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Taylor Swift has officially regained rights to the masters of her first six albums, a career milestone that she has fought to achieve for several years. On Friday, May 30, the Grammy-winning songstress made the announcement to her fans via a heartfelt letter on her official website.
As per The Guardian, Swift's longstanding battle to gain ownership of her music started in 2019, when Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings bought her record label, Big Machine Records. Braun's company sold them to Shamrock Capital in 2020. Now, Swift has reportedly signed a deal with Shamrock Capital to acquire rights to her first six albums, i.e., Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation.
According to Billboard, Swift paid around $360 million to Shamrock Capital to acquire rights to the first six studio albums of her career. The amount is close to what Ithaca Holdings reportedly paid when they purchased Big Machine Records in 2019, i.e., $300 million. As per Billboard, Swift's music catalog accounted for at least half of that amount.
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Swift's letter to fans further elaborates on the details of the acquisition, revealing that she now owns the music videos, concert films, album art, photography, and the unreleased songs in addition to the masters.
"To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it. To my fans, you know how important this has been to me - so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor's Version," she added.
The Fearless songstress also expressed gratitude to Shamrock Capital, claiming that they were the first entity to offer her the opportunity to buy the masters.
"I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me. The way they have handled every interaction we've had has been honest, fair and respectful. 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," claimed Swift.
In the end, she quipped about getting the word "Shamrock" inked on her forehead.
Taylor Swift opens up about the fate of Reputation (Taylor's Version) in her letter to fans
Taylor Swift addressed the fate of Reputation (Taylor's Version) in her lengthy letter to fans. The 14-time Grammy winner started re-releasing old studio albums in 2021 in an attempt to reclaim ownership of her art. To date, she has re-released 'Taylor's Versions' of Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989.
Reputation and Taylor Swift are the only two entries that don't have a re-released version from among her first six albums. Fans became especially excited about Reputation (Taylor's Version) after its single, Look What You Made Me Do, was featured in a recent episode of the Hulu drama The Handmaid's Tale.
The songstress addressed the speculation in her letter to fans, revealing that she hasn't even finished recording a quarter of the album.
"What about Rep TV? Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it. 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. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief," she wrote.
According to Swift, Reputation was the only album from her first six LPs that couldn't be improved further.
"To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in the first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch," Swift added.
As a silver lining for fans, she revealed that she has finished re-recording her eponymous album. The songstress opined that both albums may still have moments to shine "when the time is right."
