05/30/2025
Taylor Swift has announced she has regained full ownership of the master recordings for her first six albums, along with associated music videos, concert films, album art, and unreleased songs, by purchasing them from Shamrock Capital. While the exact purchase price was not disclosed by Swift, industry sources reported the deal to be approximately $360 million, which is close to what Shamrock Capital paid for the catalog in 2020. This acquisition concludes a six-year dispute that began in 2019 when Swift’s catalog was sold by Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, followed by Shamrock’s purchase in 2020. Swift, who began releasing “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings to reclaim control, has already released four re-recorded albums: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version),” “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” all of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. She confirmed that her debut album, “Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version),” is fully re-recorded, but “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” is less than a quarter complete, with Swift noting it was challenging to remake due to its specific nature to that period of her life. Both the original and re-recorded versions of her music will remain available to fans. Scooter Braun was not involved in the recent transaction, which was facilitated by Shamrock and Swift’s management, and Braun has stated he is “happy for her.” Swift has expressed that this achievement is her “greatest dream come true” and hopes her journey inspires other artists to negotiate for ownership of their master recordings.
