Taylor Swift has officially acquired the rights to her first six albums in a new deal with Shamrock Capital.
What
- This reunites Taylor Swift with her original catalogue six years after it was sold to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings.
- The announcement was made via a handwritten letter posted on the singer's website.
- This marks the end of a years-long battle over her masters, which were originally sold without her knowledge in 2019. Financial details of the new deal have not been disclosed.
"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 this 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 then yanked away. But that's all in the past now," Swift wrote.
"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," she continued.
Background
The original sale of Taylor Swift's masters to Braun's Ithaca Holdings was a flashpoint in the music industry. The singer, who was signed to Big Machine Records, said she tried to buy back her work for years but was denied a fair opportunity.
Instead, she was offered a deal to "earn" each album back with every new one she delivered.
"I learned about Scooter Braun's purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I've received at his hands for years," she said in 2019.
She added, "Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy... Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it."
Braun later sold Swift's catalogue to Shamrock Capital in 2020 for a reported $300 million. In her letter, Swift thanked Shamrock for approaching the deal with sensitivity and understanding.
"This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what was to me: my memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams," she wrote.
Since the original sale, Braun sold his company, Ithaca, to Hybe, the South Korean firm behind BTS, and became CEO of Hybe America. He has since stepped back from artist management. Braun told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday that he's "happy for her."
Swift began re-recording her old albums in 2019 to regain control over her music. So far, she has released re-recorded versions of Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989. The only two albums left are her 2006 self-titled debut and 2017's Reputation.
Swift has owned the rights to her master recordings starting with her 2019 album Lover, which was released through Republic Records, a part of Universal Music Group.
In A Nutshell
Taylor Swift has regained ownership of her first six albums in a new deal with Shamrock Capital, six years after they were sold to Scooter Braun without her consent. In a heartfelt letter, she thanked fans and Shamrock, calling it a full-circle moment in her fight for artists' rights.
