If you’ve been following the Taylor Swift/Scooter Braun saga over the last half-decade, then you’ll likely be delighted to hear that Swift is now in possession of the rights to the master recordings of her first six albums. Braun sold the master recordings to the private equity firm Shamrock Capital in 2019 for a reported $300 million, but on Friday, Swift announced to fans via a letter that her masters (as well as her videos, concert films, album art and photography, and unreleased songs) were officially hers.
The letter on Swift’s website is somewhat hard to read (curse you, tiny adorable font!), but she’s very open about the happiness that owning the rights to her work again brings her, writing: “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough 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.” Swift joins a relatively small cadre of female musicians who control their own masters, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, and Olivia Rodrigo.
If you’re wondering where this leaves Swift’s planned re-recording of Reputation, wonder no more; it seems we won’t be getting that for the time being. As Swift explains: “The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposefully misunderstood…To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first six that I thought couldn’t be improved by re-doing it… so I kept putting it off.” And to that we say: Girl, you own your work again! Keep putting it off! Have a mimosa and toast to the downfall of crappy men in music!
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