What Taylor Swift really paid for her masters, revealed
Taylor Swift is finally in control of her music after a tumultuous fight to gain the masters of her first six albums.
Swift announced that she was able to buy her masters after Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings bought the record label which originally owned her albums, and sold them to Shamrock Capital in November 2020. The Grammy-winning singer was finally able to buy back her masters, but it did not come at a cheap price. According to Billboard, Swift bought back her masters for a whopping $360 million. Previous reports indicated that Swift paid $1 billion to own her music. It was also debunked that Braun was the reason behind the Shamrock sale.
'Contrary to a previous false report, there was no outside party who 'encouraged' this sale. All rightful credit for this opportunity should go to the partners at Shamrock Capital and Taylor's Nashville-based management team only,' the source told PEOPLE. 'Taylor now owns all of her music, and this moment finally happened in spite of Scooter Braun, not because of him.'
In a handwritten note posted to her official website, Swift gave insight to her fans on the journey she went through in order to obtain her masters.
'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 prayed away for a chance to get to tell you this news. All the times I was thisssss 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.'
By buying her masters, she was able to gain ownership of albums: Taylor Swift, 1989, Reputation, Red, Speak Now, and Fearless.
She added: 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty casual 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 albums, calling them Taylor's Versions. The passionate support you showed those albums and the success you found giving The Eras Tour into 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 never owned until now. All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright.'
In addition to her handwritten message she also posted a picture of herself surrounded by the six albums.
'You belong with me,' she wrote in the caption before instructing fans to head to her website for the handwritten letter. In the note she also gave fans an update on the 'Taylor's Version' of her re-recorded albums. Before she bought back her masters, she was was re-recording the albums and added additional songs onto the project.
She told fans that have been anticipating Reputation (Taylor's Version) that that album as well as her self-titled re-recording will 'have their moment to re-emerge when the time is right, if that is 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.'
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