Taylor Swift Reclaims Original Master Recordings Of First Six Albums

Taylor Swift has just announced that she’s acquired full ownership of the original master recordings of her first six albums.

The surprising news comes as a result of the pop superstar’s acquisition of her masters from Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm that originally purchased the recordings from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in November of 2020. Sources have confirmed to Billboard that Swift was able to regain ownership of her original master recordings for a price that was close to what Shamrock had paid for it five years ago, with the value being reported to be an estimated USD 360 million (a little over Php 20 billion).

Together with the announcement, Swift penned a heartfelt message to her fans that was posted to her official website, expressing her gratitude and exhileration at being able to own what she has deemed as her “entire life’s work.” As a result of acquiring her original master recordings, she now also has full ownership of every music video, concert film, album artwork, and photography, and unreleased songs from every era that comprise her self-titled album, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation.

The handwritten letter also gave updates on the status of her remaining two Taylor’s Version re-recording projects, with the pop icon being candid in admitting that Reputation has barely even been re-recorded. Though less than a quarter of it has been worked on, she cites the reasons for the difficulty in recapturing the personal aspects of what made the original version so personal to her, even stating how “it’s the one album that couldn’t be improved by redoing it.” However, Swift also noted that the re-recording process of her eponymous debut album has already been completed –– saying “I really love how it sounds now.”

The saga surrounding Swift’s original masters goes all the way back to 2019, when Braun’s Ithaca Holdings purchased Big Machine Label Group, which owned the master recordings of Swift’s first six albums for an estimated amount of USD 300 million (around Php 16.7 billion). Since then, the pop superstar has expressed her disappointment at all parties involved for excluding her from the conversation and the shuffling of her masters without her knowledge. When Shamrock purchased the masters from Ithaca back in 2020, she once again was not involved in the process –– even stating at the time, “This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge.”

Since then, Swift began her re-recording project that kicked off with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) back in April 2021. The resounding success and support from fans and industry peers alike inspired her to continue the endeavor with Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021, alongside Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which were both released in 2023.

Each of these re-recorded albums topped the Billboard 200 upon their release, outperforming their original counterparts in both streaming and sales metrics.

Read through the entirety of Taylor Swift’s letter below:

“Hi.

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 pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news. All this time, I was this close, reaching 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.

And all my music videos. And the concert films. The album art and photography. The unreleased songs. The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My life’s entire work.

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 that I meticulously re-recorded and released 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor’s Version. 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. I can’t thank you enough for helping me to reunite with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have 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 with no strings attached, no partnership with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me. The way they’ve handled every interaction we’ve ever had has been honest, fair, and respectful. This was a business deal to them, but I feel like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams. I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might be a shamrock in the middle of my forehead.

I know, I know. 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. 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, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for those unreleased vault tracks to hatch.

I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now. Those 2 albums can still have their moment to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about. But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness or longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.

I’m extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen. Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You’ll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it has counted and ended us up here.

Thanks to your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine…finally actually are.

Elated and amazed,

Taylor.”