Taylor Swift Regains Control of Her Music
Taylor Swift has announced that she has acquired the rights to her first six albums in a deal with Shamrock Capital. This move reunites the superstar with her work six years after the original sale to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
A Long-Awaited Victory
Swift shared the news with her fans in a handwritten letter on her website, revealing that she is overjoyed to have regained control of her music. "I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts in something coherent, but at the moment, my mind is just a slideshow of all the times I made, wished, and prayed for a chance to tell you this news," she wrote. "I’ve been breaking out in random intervals of tears of joy since I found out that this really happened. I can actually say the words: all the music I’ve ever made… now belongs to me."
A Feud with Scooter Braun
The news comes after a year-long feud with Scooter Braun, who originally acquired Swift’s catalog of master recordings in 2019. Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings, sold Swift’s catalog to Shamrock Capital in 2020 for $300 million. Swift expressed her gratitude to Shamrock for making the deal possible, saying, "This was a business deal for you, but I really felt like you saw it for me: my memories, my sweat, my handwriting, and my decades of dreams."
A Fight for Artists’ Rights
Swift’s battle to regain control of her music has sparked a wider conversation about artists’ rights and the importance of owning one’s master recordings. When Braun first acquired her catalog, Swift described the sale as her "worst-case scenario" and revealed that she had asked her former record label, Big Machine, for the chance to buy back her master recordings for years. She accused Braun of "manipulative bullying" and said that he had "stripped me of my life’s work" by acquiring her catalog without giving her the opportunity to buy it back.
A New Era for Swift
Since the sale of her catalog to Shamrock, Swift has been re-recording her old albums in an effort to regain control of her music. She has already released re-recorded versions of "Fearless," "Red," and "1989," with plans to release re-recorded versions of her remaining albums, including "Taylor Swift" and "Call Me." Swift confirmed that she has already completed re-recording her debut album, but has not yet finished re-recording "Call Me."
A Message to Fans
Swift thanked her fans for their support and encouragement throughout her fight to regain control of her music. "I am extremely encouraged to talk about the conversations that this saga has sparked among artists and fans in my industry," she wrote. "Every time a new artist tells me that they have their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I am reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen."
