Taylor Swift Officially Regains Ownership of Her Early Catalog
On May 30, 2025, Taylor Swift announced that she now owns the master recordings of her first six studio albums, marking a decisive moment in a years-long effort to regain control over the work that launched her career.
The news was shared in a straightforward letter posted to her website. “All of the music I made from 2006 to 2017 is now back in my hands,” she wrote. “I want to say thank you to the fans who supported me through this long and complex process.”
The deal includes full rights to the original recordings of Taylor Swift, FearlessSpeak NowRed1989, and Reputation, as well as related materials such as music videos and unreleased content. These masters were originally sold to music executive Scooter Braun in 2019 as part of his acquisition of Big Machine Label Group. Swift said she was not offered the chance to buy them herself, and the sale occurred without her involvement.
The catalog was later sold again in 2020 to investment firm Shamrock Capital. At the time, Swift said she had engaged in discussions with the company but declined to move forward once it became clear that Braun would continue to profit from the deal. In her recent statement, she described her eventual agreement with Shamrock as “a solution that was kind, fair, and respectful.”
The Impact of Re-Recording and Full Ownership
The dispute over her early masters prompted Swift to re-record each of the albums, releasing updated “Taylor’s Version” editions that she fully owns. Those albums have been both critically and commercially successful, topping charts and reshaping how fans and artists think about catalog rights. Swift now owns both the new and original versions of her early work - a rare outcome in a music industry where rights are often signed away early and difficult to recover.
This moment arrives as Swift continues to dominate both music and culture. Her Eras Tour has set global records, The Tortured Poets Department has topped charts worldwide, and her presence across the industry remains unmatched.
Read Taylor’s full message on reclaiming her masters:
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 the times I was thiiiiiiiis close, reaching out 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.
All the concert films.
The album art and photography.
The unreleased songs.
The memories. The magic. The madness.
Every single era.
My entire life’s 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 so that I meticulously re-recorded and released four 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 to reunite me 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 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. I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge 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 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. 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 moments 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 and 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 counted and ended us up here.
Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.
Elated and amazed,
Taylor
