It’s been a long time coming, as Taylor Swift regains ownership of her masters.
Over the weekend, Swift bought back her master's from Shamrock Capital for around US$360 million, according to Billboard, after early estimates valued them at around $600 million to $1 billion.
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” Swift said in a letter to fans.
“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.”
Swift lost the rights to her masters in 2019 when her first record label, Big Machine, sold them to music executive Scooter Braun. The next year Braun handed over the catalogue to Shamrock for around $300 million.
Billboard estimates Big Machine generated $60 million a year globally from 2022 to 2024. It is likely that around 50% of distribution, marketing and royalty payments went to Swift, leaving Shamrock with $30 million in profit per year.
In retaliation, she began releasing new albums from Lover onwards with Republic and re-recording her first six albums as ‘Taylor’s Versions’ from Taylor Swift, known as debut by fans, released in 2006, to Reputation, released in 2017.
So far, she has re-recorded Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989 complete with vault tracks, leaving fans speculating whether re-recordings of Reputation and her debut are on their way, especially since she is yet to finish re-recording Reputation.
“What about Rep TV? Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it,” she wrote.
“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.”
“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.”
Also in the time between when she lost her master's to now, she embarked on the Eras Tour, which broke all-time sales records, bringing in almost $2 billion.
Swift also became the first billionaire from music alone, with her net worth currently estimated to be $1.6 billion by Forbes.
After announcing ownership of her masters over the weekend, Swift earned her biggest streaming day since December with many of her original songs and albums following suit, according to @SpotifySwiftie on X.
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