Taylor Swift Reclaims Control of Early Album Masters

The singer now owns the rights to her first six albums

Taylor Swift has acquired the master recordings of her first six albums – Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation – from investment firm Shamrock Capital.

How we got here:

Swift lost the opportunity to buy the master rights back in 2019 when Big Machine Label Group, which released the records and owned the masters, was acquired by Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings.
Ithaca sold the master rights to Shamrock in 2020 for $405 million.

The response:

For the past few years Swift has been re-recording her first six albums as Taylor's Versions, to which she owns the rights.
Four of the six Taylor's Versions have been released, with only Reputation and her debut to surface.
Whether those two will be released is uncertain, although Swift has promised that the extra tracks destined for each will.

The deal:

Financial details have not been revealed.
Variety reports it was a nine-figure sum.

What they said:

In a handwritten letter posted to her social media on May 30, Swift wrote: 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.
She added: I will forever be grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me.

Taylor Swift has acquired the master recordings of her first six albums – Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation – from investment firm Shamrock Capital.

How we got here:

Swift lost the opportunity to buy the master rights back in 2019 when Big Machine Label Group, which released the records and owned the masters, was acquired by Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings.
Ithaca sold the master rights to Shamrock in 2020 for $405 million.

The response:

For the past few years Swift has been re-recording her first six albums as Taylor's Versions, to which she owns the rights.
Four of the six Taylor's Versions have been released, with only Reputation and her debut to surface.
Whether those two will be released is uncertain, although Swift has promised that the extra tracks destined for each will.

The deal:

Financial details have not been revealed.
Variety reports it was a nine-figure sum.

What they said:

In a handwritten letter posted to her social media on May 30, Swift wrote: 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.
She added: I will forever be grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me.

Taylor Swift has acquired the master recordings of her first six albums – Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation – from investment firm Shamrock Capital.

How we got here:

Swift lost the opportunity to buy the master rights back in 2019 when Big Machine Label Group, which released the records and owned the masters, was acquired by Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings.
Ithaca sold the master rights to Shamrock in 2020 for $405 million.

The response:

For the past few years Swift has been re-recording her first six albums as Taylor's Versions, to which she owns the rights.
Four of the six Taylor's Versions have been released, with only Reputation and her debut to surface.
Whether those two will be released is uncertain, although Swift has promised that the extra tracks destined for each will.

The deal:

Financial details have not been revealed.
Variety reports it was a nine-figure sum.

What they said:

In a handwritten letter posted to her social media on May 30, Swift wrote: 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.
She added: I will forever be grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me.

Taylor Swift

Shamrock Capital

Big Machine Label Group

Scooter Braun

Ithaca Holdings

Artist Master Rights Reclamation

Master Rights

United States

Catalog Sales

👋 Disclosures & Transparency Block

This story was written with information sourced from Music Business Worldwide and Variety.
We covered it because of the high profile of both Swift and the copyright dispute.