Taylor Swift Buys Back Her Masters, Reclaiming First Six Albums

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Taylor Swift performs onstage during night one of “The Eras Tour” at Nissan Stadium. Photo: John Shearer/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

Taylor Swift has bought back her master recording catalog from Shamrock Capital, giving her ownership of her six original albums.

“All the times I was this close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through,” Swift shared in a letter on her website. “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. All of 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.”

 

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Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings first purchased Swift’s catalog in 2019 from Big Machine Label Group. After the purchase, Swift began to re-record the albums in an effort to regain control over the songs commercially, with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) releasing in April 2021, Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July 2023 and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October 2023.

According to Luminate data, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) out streamed their originals, with Fearless earning three times more album units as the original, and Red with 10 times the original.

Over Swift’s entire catalog, she has racked up 116.77 million album units in the United States, according to Luminate, stretching back to her self-titled debut album in 2006. She has sold 54 million albums in the U.S. and has generated 70.746 billion streams.

Madison Hahnen
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