Taylor Swift Buys Back Rights To First Six Albums
It’s a big day for Taylor Swift, who announced Friday that she regained ownership of the master recordings for her first six studio albums — a battle she’s been fighting for six years. She paid an undisclosed 9-figure sum to Shamrock Capital.
How we got here: Back in 2019, Swift’s former label sold them to music manager Scooter Braun, allegedly without her consent. The original deal, estimated to be than $300 million, was part of a larger acquisition of the Nashville record company Big Machine.
In 2020, Braun then sold the catalog to a private equity company, Shamrock, for $300 million after Swift reportedly would not sign an NDA and did not want Braun to continue to profit from her work.
Now, Swift has bought back her albums “Taylor Swift” (2006), “Fearless” (2008), “Speak Now” (2010), “Red” (2012), “1989” (2014)” and “Reputation” (2017) from Shamrock, along with videos and unreleased material from that time.
HOW WE GOT HERE
After Braun’s acquisition, Swift responded by re-recording four of the albums as “Taylor’s Version” and releasing them. She has claimed the Braun deal “stripped me of my life’s work,” and left her catalog “in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
In a letter posted Friday, Swift noted that her record-breaking $2 billion Eras Tour "is why I was able to buy back my music.”
Who’s not getting the love? Braun. A source close to the negotiations told Variety, “Taylor now owns all of her music, and this moment finally happened in spite of Scooter Braun, not because of him.” As for Braun — who stepped away from music management last year — he said in 2021 that he felt “regret” over the situation.
