braun and the private equity firm Shamrock Capital, which had acquired the albums. After losing control of the master recordings of her earlier work, the singer re-recorded some of the songs in an effort to undercut the originals' popularity. 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually to be pretty reserved about it,' she wrote in the statement. '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.' While Swift wrote the songs on her first six albums, Big Machine owned the actual recordings that made her famous. The label sold those to Braun's Ithaca Holdings LLC in June 2019, as part of a larger deal. After Swift spoke out about her lack of approval of the deal, Ithaca Holdings sold those rights to Shamrock for about $300 million. 'We are thrilled with this outcome and so happy for Taylor!,' Shamrock posted on its Linkedin page. 'I am happy for her,' Braun said in a separate statement Friday. Swift's re-recordings, dubbed 'Taylor's Version,' were massively successful and gave her fans the choice to side with her in a battle over the rights to her songs. She didn't share how much she paid to obtain ownership in this new deal. The singer said she now controls all of her life's work, including photography, album art, videos and unreleased songs. 'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' she 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.' –BLOOMBERG
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Taylor Swift performs on stage during 'The Eras Tour' at the Hard Rock stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, October 18, 2024. Swift, who has been publicly feuding with record executives since 2019 over the rights to her early music, now owns her entire catalogue, she said on her website May 30, 2025. — Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP Pop sensation Taylor Swift, who was locked in a feud with record executives since 2019 over ownership of her music, has bought back the rights to her entire back catalog, she said Friday. "All of the music I've ever made... now belongs... to me," she wrote on her website, after years of disputes over her first six albums, a number of which she rerecorded to create copies she owns herself. "To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it," she wrote in the letter to her devoted followers. "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." Those records included the award-winning Reputation and Taylor Swift . Swift bought back her masters from Shamrock Capital, an LA investment firm, for an undisclosed amount. The re-recording power move came in the wake of public sparring with industry mogul Scooter Braun, her one-time manager whose company had purchased her previous label and gained a majority stake in her early work. He later sold Swift's master rights to the private equity company. Taylor Swift performs at Wembley Stadium as part of her Eras Tour June 21, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File) 'This fight' "The situation left Swift publicly incensed: I just feel that artistes should own their work," she said in 2019. "She's a vocal advocate for artistes' rights," Ralph Jaccodine, a professor at the Berklee College of Music, told AFP previously. "She's built her own brand." Before her public efforts to regain control of her work, Prince, George Michael, Jay-Z and Kanye West all also fought for control of their masters – one-of-a-kind source material that dictate how songs are reproduced and sold – but none had gone so far as to re-record them completely. The queen of pop, whose recent nearly two-year-long, US$2bil Eras tour shattered records, said that she was heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry. Swift's lucrative tour which wrapped last year was a showbusiness sensation, and will have helped offset the costs of buying back her catalog. The 149 shows across the world typically clocked in at more than three hours long each. Tour tickets sold for sometimes exorbitant prices and drew in millions of fans, along with many more who didn't get in and were willing to simply sing along from the parking lot. "Every time a new artiste 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 this to happen," Swift said in her letter. – AFP
