Taylor Swift Reveals She Bought Back Her Music Catalog in Emotional Announcement 6 Years After Scooter Braun Drama
For Taylor Swift, good karma has returned. Taylor Swift has taken back possession of her masters nearly six years after her library was sold to Scooter Braun, which led to a number of re-recordings that helped usher in a new era of artists taking ownership of their work.
On Friday, May 30, the 35-year-old Grammy winner revealed on Instagram that she had repurchased her music library, regaining ownership of her first six albums.
“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 thiiiiiiiiiiiiis 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 then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now,” Swift wrote in an emotional statement posted to her website. “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.”
Swift continued, “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 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor’s Version. The passionate support you showed those 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.”
She added: “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever 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.”
Swift continued by telling her fans that re-recordings of Taylor Swift and Reputation might be released.
“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, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief,” she wrote. “To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or the 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 2 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.”
Swift added: “I’m extremely hearted by the conversations this saga has reignited 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,” the Grammy winner said in her note, which she signed with the words “elated and amazed.”
Swift’s long story started in June 2019 when Scooter Braun, who was then best known for managing celebrities like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, bought Big Machine Records from Scott Borchetta.
Since Swift was the first artist signed by Borchetta when he founded Big Machine in 2005, he was given control of all of Swift’s albums prior to joining Universal Music Group in 2018—from her 2006 self-titled debut to 2017’s Reputation—when Braun’s business, Ithaca Holdings, purchased the label.
Swift had begged Borchetta for years “for a chance to own” her work, but had only been given “the opportunity to sign back up at Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in,” according to a lengthy Tumblr post she shared at the time, expressing her frustration with the situation.
At the time, she wrote in part: “I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. … Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy… Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
When Braun, 43, sold the catalog to the private equity firm Shamrock Capital in November 2020, things took a further turn.
Shortly after, Swift revealed the deal on social media, stating that she had been “actively trying” to reclaim her masters over the previous year and had attempted to negotiate with Braun but had failed after refusing his team’s demands for an NDA that would only allow her to speak favorably of the businessman.
Swift wrote that it was “the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge” in response to a letter from Shamrock informing her and her team that they had purchased all of her music, videos, and album art from Braun. She also mentioned that the agreement stated that Braun would continue to make money off of her catalog “for many years.”
The singer of “Anti-Hero” stated that while she had been “hopeful and open” to working with Shamrock, she thought Braun’s involvement was “non-starter.”
Swift declared in the same announcement that she would be re-recording her first six albums in order to take control of her master recordings. (She was granted ownership of all future masters when she signed with Universal).
Since the release of her first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), in April 2021, she has released new versions of Speak Now, 1989, and Red. The star’s endeavor has paid off, as all of her releases have reached the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. Her story has also inspired other celebrities to challenge their masters.
In 2021, Braun expressed his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the situation to Variety.
“I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal. … All of what happened has been very confusing and not based on anything factual. I don’t know what story she was told. I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused,” he claimed. “I offered to sell her the catalog back and went under NDA, but her team refused. It all seems very unfortunate. Open communication is important and can lead to understanding. She and I only met briefly three or four times in the past, and all our interactions were really friendly and kind. I find her to be an incredibly talented artist and wish her nothing but the best.”
All of Swift’s original work is now her own.
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