On Friday, May 30, Swift announced that she had purchased back the masters of her first six albums, following a six-year battle to do so.
In June 2019, Taylor Swift's former record label, Big Machine Records, and its founder, Scott Borchetta, entered into a deal to sell the masters of her first six albums to Scooter Braun, who sold them to Shamrock Holdings. This led to a public dispute and Swift's move to re-record those albums to regain control of her music.
In her handwritten letter to fans on her website, she was beyond happy to share that her entire life's work belongs to her.
"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 and then yanked away," she wrote. "But that's all in the past now."
"All of the music I've ever made now belongs to me," she continued. "And all my music videos. All the concert films. The album art and photography. The unreleased songs. The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era."
She thanked her fans for making the Eras Tour a success and supporting Taylor's Version of Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989.
"All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me," she wrote.
She revealed an update on the highly anticipated Reputation (Taylor’s Version), stating, “Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it.”
She explained the 2017 record was "so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief."
She said the album couldn't be improved, not the music, photos or videos, so she kept "putting it off." However, she did note that there'll be a time when she'll put out unreleased vault tracks from Reputation and a re-recorded version of her Taylor Swift debut.
"I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen. Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here," she concluded.
One suspects that Swift fans can go back and listen to her original albums guilt-free. For North Dallas Swifties, that'll mean she is a likely candidate for top streaming artist of 2025, too. Go ahead and celebrate.
not just the music but the music videos, concert films, album art & photography, unreleased songs from every single era now fully belong to taylor im so so so happy for her 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/mGOw2W1uuo
— kaia! (@kaiamal13) May 30, 2025
this is the swiftie win to end all swiftie wins https://t.co/VnTRAYeiH2
— swiftie wins wedding era (@swifferwins) May 30, 2025
I can’t even find the words to comprehend how happy I am
— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) May 30, 2025
me going to add again the original versions of all Taylor Swift albums to my Spotify library pic.twitter.com/ZouzzlXI0I
— gilmore d’ (@lovessswt) May 30, 2025
I’m so happy for Taylor Swift! She owns all of it!!!!!! I can now go back and listen to all of her original albums and not feel guilty 😭 TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!!! pic.twitter.com/vPiw5HCTzi
— 💫 (@heyjaeee) May 30, 2025
TAYLOR SWIFT OWNS ALL OF HER MUSIC pic.twitter.com/57uaJqdR5Y
— Kelly Keegs (@kellykeegs) May 30, 2025
