Photo Credit: Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has bought her masters from Shamrock Capital, reclaiming the rights to her first six albums after Scooter Braun bought them in 2019.
On Friday, Taylor Swift made an announcement on her website that she had bought her masters back from Shamrock Capital. The Los Angeles-based investment firm, which acquired her masters from Scooter Braun in 2019, was founded by Roy E. Disney, a nephew of Walt Disney. Scooter Braun had acquired the masters as part of a larger acquisition of Big Machine Records.
“The best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are,” wrote Swift. “For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” she added. “Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.”
A note posted to Swift’s social media at the time of the Shamrock sale said she was given the opportunity to be a “partner” with the company. She turned down the offer because Braun’s deal would have enabled him to continue profiting from her work. That was when she decided to re-record her original albums, releasing them as “Taylor’s Versions.”
Swift released a re-recording of her second album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in 2021, followed by Taylor’s Versions of Red, Speak Now, and 1989. The release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) enjoyed a larger opening week than the original album, debuting on the Billboard 200 with over 1.5 million sales in the US—the biggest opening week of her career at that time.
As for the final two re-releases in the project, Swift addressed them in her note to fans on Friday. The re-recorded version of her self-titled debut, she said, has already been completed, “and I really love how it sounds now.” However, her work on a re-released Reputation has hit some snags. The original album “was so specific to that time in my life,” she said, “and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it.” Currently, the artist says there are no firm plans to release either record, but that she is leaving the option open.
Swift credited her fans’ enthusiasm for the re-recordings and the success of her record-breaking Eras Tour for enabling her to buy back her masters. Across 149 shows, the tour sold over $2 billion in tickets.
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