Taylor Swift Now Owns All Of Her Music

Taylor Swift now owns the rights to all of her music. In a letter posted to her website, the singer made the shocking announcement that she acquired the master recordings of her first six studio albums, winning a years-long battle to buy them back. The deal also included her music videos, concert films, album photography, and unreleased songs. “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” she wrote.

Swift’s original masters were previously acquired by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings when he bought her former label, Big Machine Records, in 2019. At the time, she publicly opposed the deal and committed to re-recording her first six albums, of which she would own the master recordings. She released four “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings between 2021 and 2023, including Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989.

Leading fans to her website, Swift shared photos of her with vinyls of her first six albums on social media, captioning her post, “You belong with me,” a nod to her 2008 hit. “To say that this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” she wrote in her letter, before thanking the Swifties. “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.”

But What About Reputation (TV)?

Swift had two “Taylor’s Version” albums yet to be released as part of her re-recording endeavor. For her 2006 self-titled debut and 2017 album Reputation, the latter of which was highly anticipated by fans and expected to be released next. In her letter, Swift confirmed that Reputation (TV) would not be released in its final form, due to both the new deal and personal setbacks.

“Full transparency: I hadn’t even re-recorded a quarter of it,” she admitted. “The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, the photos or the videos. So I kept putting it off.”

However, the singer still has plans for Reputation (TV)’s “Vault” tracks as well as Taylor Swift (TV). “I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now,” she revealed. “Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that’s something you guys would be excited about.”

How Much Did Taylor Pay?

Swift also thanked investment firm Shamrock Capital, which bought her catalog from Braun in 2020, for “being the first people to ever offer this to me,” calling them “honest, fair, and respectful” in negotiations. “This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams,” she wrote.

Swift did not disclose how much she paid for her music. However, a source told Variety that a report claiming Shamrock was looking to sell for $600 million was “wildly inaccurate.” Additional insiders stated that the final number was reportedly closer to $300 million, the price Shamrock initially paid for her catalog.