On Friday, May 30, Taylor Swift announced to her fans and the rest of the world that she has finally bought back her masters after a long and known battle for her own music which has now ended after 6 years.
She had lost the rights in 2019
The 35-year-old Bad Blood singer now has full control over her entire music catalog.
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She had lost rights to her first six albums’ master recordings in 2019 when her contract with Big Machine Label Group ended the previous year.
They were originally sold to Scooter Braun
Her albums eventually got sold to Scooter Braun, who formerly managed Justin Bieber though his company Ithaca Holdings, although Bieber has since reportedly cut ties with him.
The albums were then picked up by Shamrock Capital in late 2020.
Swift announced she ‘finally’ bought them back
In her announcement on Friday, Swift wrote, “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,” she said.
The singer is ‘bursting into tears of joy’
Swift went on, “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. All of 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.”
But how much has she paid for them?
All the recordings of and around the first six albums ever made by Taylor Swift, how much could they possibly cost? As it turns out, quite an eye-watering amount of dollars.
Various rumors alleged she paid something between $600 million and $1 billion for the rights.
But reports found these were inaccurate numbers
Reports from publications like The Guardian have said the rumors around the amount of money she paid are mostly inaccurate.
Shamrock initially bought the rights from Scooter Braun for around $360 million, according to Billboard, and Swift has reportedly been sold the rights for close to what Shamrock paid for them in 2020.
Swift thanked Shamrock for cooperating with her
“I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me,” Swift wrote in her statement.
“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.”
Previous owners of her works have reacted
Shamrock wrote a statement on their website congratulating Swift for the deal, saying, “We are thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor.”
Meanwhile, Scooter Braun, who has had a long feud with Swift over this, simply told The Independent, “I am happy for her.”
Swift had previously opened up about Braun’s role
Back in June 2019, when she first lost rights to her work, Swift wrote in a post, “Some fun facts about today’s news: 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,” Swift said.
“Now 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,” she added at the time.
The singer thanked her fans
Now, after getting back rights to her works, Swift wrote to her fans, “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,” she said, “but have never owned until now.”
