Taylor Swift has achieved full ownership of her entire music catalog, marking the end of a six-year journey that began when she publicly opposed the sale of her master recordings by her former record label.
The Grammy-winning artist shared the milestone in a letter posted to her website Friday, stating that “all of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.”
Taylor Swift confirmed she now owns all her music videos, concert films, album artwork, photography, and unreleased songs. She acquired the catalog “outright with no strings attached, no partnership, full autonomy” from Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm that had previously purchased her master recordings.
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” Swift wrote. She credited the success of her Eras Tour with enabling her to purchase the music from Shamrock.
“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,” she added.
The singer praised Shamrock Capital for being “the first people” to offer her the opportunity to reclaim her work, characterizing their business relationship as “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,” Swift explained.
The controversy began in 2019 when producer Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired the master recordings of Swift’s first six albums. Taylor Swift claimed she was caught off guard and denied the chance to purchase her catalog, while Braun maintained her team knew about the impending sale. This dispute led Swift to announce plans to re-record her early albums.
“I am happy for her,” Braun said in a statement Friday.
Since signing with Universal Music Group in 2018—a deal that ensured she would own her future master recordings—Swift has released “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings of “Red,” “Speak Now,” “Fearless,” and “1989.” Each reimagined album included previously unreleased tracks she called songs “from the vault.”
Fans have been eagerly awaiting re-recorded versions of her 2017 album “Reputation” and her 2006 self-titled debut. In Friday’s announcement, Swift revealed that while she has completed a “Taylor’s Version” of her debut album, she hasn’t finished re-recording “Reputation.”
Taylor Swift explained she had only re-recorded “even a quarter” of “Reputation” because the album “was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it.”
She suggested these two albums might still “have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right,” but only if fans “would be excited about” them. “But if it happens,” she noted, “it won’t be from a place of sadness or longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.”
The re-recorded albums have achieved remarkable commercial success. “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” became her 13th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart when it was released in 2023. The other three “Taylor’s Version” albums also topped the chart upon their releases.
The previously unreleased tracks have been particularly successful, with “Is It Over Now?” from “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Taylor Swift acknowledged that her journey has influenced broader industry discussions about artist rights and ownership.
“I am extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,” she wrote. “Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recording in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.”
She concluded by thanking fans who have followed her ownership battle, noting their support for an issue “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,” Swift wrote. “Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.”
