Taylor Swift Becomes Master Of Her Own Music

On May 30, 2025, Taylor Swift, a music superstar who broke the record for highest grossing tour, reclaimed her master recordings from Shamrock Capital, allowing her control how her music is used (https://www.newsweek.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/all-records-taylor-swifts-eras-tour-has-broken-so-far-1942603). Six years ago, Taylor Swift’s master recordings in her first six albums were sold in a major record deal worth a fortune: $300 million (https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/taylor-swift-buys-her-masters-how-much-did-she-pay/). Now, she has bought her music back.

Taylor’s former record label, Big Machine Records, sold the master recordings to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. When this happened, Taylor didn’t own the rights and wasn’t in charge of her master recordings, even though it was her music. This led to Taylor’s public outcry. She felt furious that she had been denied the chance of owning her albums. She began to re-record her albums, naming them ‘Taylor’s Version’ in order to gain ownership of them. In 2020, Ithaca Holdings sold Taylor’s master recordings to Shamrock Holdings.

Now, she has purchased back the ownership of her albums: Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017). In a letter to fans, she wrote that she’s been “bursting into tears of joy.”

“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it.”

Then, thanking her fans, she wrote, “I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now.”

“I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and yanked away.”

Before, Swift’s fans supported her by avoiding the original master recordings. After she bought back the ownership of the original recordings, many of Taylor Swift’s fans celebrated by listening to many of the classic songs (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/taylor-swift-owns-music-fan-reactions-1235351750/).