By Maria Sherman
New York: Taylor Swift has regained control over her entire body of work.
In a lengthy note posted to her official website on Friday, Swift announced: “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me.”
Taylor Swift performed 149 shows over almost two years for the Eras Tour.Credit: Getty Images
The pop star said she purchased her catalogue of recordings – originally released through Big Machine Records – from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount.
In recent years, Swift has been rerecording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music.
“I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now,” Swift addressed fans in the post. “The best things that have ever been mine … finally actually are.”
Swift’s re-recordings were instigated by Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun’s purchase and sale of her early catalogue and represents Swift’s effort to control her own songs and how they’re used. Previous “Taylor’s Version” releases have been more than conventional re-recordings, arriving with new “from the vault” music, Easter eggs and visuals that deepen understanding of her work.
She has also released new music, including last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour.
“I am happy for her,” Braun said Friday.
“We are thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor,” Shamrock Capital said in a statement.
So far, there have been four rerecorded albums, beginning with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. All four have been massive commercial and cultural successes, each one debuting at No.1 on the Billboard 200.
Swift’s last rerecording, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), arrived in October 2023, just four months after the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). That was the same year Swift claimed the record for the woman with the most No.1 albums in history.
Fans have theorised that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) would be next: On May 19, Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version) aired nearly in full during the opening scene of a Season 6 episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. Prior to that, the song was teased in 2023’s Prime Video limited-series thriller Wilderness and in Apple TV+’s The Dynasty: New England Patriots in 2024. Also in 2023, she contributed Delicate (Taylor’s Version) to Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty.
But according to the note shared Friday, Swift says she hasn’t “even re-recorded a quarter of it”.
She did say, however, that she has completely rerecorded her self-titled debut album “and I really love how it sounds now”.
Swift writes that both her self-titled debut and Reputation (Taylor’s Version) “can still have their moments to reemerge when the time is right”.
Representatives for Swift and HYBE did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Taylor Swift’s letter from her homepage
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 and then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now. 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
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. My entire life’s work.
To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it. 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. The passionate support you showed these albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now.
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 forever be grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me. The way they’ve handled every interaction we’ve had has been honest, fair, and respectful. This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: my memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams. I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.
I know, I know. What about Rep TV? Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it. 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. All that defiance, the longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief. To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first six that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch. I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and i really love how it sounds now. Those two 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. But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.
I’m extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has ignited 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.
Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement. The best things that have ever been mine finally actually are.
Elated and amazed
Taylor.
AP
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.